The Oxford Electric Bell or Clarendon Dry Pile is an experimental electric bell that was set up in 1840 and which has rung almost continuously ever since. It was "one of the first pieces" purchased for a collection of apparatus by clergyman and physicist Robert Walker. It is usually located in the foyer of the Clarendon Laboratory at the University of Oxford, England, but as of December 2009 it has been moved into an adjacent corridor due to construction work, and is still ringing, though inaudibly, because it is behind two layers of glass.
Read more about Oxford Electric Bell: Design
Famous quotes containing the words oxford, electric and/or bell:
“The greatest gift that Oxford gives her sons is, I truly believe, a genial irreverence toward learning, and from that irreverence love may spring.”
—Robertson Davies (b. 1913)
“The widest prairies have electric fences....”
—Philip Larkin (1922–1986)
“The one who should remove the bell is the one who hung it up.”
—Chinese proverb.