Where Is It?

The Where Is It? Mystery for this week is fairly safe. Only a few will guess the whereabouts of this bell. But then, only a few places have bells anymore. Church, school, police and fire departments. That’s about it. This bell has a history and a future. It still rings officially. Three clangs of the clapper, then three again and, finally, the last three. This would be a Last Call, a Final Dispatch. The funeral of a fireman. So now you know the answer to this week’s mystery. There’s more. See is the answer below.

The bell belongs to the Atlanta Fire Department. It is in their building on South Louise Street. It is in the welcoming area of the first room and almost the first thing one sees. Here’s more of its history.

The bell comes from the department’s old La France red fire engine. It is displayed on a table and treated with respect.

The bell is heavy and makes a fine sound. On the La France truck it would have been rung by a fireman reaching up from his standing position on the front bumper. The bell let everyone know the La France was racing to an emergency.

The ringing of such a bell would make every emergency personal as if it were being rung for the citizens on the street or in the home. One knows that the fire department bell might ring one day for us or someone we knew.

“For whom the bell tolls? It tolls for thee,” wrote the poet John Donne.

There are other works of art in the firemen’s quarters. One is the two model firemen pulling on a fire hose.