Bells.
Bells. Some extra-critical commentators have characterized the striking of the hour in one of the degrees as an anachronism because, they say, bells were not invented until about 400 A. D. and then by Bishop Paulinus. In reply, someone cites the equally trivial fact that, in 1904, bells were found in the excavations at Gezer (3000 B. C.), some with clappers and some of the ball and slit type, though obviously never connected with a timepiece of any kind. The bells mentioned in Exodus 28:34, and 39:26 and Zechariah 14:20 are presumed to have been symbolic and decorative.
But the whole matter seems quite pointless, for all clocks do not strike the hour with bells but employ chimes or gongs and the same is true of lodges. Indeed, some form of chime or gong must have been used to produce ringing sounds long before bells were introduced. Almost any bar of iron or hard metal will make a chime and almost any sheet of metal will make a gong. A very common type of sound-making instrument used on farms and ranches is an ordinary crow bar bent into a triangle and hung from one vertex. That fact must have become evident as soon as men began to handle metal bars, sheets, or vessels. If there is any anachronism about this matter, it lies in the fact that, in King Solomon’s age, there was little necessity for striking the hour, certainly not at night. Time was not worth much, and a look at the sun, moon or stars would apprise one of the hour as nearly as one had any reason to know it.
