In large churches that still use real bells in their bell towers, a large number of them ring bells using a method called full circle ringing. In order to get the bells to sound at exactly the right time, the bells are rung by swinging the entire bell in an almost complete 360-degree arc. This helps to mitigate the fact that often times, the bells weigh more than the person ringing the bells. However, if you don’t have access to a belfry, you can practice ringing bells using this method with your own full circle bell simulator.
The frame for the bell was built from some leftover aluminum extrusion and allows the bell to easily swing on some old skateboard bearings. The mechanism is electrically controlled, too, using a hall effect sensor and a USB adapter so that it can be interfaced with a computer running a virtual bell ringing suite. Once some timing issues are worked out, the bell is all set up and ready to practice ringing changes.
If you’re as fascinated as we are to find that there are entire software suites available to simulate bell ringing, and an entire culture built around something that most of us, perhaps, wouldn’t have given a second thought to outside of walking past a church on a Sunday, there have been a surprising number of other bell-related projects over the years. Bells have been given MIDI interfaces and robotified, and other church instruments like a pipe organ have been created almost from scratch.
Change ringing is taken very seriously by some. It’s practice takes a special kind of crazy – an infection that is often passed from fathers to sons. I knew a family of such that would travel great distances to indulge in this art.
Dinner’s ready!
Our dinner bell was a missile nose cone that mom smacked with a wooden shoe brush. Missile not attached. Sounded great!
I want one!
Here you go!
https://www.duluthtrading.com/bronco-horsehair-shoe-brush-30249.html?dwvar_30249_color=NAT&cgid=mens-footwear-accessories&ev3=#start=11&cgid=mens-footwear-accessories
Where’s the robot? There is no robot.
Also, despite the German meaning of Glocke, no bells in the “glockenspiel” robot (it’s a metal xylophone).
As a campanologist, you will never win the no-bell peace prize :-)
Actually they rotate _more_ than 360 degrees…
Neat but not new, such things have been around for quite some time e.g. http://www.jrnorris.co.uk/dumbbell.html http://www.jaharrison.me.uk/Ringing/DumbBell/index.html
Big Ben does not rotate. That would be unseemly. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Big-ben-1858.jpg