Darrow School - Shaker Post Yearbook (New Lebanon, NY)

Page 50 text:

The Peg Board 1936 L X M . lx -ASQ SOUTH END OF MAIN DVVELLING HOUSE 46

Page 49 text:

1936 The Peg Board ORRIN HASKINS' WORKSHOP Photograph by Winthrop B. Coffin. '36 BRETHRENS' WORKSHOP 45

Page 51 text:

1936 The Peg Board Courtesy of The Merreely Bell Company Our School Bell By NATHANIEL EDWARD GRIFFIN, '37 hortly after the fire of February 6, 1875, on which day the old Shaker dwelling house of the Church Family burned down, the Shakers started a new building on the same site. This is our present school building. The Shakers realized that they needed a bell to go with so fine a building, and on February 27, 1875, their business manager, Edward Fowler, purchased the bell which we use today. He bought it from Meneely and Kimberly, whose foundry was and still is situated at 22 River Street, Troy, N. Y., although the Firm is now known as the Meneely Bell Company! Even though this five-hundred-and-eight pound bell is cursed by the entire student body every morning when it calls them out ofbed, it is a very fine bell. It has a clear, piercing tone which can be heard for a distance of over three miles. The chief reason why the tone of this bell is so pure is that it is made out of an alloy called bell metal, the tone qualities of which have been proved over a period of many centuries. This alloy, which is better for its purpose than gold or silver, the metals that the early bell makers considered best, is composed ofseventy-eight per cent copper, and twenty-two per cent tin. Another reason is that this bell is equipped with steel springs, mounted inside, which push the steel hammer away after it has struck the bell and prevent any disagreeable jarring sound. The third reason is that it was beautifully cast. ltifhad been cast with any blemishes, the fault would have shown up during the past sixty odd years ofits constant 1. In Anna White and Leila S. Taylor's Shalcerism Its Meaning and Message it is stated on p. 211 that the manufacturers presented the bell to the Shakers. This is evidently a mistake, for the writer of this article has visited Troy and seen a. record of payment for the bell. This record was shown him by Mr. Meneely, the present head of the company. 47