FACTORALY - E55 BELLS

Episode Date: September 12, 2024

Ding Dong - as Leslie Philips used to say. This one is all about the sonic metal . Bells have been around for a while, and we hear them every day—on the bus, at home, in the street, walking into shops, at cash registers—bells are everywhere. In this one, we delve into the history of the bell and work out what makes them so special. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hello Simon! Oh hello Bruce, fancy seeing you here. I know. What a coincidence. I guess first of all I should apologise for the state of my voice this morning. I recklessly went out and took part in some karaoke last night, so my voice is very, very deep this morning. Marvelous.

If anybody is looking for a particularly deep-voiced voiceover artist on this occasion, please get in touch with Bruce Fielding. He's your man. Give me a couple of days' notice so I can go out and wreck my voice the night before yes this is the thing isn't it our voices change quite a lot due to health conditions yes what we've done the night before if anyone ever picks us for a job on the basis of a demo we've done when our voice is in a particular state we have to be able to recreate that state and i should point out that the reason why that is important to us is that we're both voiceovers. Oh yes, yes it's not just that

we we enjoy doing stuff with voices. Well we do enjoy doing stuff with voices. No we love doing stuff with voices. We do it professionally. Yes exactly, for money. Indeed. We talk for money. We do. And what else we do when we're not talking for money is we talk about our love of random facts and interesting trivia. That's right, we do. And here we are doing exactly that on another episode of Factorally, in which we pick a random subject that we may know everything about because we're nerds and that's our bag, or we may know nothing about and we go away and do our mutual pieces of research, bring them back together and go, did you know, et cetera.

Or there's a third option, isn't there, which is we know just enough to be dangerous. Dangerously knowledgeable. I think we should get that printed on T-shirts. Bruce and Simon, dangerously knowledgeable. Yes. Knowledgeably dangerous. Either or. One on the front, one on the back.

So what is the random subject about which we are going to speak this week, Bruce? Whiskey. Whiskey. Good. That's exactly what I've researched as well. But not just any whiskey. Very, very specifically one particular type of whiskey. Well, actually, I haven't researched any whiskey.

You haven't? No, just Bell's. Go away and do it again. Bell's. Oh, there we go. There's the link. Yeah, we're talking about Bell's. We are. How interesting. Bell's are good. Yes, Bell's are nice. There are quite a lot of different types of Bell's.

I've researched some. You've researched some. I don't know where we're going to match and where we're not. So this will be fun. We'll find out. Well, interesting. You know, the tinnitus thing that you have in your ear that's like a ringing in your ear. Yes. Well, the first bell was called the Tintinabulum.

The Tintinabulum. Which was found in the Babylonian Palace of Nimrod. Oh. In 1849 by Sir Henry Layard. And it's about 1100 BC. Is it? Yeah. So the bells have been around for a while.

Okay. I found a lot of the time, when we don't know for certain where the first thing was, people just tend to say, it was about bc in china honestly i can think back of so many episodes of this podcast and and i've stated that it started about 3000 bc in china yes and allegedly there was a bell around that time in that location um but it's a little bit fake so i'll take your babylonian one That sounds far more concrete. Well. Well, music concrete. Bronze, probably. So a bell.

I looked up the definition of a bell because there's quite a lot of different types. Yes, there are. But according to the dictionary, a bell is a percussive instrument made of metal or other hard material, typically, but not always, in the shape of an inverted cup

with a flared rim which resonates when struck. Yes, that describes what I think. And I think we can all picture that. That looks like a bell, doesn't it? That sounds like a bell to me. Yes, that rings a bell. The word bell, it's another one of those annoying words that has always meant what it means. The English bell comes from a mixture of Dutch bell and German bell, which both mean bell, possibly connected, but not definitely connected to the old English bell with only one L, which may or may not be related to bellow, to roar, to bellow, to make a loud sound loud noise which i

quite like because at least it's it doesn't just mean bell at least it has an interesting backstory good but it may not be true what do you use bells for personally um nothing really how do you know when someone's at your door? Ah, doorbell. Yes, of course, a bell. I mean, doorbells are very... I mean, I have a pencil sharpener, which is like the ones you used to get at school. With the crank handle?

