Athens, Ga. – Gleaming brightly
and safely secured in a sturdy new tower, the historic University of Georgia
Chapel Bell will be back in place when fall semester classes start Aug. 18 and
ready to celebrate a victory when the Georgia Bulldogs play their first
football game Aug. 30.
A new bell tower, meticulously
hand-built by UGA physical plant workers, will be erected behind the Chapel
beginning Wednesday morning. The
173-year-old bell, cleaned and polished to a brilliant sheen, will be installed
Friday. Physical plant workers will give
it a ceremonial “first ring” at 3 p.m. Friday.
The bell and old tower were
taken down last spring when university officials decided the tower, which dated
back to about 1913, could no longer safely hold the 700-pound bronze bell. Over the summer, physical plant workers spent
many hours building a new tower, which closely resembles the original in height
(40 feet) and shape.
Tom Satterly, assistant vice
president for physical plant, said the new tower uses a newly manufactured
mechanism to suspend the bell that is similar to the original yoke resting in
two A-frames. But he said the new tower,
made of tough Douglas fir, will be much stronger and safer because it
incorporates modern engineering standards that ensure the bell won’t jump out
of its moorings, as happened last fall when Bulldog fans rang it for hours
after Georgia’s victory over
Florida.
Satterly said the new tower has
a roof that matches the Chapel roof. A
new, stronger wheel will rotate the bell, and there is a new rope to pull the
bell.
Workers in several physical
plant shops including carpentry, sheet-metal, welding and roofing helped build
the new tower. Ralph Johnson, associate vice president for physical plant,
commended the construction crew and all the other workers who participated in
the task.
“All the employees who worked on this project
took great personal, painstaking interest to ensure the quality of the work,”
Johnson said. “They put a lot of pride
into this, and Georgia
fans owe them a big thank you for their dedication and hard work.”
Satterly said some wood from the
original tower has been saved and may be used in future restorations of
historic university buildings.
While the tower was being built,
the bell–cast in 1835 in Medway, Mass.– was in Cincinnati,
Ohio, for a thorough
refurbishing. Workers at the Verdin Co.,
a firm that specializes in bell restorations, removed years of accumulated rust
and grime, including remnants of paint reputedly used by Georgia Tech students
to paint slogans on the bell in the 1920s. Polished and covered with a
preservative, the formerly greyish-black bell now has a radiant golden luster.
Physical plant workers moved the
new tower to the Chapel Tuesday afternoon and work will begin Wednesday to mount
it on a concrete foundation. By Thursday
afternoon it should be completely erected and rigging for the bell will be
installed. The bell will be brought back to the site and installed Friday
morning.
Representatives from the various
physical plant departments involved in building the tower and refurbishing the
bell will jointly pull the bell rope at 3 p.m. for the ceremonial first ring,
and the bell will be ready for celebration when Georgia plays Georgia Southern
University in Sanford Stadium on Aug. 30.
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