I just had a delightful talk with an elder who knows bells
That is, because of the Navy, years afterward I started collecting bells, mostly small, hand ones, all metal/mostly brass, that have figures of animals or people or commemorative designs as the handles. But there is this one "ranch" bell (I call it) exactly like the design below. I only looked for the names of the parts of this bell recently because I had removed the "crank" as soon as I got it years ago and now didn't know what the hole at the other (non-screw) end of it was for. It's for putting a rope or lanyard through it.
So I called this website and an elderly man who knew his bells answered. I asked my question and he answered it. I commented that I had only rung this bell (or most of them at all) a couple of times and had concluded that "bells are not for ringing." He was confounded. I told him two incidents, one where a barmaid almost jumped over the bar to strangle me for ringing a bell once too many times and another where I rang the ranch bell and a neighbor came TEARING from around the front of his house because he thought there was a fire or something.
The man said, "You don't have little boys, do you." I said no. He said, "Ringing bells is what little boys do." I asked what the neighbors do. He said, "They better grin and bear it."
I told him I'll ring the bell at holidays.
http://www.prindlestation.com/parts.html
= new reply since forum marked as read
and are not very representative of my over-50 hand bells, plus a few outside/gate bells. Only about half a dozen are larger than hand bells. And, like everything else about me, I'm a haphazard dude, not an in-depth type: that is, I've collected only what I've run across in local flea markets and second-hand/"antique" stores. A few on eBay. Plus, I'm at the age where I don't want MORE STUFF, although after swearing no-more-bells, along comes one that is irresistible. Plus, when family/friends found out, they started bringing me back one from their travels. I didn't want to hurt feelings, but I really didn't want ceramic or glass bells.
Really, my 50+ collection is much more charming and impressive than these few. What's interesting about the stained-glass/Tiffany ones, is that I first found the first one locally at a junk store. Then the other two were on eBay, clearly made by the same company. None of the three have any imprint, but are all made of the exact same materials and design patterns. A lot of bells were for sponsored giveaways by businesses. Anyway, no more NO MORE!!!!!1
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It was a gift, and I used to use it to call the kids home.