Yes, they sound a bit like this. Oh, childhood. That's really dangerous. I remember whittling down an entire pencil from fresh to rubber using one of those. Well, the guy that invented that actually invented the bicycle bell. Ah, interesting. Yes. And his name was, because I found out a bit about him as well, John Richard Dedicote.

That's the one, John Dedicote, 1877. Right. The man who invented a pencil sharpener and a bicycle bell yes it's interesting isn't it um um henry ford um we're talking about doorbells yes um henry ford's first vehicle uh which was a an 1896 quadricycle it wasn't the model t or anything it was effectively a four-wheeled bicycle with an engine. Okay, right. Called a quadricycle in 1896. And that was fitted with a domestic doorbell instead of a horn. Oh, was it really?

Yeah. That's wonderful. Now, because doorbells have changed, haven't they? I remember growing up with a doorbell, which, you know, it's sort of roughly the shape of those countertop bells that you ping the little button on top. Yes, yes. With a rotating thing inside, and it sort of made a charming brrrring noise. And it lasted for as long as you pressed the button.

Yes. Nowadays, it's a horrible digital rendition of green sleeves or something like that. Or just a bing bong. A bing bong, yeah. Who doesn't love a bing bong? But actually, thinking about cycle bells, when bicycles first appeared on the roads,

by law, between 1888 and 1930, cyclists were forced to continually ring a bicycle bell when they were in motion. Really? The whole time they were going? The whole time. Ooh, that's going to be annoying, isn't it? I mean mean you're gonna get sort of nintendo thumb aren't you i was gonna say it sounds like that um middle eight

section of um bicycle race by queen yes they just go mad on the bell well it would constantly yeah oh that would be very irritating so those type of bells the thing you sort of push with your thumb on the bicycle bell yes it has a little spindle inside with two metal discs which just rattle against the outer casing of the bell i've seen more and more these days there's just a little bell with a hammer on it okay pull back and release and it just goes ding yeah which kind of makes more of a alerting, Oi, get out of the way, kind of noise. Yes. Whereas I've always thought the pleasant English bring-bring bicycle bell. It's more of a sort of excuse me.

Excuse me, I'm coming through. Would you mind stepping aside? Thank you so much. Sorry. Sorry, excuse me. Sorry for my existence. Now, I know, I happen to know for a fact that you've done a lot of research into church bells. I have, yes. I didn't mean to. I intended to do a full widespread of all the different types of bells. And then me being a Londoner, loving exploring London, historical buildings, etc., I just went down this absolute rabbit hole of church bells, specifically London church bells, and that just swamped up all of my research, really.

So I'm relying on you to talk about some other types of bells. Spent your whole research researching oranges and lemons. Yes, exactly, yes. I did that. The nursery rhyme, oranges and lemons. For anyone who doesn't know it, it names lots of different bells of churches in and around the city of London. So oranges and lemons say the bells of St. Clemens, you owe me five farthings say the bells of St. Martins, etc, etc. This was first printed in 1744,

but it was already an established rhyme by that time. And it's one of those things that no one really knows the origin. it may refer to the local practice of child sacrifice according to one source it may relate to um henry the eighth and his various different wives it may be related to well it certainly is related to um a custom in in london where the clergy would give out fruit to children on a particular day of the year. I can't remember which day. Interesting. But, I mean, one of the reasons for all those bells

is that one of the biggest bell foundries in the world was in London, in Whitechapel. That's right. The Elizabethan Bell Foundry, which actually started in 1567. Crikey. A guy called Robert Dodds. Right. Actually, there's another guy called Robert Mott in 1572.

Okay. And it's basically, you know where Commercial Street, well, you probably don't, where Commercial Street meets Whitechapel High Street. There was like a big building. Yeah. And that was the Whitechapel Bell Foundry. Yeah.

I've been there. Sadly, I went there six months after it closed down. Oh, no. Yeah. So having been started in the 1500s, it finally closed down in 2017. Ah. And lots of its works moved to a sister company in Oxfordshire. You know, you mentioned the bells of St Clement's. Yeah.

So actually, the St Clement Danes bell in the Strand was made by Robert Mott. Oh, really? In 1588. Same bell. Gosh, that's an old bell, isn't it? Yeah.

