The nine tellers

[George Dawson]

I bet the OED section was written by a non-ringer........

To Jill, I apologise, the remark was more a comment after what I saw as a
misreading of what I'd said (this seems to be a recurring theme in this
thread).

George


-----Original Message-----
From: bellhistorians at yahoogroups.com [mailto:bellhistorians at yahoogroups.com]
On Behalf Of John Camp
Sent: 21 July 2008 22:45
To: bellhistorians at yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [Bell Historians] The nine tellers

At 22:41 on 21 July 2008, john wrote:

> John - when you are chiming or tolling a bell it is 'down' when a bell is
> 'up' it is being 'rung' full circle! =)

That is certainly the normal use of 'chiming', but I have reservations
about 'tolling'.  As I said earlier, I think that 'tolling' refers to
what it sounds like, not how the sound is produced.  That, anyway, is
how I have always used the term.

I've looked at what it says in the OED, and there is one definition
which contrasts tolling with ringing, but the first definition given is
this: "To cause (a great bell) to sound by pulling the rope, esp.  in
order to give an alarm or signal; to ring (a great bell)".

John Camp