Church bells of St. Joseph the Worker Catholic Church in Beal City (Mount Pleasant), Michigan

[Rectorsauruss]

this is fucking terrifying.

[Audinos]

Automated bells always ring on time, while manually-pealed bells depend on people who sometimes don't show up. Often, children are allowed to ring the bells, and this results in uneven peals, bells not pulled hard enough, bells flipped from being pulled too hard, or a Sunday peal lasting fifteen seconds instead of three minutes.

[wqpeb]

Hope that ghastly electomagnet clapper "CLACK" cannot be heard below!

[HodgeYMusic]

this video was perfect for waking up my friend :D Thank you for letting us reach the train ;)

[Rick1885]

Are those hammers pneumatic or are they solenoids?

[MrSanderBleker]

super gelui jongens :-)

[juschek100]

die armen glocken

[Onlinepoetrycafe]

Yath Mathter!!

[sylviekell]

I am very familiar with the Angelus; in fact, I grew up in Rockaway Beach in Queens, New York, a predominantly Irish neighborhood. In the summertime, back in the 1960s, EVERYONE on the beach, in their bathing suits, stood up when the bells rang at 12 noon and prayed the Angelus. But those days are now gone. BTW, I am Catholic, and any of us sitting on our front porches did the same thing.

[sylviekell]

I am very familiar with the Angelus; in fact, I grew up in Rockaway Beach in Queens, New York, a predominantly Irish neighborhood. In the summertime, back in the 1960s, EVERYONE on the beach, in their bathing suits, stood up when the bells rang at 12 noon and prayed the Angelus. But those days are now gone.

[ugopk1994]

This bells are manually or elettronic ?

[jdi0093113]

Its ashame they are not rung by hand.

[kibbykennon]

@jdi0093113 When I was in elementary school, I remember going up to ring these bells at lunch time when they used to be manual. It was always such a treat to help pull the ropes :) So sad when they went to electronic.....

[fireblaze82]

@kibbykennon I go to a church were you pull to ring the bells.But its sad that they are auto.You are right.

[ThePanSowa]

ygfgh

[HeadlessPony]

They are so cute!! 

[kitcarsonpr]

A lot of excitement when all bells chime together. I really loved it.

[Figlitiblitification]

Cool!

[RubiksCuber4426]

The little one looks cute nn,

[LaClairEtoile]

I hope you were wearing some ear protection.

[50srefugee]

It may be small of me, but I like the startled little jerk of the camera at about 2:05, as the bell begins to ring again after the sustain.

Confirmation that a human being is holding the camera, right there in the tower.

[irkibby]

@50srefugee Haha yes, I have done that... been taken by surprise by a clock chime after a realy awful night's sleep and you can tell by the video that i jumped.

[Jude1968]

Good that you have this......I live in an area where the real church bells have been silent for years and have nothing but electronic ones, which I despise.

[IHATEPLAID]

@ 2:41 were the bells rung manually? or did they have electric motors that cranked them?

[Auferstehungsglocke]

@IHATEPLAID When you look to the small bell, you can see a case between it and the big bell. this is the Motor of the small bell. You also can see a rope, connecting the Wheel of the bell and the motor. So, these bells are also electric;-)

[jjsmizzle317]

For all your clock and bell tower needs..Smith's Bell and Clock Service, Inc.

[Auferstehungsglocke]

I know the tones!

es' g' b' es''

Or in English:

Eb G Bb Eb

[piAniztX]

the bells have a very bad and for the sound unconfortable suspension, the yokes are too curved (they should be straight), so they could sound much much better than with this construction!

[XxJulius95]

Dose it sounds loud?

[awesomedudes10]

@XxJulius95 yea you can hear them from 3-4 miles away

[Defn28]

They haven't got stays so they cant be rung properly. Anyone can ring these types of bells

[kgfg87]

@Trainfan2006 Because April 30th was Good Friday. That day no bells are to be rung. Its a day of silence and mourning

[CaitlinBrooksMusic]

This is very fascinating. I love how you had names for bells.

[VanOtheRev]

I remember these bells well. I attended CMU for college and was employed by one of the local funeral homes while in Mt. Pleasant and worked many funerals at St. Josephs. Thanks for posting. I randomly stumbled across this video...love random things like that! :)

[n8jpr]

I'm From the Cathedral Of St. Andrew in Grand Rapids, Michigan. I can tell them are Mc Shane bells from Baltimore, MD. Our largest bell is the same pitch low D? We have 3 that swing not four. I wish we did have 4 that peal. Same notes except for the highest note bell. But there is another difference, we have 10 bells that are a chime. and 3 that peal. Very nice sounding! I'm glad they still swing. They just don't sound the same with a electric striker.

[Magicking788]

Ooooo cool....I live in Smithtown here on Long Island and theres a church not too far from me in Kings Park called St.Josephs...Every morning at 8:40 theres a speaker at the top of the tower tht plays a song and then at 12 noon and at 6pm the real bell rings...At 12 it rings 12 times and at 6 it plays a song then rings 6 times its pretty cool how theres a speaker and a bell up in the tower

[JoshuaMouncer]

niiiiice

[nazarethwoodshop]

I totally enjoyed this...even with hearing protection, its amazing your not deaf! Thanks!

[frsdonahue]

Real Bells that swing!! In the city of Baltimore, most of the bells no longer swing, but have some kind of new clapper installed that taps them in an imitation swing. The bell foundry went around telling the pastors their bells were in danger of falluing, and they had just the thing to alleviate the danger...and ruining the bells.

[JonahPasion]

we still jump on our ropes.... wee!

[mjgriff74]

Why are the bells all chimed at once. In England, we'd start chiming from the smallest to the largest in what's called "rounds". It sounds much nicer than a clash of bells.

[lichtbroeder]

At one time, ringing church bells was in itself an act of worship, performed by real people. Now this is largely done electronically. Still nice to hear but different. (like electric candles versus wax candles made and lighted by hand)

[Audinos]

English bells are hung for full-circle ringing, but only a few American bell installations can do this. In fact, most American bells have arched (balanced) yokes like these do, rather than straight yokes as in continental Europe, so these ring very slowly to European listeners. American manufacturers of ringing motors and timers usually don't provide for sequential starts (i.e. peal smallest bell, add next smallest a few seconds later, etc.) as is customary in Europe.

[captaincook71]

it's funny, because in france, we ring only one bell after the hammer

[Audinos]

Most American churches do the same, although the peal bell is sometimes different from the strike bell. Some churches peal all the bells after the strikes, as this church does, but it is not as common as only one bell.

[captaincook71]

the large bell at first ring the clock, no?

[whuzizname]

Yes, the first chimes was the clock; in this case 12 noon.

[mistermax972]

LoL I was able to see that at 2:04 you jumped at the resumption of the bell (as I did too) XD

[Audinos]

Thanks for this! It is always great to hear real bells in an American church instead of electronic ones.