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choco_froshOK, OK, since I'm not - realistically - going to get any job applications out tonight, let me tell you about the time the clapper nearly fell on my head!
Well, not really. But for a while, we thought it was going to.
(You might want to refer to this diagram to understand what follows.)
Our story begins, ooo, last Wednesday, it must have been. I was ringing number five - not particularly well, it must be added - when John abruptly said "Stop." And then he rang it for a minute, and then he very quickly rang it down.* Something sounded off--even if I couldn't hear it.
We eventually sent Elaine up the tower: she's steeplekeeper, i.e. this sort of problem is her job. She verified what John had suspected: the clapper was loose and hanging too low. Why was it hanging too low? One of the nuts holding the bolt in place had fallen off. So I hadn't actually been in real danger of having twenty or so pounds of steel fall through the ceilings onto my head--but we'd been headed in that direction.
We adjusted the clapper and put the nut back on. We tried ringing it. It still sounded off. We rang it back down, and ultimately left it that way.**
Soooo...this Wednesday, we sent Elaine up the tower AGAIN, and this time, had somebody ring the #5 while she was up there. (With no ear protection, incidentally.) She quickly yelled for us to stop.
"The gudgeon's going walkabout," she explained, once she'd huffed her way down the ladder.
(Translation: The gudgeon is basically the axle assembly for the bell: it was loose on the frame, and was wobbling back and forth when the bell was rung.)
Somehow, I got talked into coming down after work on Friday to try to help fix the thing. We wound up tightening the bolts that hold the gudgeon to the frame, which seemed to work.*** Then we tightened the bolts on all the other bells, just in case.
Then they took me out for sushi. I felt I deserved it. Among other things, we were all covered in belfry dust.
And then, speaking of getting talked into things, today we decided at the last minute to do another quarter peel.**** So yeah, that's two now.
* Terminology: One normally thinks of a church bell as it is in that diagram: that is, mouth pointing down. In changeringing, though, you get the thing to rest mouth upward, held perilously in apparent defiance of gravity by the stay, which in turn is leaning on the slider and preventing the bell from turning a full circle. GETTING it there (which is rather a process) is known as ringing up; ringing down, the reverse.
** This led to some decidedly odd-sounding ringing last Sunday, and then the likewise odd but more successful setup on Wednesday, where we were ringing E, F#, G#, B, C#, E, so as to avoid #5, and also leaving off the #2, because f-- the #2.
*** Because (a) ringing went fine this morning, and (b) Elaine and I perched on top of the bell frame and watched somebody ringing the thing Friday night, and the gudgeons stayed put. And yes, I actually wore ear protection, because I'm going deaf fast enough, thank you.
**** Translation/reminder: A quarter peel is where you ring bells for 45 minutes straight. OK, there's a bunch of other rules (at least 1260 changes if you're on fewer than seven bells, no repeat changes if you're on seven or more, change every stroke, etc.), but that's what it basically boils down to.
Well, not really. But for a while, we thought it was going to.
(You might want to refer to this diagram to understand what follows.)
Our story begins, ooo, last Wednesday, it must have been. I was ringing number five - not particularly well, it must be added - when John abruptly said "Stop." And then he rang it for a minute, and then he very quickly rang it down.* Something sounded off--even if I couldn't hear it.
We eventually sent Elaine up the tower: she's steeplekeeper, i.e. this sort of problem is her job. She verified what John had suspected: the clapper was loose and hanging too low. Why was it hanging too low? One of the nuts holding the bolt in place had fallen off. So I hadn't actually been in real danger of having twenty or so pounds of steel fall through the ceilings onto my head--but we'd been headed in that direction.
We adjusted the clapper and put the nut back on. We tried ringing it. It still sounded off. We rang it back down, and ultimately left it that way.**
Soooo...this Wednesday, we sent Elaine up the tower AGAIN, and this time, had somebody ring the #5 while she was up there. (With no ear protection, incidentally.) She quickly yelled for us to stop.
"The gudgeon's going walkabout," she explained, once she'd huffed her way down the ladder.
(Translation: The gudgeon is basically the axle assembly for the bell: it was loose on the frame, and was wobbling back and forth when the bell was rung.)
Somehow, I got talked into coming down after work on Friday to try to help fix the thing. We wound up tightening the bolts that hold the gudgeon to the frame, which seemed to work.*** Then we tightened the bolts on all the other bells, just in case.
Then they took me out for sushi. I felt I deserved it. Among other things, we were all covered in belfry dust.
And then, speaking of getting talked into things, today we decided at the last minute to do another quarter peel.**** So yeah, that's two now.
* Terminology: One normally thinks of a church bell as it is in that diagram: that is, mouth pointing down. In changeringing, though, you get the thing to rest mouth upward, held perilously in apparent defiance of gravity by the stay, which in turn is leaning on the slider and preventing the bell from turning a full circle. GETTING it there (which is rather a process) is known as ringing up; ringing down, the reverse.
** This led to some decidedly odd-sounding ringing last Sunday, and then the likewise odd but more successful setup on Wednesday, where we were ringing E, F#, G#, B, C#, E, so as to avoid #5, and also leaving off the #2, because f-- the #2.
*** Because (a) ringing went fine this morning, and (b) Elaine and I perched on top of the bell frame and watched somebody ringing the thing Friday night, and the gudgeons stayed put. And yes, I actually wore ear protection, because I'm going deaf fast enough, thank you.
**** Translation/reminder: A quarter peel is where you ring bells for 45 minutes straight. OK, there's a bunch of other rules (at least 1260 changes if you're on fewer than seven bells, no repeat changes if you're on seven or more, change every stroke, etc.), but that's what it basically boils down to.