Crikey. Do you know the other famous bell that the Whitechapel Foundry made? I know two more famous bells. Oh! Tell me about one of them. The one I know of is the Liberty Bell.

Yes. Of America. Yeah. isn't that wonderful that the bell that so symbolizes american independence and liberty and freedom was made by the english from whom they were trying to become free yes absolutely um the the liberty bell famously has a a big crack in it. It actually had several cracks in it. Bells crack quite readily because they're struck a lot over the course of their lives. The Liberty Bell was working for 90-odd years before it retired. And it had a few cracks. It had one crack before it was even installed on the way to Pennsylvania. Right.

The Pennsylvania State House is where it was first installed, and it cracked before it even even installed on the way to to pennsylvania right um the pennsylvania state house is where it was first installed and it cracked before it even got there wow then it cracked again after a few years ringing cracked again cracked again recast recast recast finally it had its last ringing on the 23rd of february 1846 to celebrate george was Washington's birthday. Okay. And it cracked a few hours after that last ringing, and it's sort of been sitting in state with that great big iconic crack running down it ever since. Proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof. Indeed, which is inscribed on the bell.

It's actually a Bible verse from the book of Leviticus. Oh, there you go. But, you know, readily transferable to different circumstances, I suppose. So what's the other one? What's the other famous one? Well, there are a couple of other ones. Are you a cockney? No. No, me neither.

Strangely, I mean, you'd never guess, would you? No, no, we sound like cockneys, don't we? Hello, I'm a cockanay. Hello. So if you're born within the sign of bow bells, then you are technically a cockanay. Yes, indeed. But St. Mary-le-Bow had bells. And those are the bells that you're supposed to be able to hear if you're a cockanay.

Right. And in the Second world war um saint mary lebeau was bombed right and the bell fell off okay it sort of crashed all the way through the the church and hit the deck um but then when they then they they restored the church after the war yeah uh and um didn't get the bell up um but it had to be remade. So they restored it in 1961. So between 1944, I think it was, and 1961, there were no Cockanies. Oh, right. Now, I read that it's probably changed over the years because we've got an awful lot of tall buildings in London these days that get in the way of the sound of bells.

But you used to be able to hear bells, you know, all over the shop in London. But apparently the sound of bow bells could carry all the way to Hackney, which is six miles away from the church. Gosh. So I've always thought of Cockneys as being a really, really little local tribe

from specifically the Tower Hamlets area in East London. But no, six miles away from that church. There's another bell you can hear quite a lot in London, from quite a long way away. Yeah, I seem to remember. Yeah, it's got a name, hasn't it? It's a big one. I can't think of it now. It's large, named after Benjamin. It's a big one. I can't think of it now. It's large, named after Benjamin.

It's a Big Ben. And it weighs 13.7 tonnes. Crikey. That's a lot of bell, isn't it? It's an awful lot of bell. And it's actually... So people talk about Big Ben as the tower and the clock and stuff. It's actually the bell.

Yes, one of my favourite pedantic rants. Oh, and do you know what the tower that it's in is called? It's called the Elizabeth Tower. Correct. Well done. Thank you. Nerd points. So it takes about 344 steps to get to the bell up the tower.

It was put in there in 1844. Okay. Which means that everybody who was born after 1844 in london has heard exactly the same bong as you and i have yes that's the reassuring fact isn't it that's lovely how how unifying isn't that great i think it's so cool but big ben isn't the only bell in that tower. There are four other bells as well. So Big Ben, as you say, 13.7 tons,

the big heavy one that does the bong, the chimes, the hourly, this is what time it is. But there are four other bells that make the bing bong, bing bong, bing bong, bing bong bit. And they're much smaller. So the bigger, bigger the heavier the bell the lower the note so these other four bells um gonna get technical here they play their own notes um the first bell plays a g that's 1.1 tons the second bell plays an f sharp which is 1.3 tons the third bell which is an e is 1.3 tons. The third bell, which is an E, is 1.7 tons. And the fourth bell, which plays a B, is 4 tons.

So Big Ben is substantially larger than all the others. And they're all hit by hammers rather than sort of clung around with a clapper. Yeah, that's right. Going like the clappers. Going like the clappers. Is that where that comes from? Yes. Oh, I'd never realized. That's right. Going like the clappers. Going like the clappers. Is that where that comes from? Yes. Oh, I'd never realized.

