Bell pull
Embroidered textile used to ring servant bells
A bell pull is a woven textile, pull cord, handle, knob, or other object that connects with a bell or bell wire, and which rings a service bell when pulled. Bell pulls may be used to summon workers in homes of people who employ butlers, housemaids, nannies or other domestic workers, and often have a tassel at the bottom. The bell pull is one element of a complex interior mechanical network which, in Victorian times, typically involved a range of bell pulls in different rooms, connected to a central bank of labelled bells in a room where servants would wait to be summoned.
01Central bell panel
In the 19th century, some hotels also had such panels, with a bell for each room, as parts of centralized bell systems.
02Transport
A bell pull is widely used in public transport buses and trams to signal the driver to halt at the next stop.
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Bell pull”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- Company-Shocked-Gillray.jpeg by James Gillray, Public domain
- BEST-Bell-Pull.jpg by Rsrikanth05, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Interior of TriMet Type 1 (Bombardier) LRV in 1987 - Portland, Oregon.jpg by Steve Morgan, CC BY-SA 4.0
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