[Bell Historians] How many ringers in UK

[Frank King]

Dear Nick and Dickon,

Defining a ringer is even harder than
defining a mini-ring!  How long is a
piece of string?

If you quote any figure from 20,000
to 80,000 no one who understands the
difficulty of answering the question
will complain.  [It would be a little
curious, though, if you said that the
number was 53246!]

A figure of 40,000 in a population of
70,000,000 clearly corresponds to a
figure of 40 in a town of 70,000 or
4 in a town of 7000.

In practice, a town of 7000 might well
have zero or 20 people who could plausibly
be deemed ringers.  Ringers come in clumps!

The only thing I can guarantee is that
you won't get a consensus on this!

All the best

Frank King
Cambridge