That's brilliant. Yeah, so there are two main ways to activate a church bell. I'll use the word church bell because it's just, you know, that's what you sort of commonly associate it with, at least in this country. Yeah. Yeah, so you can have a bell that sort of swings back and forth, activated by a rope being pulled from below. And there's a

clapper. There's a vertical bit of metal sitting in the middle. As the bell swings left and right, it hits the clapper. That's what makes the sound. Or there's a hammer activated one. So there's a hammer just sitting off the surface of the bell that when you press a button, pull a rope, activate a trigger, it hits the bell. goes bong much like i always associate things with movies when i think of a swinging bell in a tower they sit on a on a wooden wheel and it's called a full circle bell it sits either upright or upside down sometimes and the people below pulling the ropes i don't know why i'm making this action people can't see it go look up a video i can see it there you go you pull the rope um and

the the bell on the wheel rotates a full circle goes clang on the way and then it rotates back again goes clang on the way um i picture those as being uh in in the 1989 batman movie with michael keaton and jack nicholson yes the bell with a hammer i associate as being in the hill valley clock tower in back to the Future. That's an aside. So yeah, those are the two main ways of activating a bell. I had a look at something called the Westminster Quarters. Okay.

Or the Westminster Chimes, which were originally called the Cambridge Chimes because they originated in the Church of St Mary the Great in Cambridge. And that's the tune that, you know... Oh, the bing bongs that you were talking about yeah yeah um so that's its name it's called the Westminster Chimes or the Cambridge Chimes obviously you've got those those four bells that I mentioned and those are rung in a particular sequence to to play that tune that we all know and um it's broken down into four quarter hours and each section is is played you know so one quarter and each section is played, so one quarter of that tune is played on each quarter hour,

with a little bit of a differentiation. It's actually a slightly different order on each quarter hour, so it's quite technical. And I found out that in the bell room of Elizabeth Tower, there's an inscription which has a prayer that can be chanted in time with that tune. Ah. Which goes, apologies for the singing,

All through this hour, Lord be my guide, that by thy power no foot shall slide. That's the prayer that goes with that tune. Well, there's a thing. There is a thing. Do you know who Big Ben was named after?

I don't. Neither do we. There are two possible candidates for this. There was a fellow called Sir Benjamin Hall, who was the chief commissioner of works at the time that Big Ben was installed, and his nickname was Big Ben because he was quite large. In fact, his name is inscribed on the bell

because he was the guy in charge of having it installed okay but there was another fellow called um benjamin gaunt who was um a heavyweight boxing champion in england his nickname was also big ben he had recently been in the news just before the bell was installed um having won crikey having won a 60 round fight with another boxer called Nat Langham. That's a lot of rounds. A lot of punching, isn't it? So one of those two fellas, they were both large men, they were both called Benjamin, they were both nicknamed Big Ben,

and then the bell turned up and there's been a long dispute as to which one it's named after. There's a third way of activating a bell. Oh, go on. Get it hit by lightning. We are talking about Back to the Future, aren't we? Well, the thing is that it used to be believed that ringing bells would drive away thunderstorms. Really? Yeah. So this is like sort of up until about the 18th century, people believed that ringing church bells would drive away evil and drive away thunderstorms and drive away all sorts of things. Except... No regard for the fact that there's a whopping great big metal item

stuck up above all the other local buildings into the air. The highest thing in the town. Made of metal. Oh dear. In France, between 1753 and 1786, lightning struck 386 church towers. No. And killed 103 bell ringers. Oh my goodness.

And at the time in France, they stored gunpowder in churches. Oh, that's a bad combination. That's a really bad combination. Bad. Yeah. So you mentioned bell ringers. The art of bell ringing, officially known as campanology. Yes.

