Since 1992
Print and digital marketing
By Barbara McAllister
Word of the Day: Dumbbells
Dumbbells are short bars with weights on both ends, typically used in pairs for exercise. The word comes from England, where in the 16th century athletes trained using actual hand-held bells as weights. The clappers were removed to prevent noise, making them “dumb,” or unable to make noise while they were being lifted and whirled around. A hand-held bell might weigh anywhere from several ounces to several pounds. Bells were typically made of multiple sheets of iron that were shaped and curved then dipped in molten copper to create a more musical tone.
Bellringing became an integral part of churches and evolved from basic tones from a single bell to complex musical compositions involving different size bells each with their own sound. The study of bells is known as campanology, after St. Paulinus of Nola, a Roman senator, consul and eventually governor of Campania, Italy, around 400 A.D., who is credited with introducing bells into Christian worship.
While dumbbells were originally associated with churches, England provided another piece of exercise equipment associated with prisons, the treadmill. Although long in existence, treadmills were designed in England as devices to rehabilitate prisoners. Inmates were supposed to purify and redeem themselves through suffering and sweat by working a treadmill for eight hours shifts. Sentenced to hard labor, prisoners milled corn or pumped water for the prison as they walked the treads. Treadmills were still operating in 1895 in England. Oscar Wilde worked on one when he was sent to prison for gross indecency. Treadmills never caught on in America, except as exercise equipment, affirming my belief that there is a fine line between exercise and punishment.
