The Ann Arbor Transportation Authority has changed the sound of the ‘stop requested’ bell on their buses sometime in the last few days. Before, there was an anonymous electronic beep sound when you pulled the cord to signal the driver to stop, and then a female voice recording ‘stop requested.’ The electronic bell was similar to an elevator signal, but not quite as tinny and a bit longer duration. Now the single beep sound has been replaced by what sounds like a badly digitized three-stroke bell sound - clang-clang-clang.
The first time I heard this I thought I was experiencing a flashback to some Judy Garland musical scene. It’s the Trolley Song all over again. But there’s no zing to my heartstrings, I just think it’s annoying. I’m sure in a few weeks it will just fade into the general background noise of everyday life.
I think the noises of everyday life might make for a good podcast. I can easily imagine sampling some of my favorite noises - rain drops on rooftops, water rushing through a sewer culvert, early morning bird song that keeps me from falling asleep.
Anyhow, the vestigial design mentioned in the title is the pull cord used to signal the driver to stop. My search clang clang turned up this story about the trolley system in Detroit during the first half of the twentieth century. The bell sound was partly generated by the motorman.
Detroiters climbed aboard the electric trolleys in droves. They waved and called to occupants of cars passing on the other track. They thoroughly enjoyed the new marvel of the age. The clang, clang, clang of the trolleys remained a part of the city symphony for more than half a century.
Kenard Lawrence wrote this about his boyhood memories of the trolley: “You got on in front and if you were quick and lucky you could get a seat right behind and to one side of the motorman. So much activity! Flip the knob to close the door. What magic as the doors would open and close, like an accordion, with the flip of a switch.
A commuter reads the newspaper in his way to work on the Harper line.
”Clang the bell. Pull the big lever with the big wooden knob on top to the first notch and the car would jerk to a start. The next notch and we’d get rolling. Stamp the button on the floor and the bell would clang.
“Pull the big lever again and we’d really get rolling, and the rocking would start. Bang bang bang, side to side. Clang clang clang, banged the bell as he stamped his foot. Sitting in that polished wicker seat, which ran from front to rear along the car, I rode sideways, facing the other side of the car so I’d get stiff twisting round to watch out front and watch the motorman. But I never minded.
”And what a scare when another streetcar came at you on the other track! There was a rush of wind that pushed your car off to one side. Later I’d walk through the streetcar to the very rear. I didn’t pay much mind to the conductor. He sat there bored in his cage, collecting the money and operating the back door to let you out. I paid more attention to the glass box you dropped the coins in, watching them bounce back and forth down the staggered chute.
“Put it all together, the clanging, rattling, banging back and forth, the oncoming cars, the motorman doing a ballet to maintain his balance on one foot while the other clanged the bell, and you had an experience to remember. And you could have it any time of any day, anywhere in the city, for 6 cents a throw. I can’t imagine what cruel city planner decided to do away with such a marvel….”
I believe a cord has been used to signal the driver when to stop for a long time, at least based on the tried and true sociological method of watching old movies. I remember using the pull cord on buses in Minneapolis during the 1970s when I travelled on them with my grandmother. This design seems to have stayed around for quite a while. The Wikipedia doesn’t confirm the staying power of this design, but it does have an interesting article about train whistles which contains this interesting fact:
American train whistles usually had either three or four frequencies that are sounded together, at the same time, to form a chord. As compared with automobile horns, for example, which form a major third, usually with the notes “F” and “A”, the train whistle usually forms a non-major chord which is full of dissonance, allowing it to have a distinct, frightening, and serious sound, rather than a happy one.
and another article on bus stops.
