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<DIV>Thank you, John, for your detailed & informed reply to my
question. Disappointing , but par for the course for this individual
who later became an artist and finally made a good living as a photographer in
Southport. I would guess that his skills as a carpenter would have stood
him in good stead as the ones I have seen are mounted on a board and attached to
metal coils which caused then to jangle for quite a while, presumably to give
servants time to run to the board to see which bell was being rung. As he
clearly had some talent as an artist, he might have also had the job of painting
the numbers, or room names, on the board above each bell. I have never
seen a board with different sized bells to help servants recognise the bell by
its tone, but I suppose that would be a natural development.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>I think that stately homes are the best chance of finding these
systems still in operation. I have certainly seen them, but I cannot
remember where. We had them in our vicarage in Wellington, Herefordshire,
in the 1940s when I was small, but no servants!</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Regards</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Malcolm</DIV></FONT></BODY></HTML>