The Italian word for bell is campagna. So it comes from that. And the Latin was vasa campagnaagna which means vase of campagna there's a place in southern italy called campagna which produced really good quality bronze annabelle is roughly vase shaped ish so that's how they got their their names and that's how we got to campanology um but campanology is i can't speak for other countries i mean italy has an awful lot of bells ringing all the time in certain places you know bells ringing all the time in certain places, bells ringing all over the shop. And you have a group of people standing at the bottom of the bell tower

pulling these ropes and playing these bells. And I hadn't realized, this is quite technical, you know, when you first start hearing the bells of a church ringing, they're in a beautiful, well-timed sequence, you know, bing-bong, bing-bong, bing, bong, bing, bong. Repeat. And then after a little while, they start to jumble up. And you sort of end with this bong, bing, bong, bing, bong, bing, etc.

Well, those aren't always random. No, they're not. No, so exactly that. I always thought it was just that the bell ringers had fallen out of time with each other. And I thought, oh, that's a bit sloppy, isn't it? But it's totally deliberate. After a few rings of 1, 2, 3 few rings of one two three four five six seven eight each pair of numbers switches yeah so you get a two one four three etc etc and then they switch again they switch again they switch again into these preset patterns what are they called those patterns changes changes they're called

changes so you you ring you literally ring in the changes yes exactly yes exactly that isn't that wonderful yes talk about bell ringers they're not all human and they're not especially in switzerland okay uh because there's a lot of cows and sheep in switzerland oh heck okay we're talking about cattle bells aren't we we are brilliant so cowbells, I mean, when you go to Switzerland, you hear cowbells everywhere. And they're on sheep as well, but everybody still calls them cowbells, even when they're on sheep. Yeah. And it is quite noisy. Yeah.

There's an interesting case in 2016, a Dutch woman who applied for a Swiss passport. Yes. But because she was claiming that the heavy bells that the cows were wearing caused them pain. Right. And the Swiss went, ridiculous, that's just nonsense. And they decided to refuse her a passport. Really? Because she had a go at the cow bells.

Wow. This is in a place called Afangen. There's about 5,000 people there. There's five or six farmers. There's about 50 in 100 cattle wear the bells. And she was complaining about it. Huh. I mean, not because she didn't like the sound.

It was because she thought it was hurting the cows. The cows' welfare, yeah. Yeah. I remember being stuck on a road in Austria due to a traffic jam of cows, which all had bells on. And it was just gorgeous. I just rolled down the window and listened to this herd of cows walking across the road one by one, all mooing and clanging. It was a lovely sound. To me, it's a delightful sound.

Yeah. But then that's because we're tourists. For someone who lives there and puts up with it day in, day out, it's probably quite annoying. It's almost musical. Yeah, it is. A bit like those sort of tubular bells. Mike Oldfield. Mike Oldfield.

So very interesting, actually. Mike Oldfield, who wrote Tubular Bells, never really wanted to perform it in public at all all he thought it would be really really difficult to perform in public and richard branson who's label he basically mike oldfield built the virgin empire so if you go on a virgin train and a virgin plane on a virgin moon rocket on yes you have a virgin bank account. Listen to Virgin radio.

All of that is thanks to Mike Oldfield. Really? Because Mike Oldfield made Branson his millions to start with. Oh, I see. Oh. And it was that one album just kick-started the whole empire. Oh, wonderful. But he never really wanted to perform it in public. I mean, it was used on The Exorcist and the Olympics.

We had the Olympics in London in 2012, and it was like the big song that was in the Olympics. Yes. So anyway, Branson said, look, we've got to do it. We've got to do it live. We've got to do it live. And he said, look, we'll get an amazing set of people to help you on stage.

Yeah. And it'll be the best concert ever. And Michael said, I'm still not sure. And Branson said, look, I'll tell you what, you know that Bentley I just bought off George Harrison? I'll give you that. You can have that Bentley if you perform in Queen...

And that's why he performed live at the Queen Elizabeth Hall. Because of George Harrison's Bentley. Yes. That's wonderful. That's fantastic. Wow. That's wonderful. That's fantastic. Wow. Really, really fun stuff. I mean, you know, there's a great story behind the album and stuff, which I'll put a link in the show notes.

Go on then. At factorily.com. Factorily.com? That's the one. Great. So you don't just use bells to make a big noise or to make a piece of music. You also use them to keep time.

Yes, of course you do, yeah. Especially when you're at sea. Yes, okay. You call it about four bells and eight bells and all this stuff. Yes, yes. So do you know what that means or when all the bells go off? No, I don't. Tell me. So the strikes of a ship spell, it's not about the hour.

