Social Effect
It has strong appeal to individuals in their youth because it offers a display of strength. Young boys use the high striker to determine who among them is the strongest. More often than not, high strikers are used to impress other people.
In the 1930s, some High Striker operators preyed on young men and rigged (or fixed) the High Striker unit to prevent anyone, no matter how strong, from striking the bell. They usually picked a small man to demonstrate how easy it was to swing the mallet and impact the arm, ringing the bell. Then, when a stronger person (usually a young man in his late teens and early 20s) attempted, they failed. Players attempted the game repeatedly to avoid humiliation. Eventually, the operator would allow that player to ring the bell so as to not discourage others from attempting. Popular Mechanics in a 1935 article revealed this secret, and, since then, most High Striker operators have ceased fixing their units.
Read more about this topic: High Striker
Famous quotes containing the words social and/or effect:
“In the Church, considered as a social organism, the mysteries inevitably degenerate into beliefs.”
—Simone Weil (1909–1943)
“I care not by what measure you end the war. If you allow one single germ, one single seed of slavery to remain in the soil of America, whatever may be your object, depend upon it, as true as effect follows cause, that germ will spring up, that noxious weed will thrive, and again stifle the growth, wither the leaves, blast the flowers, and poison the fair fruits of freedom. Slavery and freedom cannot exist together.”
—Ernestine L. Rose (1810–1892)