It Tolls for Thee

Canaday Hall residents have gotten extra sleep every morning for the past week, but they are about to be rudely awakened.

The Memorial Church bell has been ringing about two minutes late, but it was reset yesterday afternoon, Frederick B. Jackson, superintendent of facilities in the Department of Buildings and Grounds, said yesterday.

Once tolled by hand, the 50-year-old, 5000-pound bell is now run mechanically under the control of a clock-like computer.

"We considered getting a machine gun and getting the guy that runs it, but it's hard to take our wrath out on a machine," said Debra Efroymson '87, a Canaday resident.

"I got a call last week that something was wrong with the clock," said Jackson, who is in charge of maintaining Memorial Church. "I looked it over and couldn't reset it myself. A serviceman quickly fixed it in about five minutes this afternoon and it's running fine now."

The late-ringing bell caused some inconvenience to those for whom the bell tolls. Jackson said one professor who he would not identify complained to him about it.

"Some professors start and stop their classes by the bell," Jackson explained.

The bell normally rings for one minute on the hour between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. on weekdays during the school year and between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. on Saturdays. It also rings from 8:42 to 8:45 a.m. Monday through Saturday and for five minutes on Sunday for the 11 a.m. service.

"The 8:45 bell is the killer," said Stoughton resident Lesley Blumenthal '87. "It is absolutely impossible to sleep late," she added.

Cast in Loughborough, England, the five-foot-diameter bell was a gift of President Abbot Lawrence Lowell. It bears the inscription, "In memory of voices that are hushed."

In 1955, the University preacher asked that the ringing of the bell be mechanized with a time clock and motor operation. The equipment was installed that year.

In 1981, the electronic Simplex equipment was installed, eliminating unwieldy chains and other mechanics in favor of an electronic link.