For example, he struck a bell when the dogs were fed A light goes on, so you might even see an indicator light go on indicating that an alarm has gone off. If the bell was sounded in close association with their meal, the dogs learnt to associate the sound of the bell with food
After a while, at the mere sound of the bell, they responded by drooling In a computer system, an alarm might simply be a light or a sentence printed, but the mental picture still applies Another possible origin is the one this page advocates:
My understanding is that it comes from john donne's meditation xvii (1623) But in donne's poem, the line is any man's death diminishes me, Conveys anger, irritation, or surprise, according to ced, mw etc, but they do not explain the origin Were there bells in hell
What is this in reference to? A bicycle bell is a percussive signaling instrument mounted on a bicycle for warning pedestrians and other cyclists The first form, bell crank tells me that we are talking about a crank which turns/actuates a bell The sound of big ben over the radio was traditionally rendered bong (and sometimes referred to as the bongs, though i wouldn't recommend that in a normal context)
I had to pull out wikipedia to convince her it was true (probably because she associated pepper with the spice.) what is the historical/etymological explanation for this divergence in names between countries? Tolling usually refers to one bell being sounded at intervals The carillon referred to by theresa is something different, where a machine makes the bells play a tune
Some church towers have both A carillon linked to the clock which plays a tune mechanically at certain times of day, and the facility for ringing changes by hand. The picture is that the alarm is loud (a siren, bell, etc) and indicates danger of some sort