Okay. tell me so so the strikes of a ship spelled um it's not about the hour okay so there are eight bells and it's one for each half hour of a four hour watch so it's the shift that you're on watch on a ship oh i see so you're on your each each watch is four hours yeah um and you ring each bell twice right and the timekeeper on the ship um has an hourglass, which is a 30-minute hourglass. Yeah. So every time they turn the hourglass, there's like a bong bong. Great. And when somebody dies, it's like the end of their shift.

It's the end of their watch. So that's when you get eight bells at a naval funeral. Oh, I see. Brilliant. I was talking about bells on ships. Yep. They're not the only sort of bell that you get on a ship either. Okay.

There are diving bells. Oh, yes. Oh, you went there. So diving bells are quite interesting. They've been around for a long time. Aristotle was talking about the diving bell back in sort of 4th century BC. No way. And basically what it was was it's a bell-shaped thing that a diver could sit inside. And they would lower it down to the bottom of the sea.

And then the diver could go out and do some diving around the bottom of the sea. Then go back up into the bell and take a few breaths. It still has all the air that was trapped in inside it when it went down because because of air pressure yeah and so so there would be obviously a limited amount of air yeah in the bell but the diver could get could stay underwater significantly longer right because they had this diving bell i'd never really quite realized that's what it was for yes how interesting and it stayed that way from the 4th century BC to about 1689. Right.

When a guy called Denis Papin suggested that you could actually pipe air from the ship and pressurize the bell so that that kept the water out of the bell. Okay, right. On a more permanent basis. Right. And so that was in the 17th century. In the 18th century, a guy called John Smeaton decided to commercialise that and used it for sponge fishing. Oh, OK, right.

So the diving bell has a very long history of helping divers to stay underwater longer. Well, there you go. Never expected to go down that little avenue. Well done. Another, well, it's not really another type of bell, but it's another use of bells. Carolons. Carolons? Do you know what a carillon is? I don't. Never heard it before. It's a musical instrument. How to describe this? Imagine the keyboard of a pipe organ and imagine the bells in a church tower stick the two together oh wow yeah so you have these whopping great big towers full of bells with um

they're again either operated by a hammer or a clapper if they're operated by a clapper the clapper is is held at an angle inside the bell so it's really close to the surface um the clapper is attached to a wire the wire is attached to the keyboard you hit the keyboard with your fists that the keys are actually quite uh widely spaced out on like a piano keyboard you hit the keys with your fists pulls the wire activates the clapper bell goes ding and because of that that makeup you can play really intricate pieces of music i can imagine this thing they're very popular in italy uh there are only a couple of them in in england they originated probably the first one

was built around the flanders area so sort of you know netherlands kind of area in 1480 so they've been going for quite a while they're very popular with american universities um you know the the chapels in an american college, some of them have these. We'll put a video up. There's a wonderful video of one being played in Chicago in a university there. And, you know, you can play extraordinary pieces of music. This particular video, there's a guy playing the Harry Potter theme tune. Of course there is.

Of course there is. A carillon has to have a minimum of 23 bells used in it. So big range. Yeah. The largest carillon in the world is in South Korea, oddly, has 78 bells in it. One person playing this? Yeah, just by sitting at this keyboard. Wow.

Phenomenal instrument. I'm about rung out. Oh, you about rung out. Oh, you've rung out. Facts about bells. There are probably lots of other bells that we haven't researched. There are jingle bells, you know, sleigh bells and things like that. Oh, yes. And that sound just signifies Christmas to me.

I love Christmas. I don't know why I haven't done a piece about sleigh bells and jingle bells. You've got hand bells. Yes. School bells. School bells, yes. I remember being a kid and I was on bell duty one day. I was allowed to walk around the schoolyard ringing this bell that signified the end of break time and the next lesson.

But our listeners have probably got all sorts of other examples of bells. They probably have. And apart from that, you've obviously subscribed. I mean, that's taken as given. Yeah. You can recommend us to your friends. Please do. And most importantly, you can leave us a review and a five-star rating. That would be wonderful. So please do that. So there we go. Thank you very much indeed for listening to this fascinating

episode of Factorally. Please come again next time for some more fascinating factual fun. Cheerio. Goodbye.