| Secrets
of the Old Main Bell Tower at USU
By Bronden Jessup
April 24, 2008 | Utah State University
Students are familiar with Old Main, especially those
who make the climb up Old Main hill every morning on
their way to class.
We all have heard the bell ring out
in the tower as we rush and make our way to class, but
as a student I always wanted to see the bell that rings
every day telling me to hurry along to make it on time
for class.
Joe Sorenson, from facilities at
Utah State University, said, “There is not really a
bell in the tower.” He had Howard Bee, Electrical Foreman
in charge of “bell” maintenance give me the tour. Bee
said, “A lot of people are going to be let down …when
they find out there isn’t a bell,”
The current “bell,” located in Old
Main was donated by Frances Winton Champ on March 8,
1978, it is known as a Carillon. A carillon is a set
of chromatically tuned stationary bells, usually hung
in a tower and played with a keyboard.
These speakers are located in the
Old Main Bell Tower.
Bee said that the bell chimes every
fifteen minutes between the hours of 7 a.m. and 10 p.m.
The bell can also chime for special occasions such as
it did for the anniversaries of the World Trade Center,
the van roller over accident that killed eight Utah
State University Students and their teacher and to mark
the one week anniversary of the Virginia Tech shootings.
As a student I envisioned a bell
in the tower as bold and historical as the Liberty Bell,
instead four light gray speakers ring out telling Aggie
Students that another fifteen minutes of our lives have
passed by on the campus at Utah State University.
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