[Bell Historians] Silencers

[P.W. Gay]

The device in question is almost certainly a Seage's Apparatus.
I think they were introduced towards the end of the 19th century - there is
a peal board at GSM Cambridge recording a peal rung using the apparatus
about a hundred years ago.

I don't think there are many still in working order, but I recall that about
twenty years ago the one at Crawley Sussex was put into sufficienly good
order for a (rather clanky) quarter to be rung.

Phil Gay
Keele, Staffs, where we use the modern equivalent, a simulator with sensors
on all the bells.