How are the Bells rung?
The bells all hang in stationary mounts and are rung by pulling the clapper within. In the case of the Mother Earth Bell, the bell-ringer (with earplugs in place) stands on a platform and pushes the clapper, which swings back and forth in an ever-widening arc until it hits the side of the bell. All the other bells are rung from a separate platform. From here, the bell-ringer sounds the two other large bells (“Sacred Oil,” and “Pestilence, Famine and Despair”) with foot-pedals geared to the clapper, and strikes the fourteen smaller bells by hitting taut cables attached to each clapper and fastened to a waist-high ringing plate. Who rings the Bells? The ringing of the Lowell House Bells is the raison d etre of the Lowell House Society of Russian Bell Ringers, a small group of earplug-wearing and weather-braving undergraduates advised by a resident tutor. Today s bellringers are known as “Klappermeisters,” and have passed on Bell lore and skill from generation to generation for the last h
