Gilman bell tower: from Howard St. to the Homewood campus - Homewood's centerpiece plays very loud bells. But did you know what song it's playing?

It's a Monday morning. Your professor's voice soothes you to a light sleep. Your head nods down into slumber and the classroom quietly fades away. Suddenly, a loud ring startles your dreams of late night fun on D-level and you're back in lecture, staring at that ever so stark black board filled with notes you'll just be able to catch before the professor moves on.?Saved by the bell. The Gilman Bell, that is. And just in case you fall back asleep, in 15 minutes it will ring again.?And again, and again, and again...

The centerpiece of the Homewood campus, Gilman Hall was named for Daniel Coit Gilman to recognize his 25 years of service as Hopkins' first founding president.?

Constructed between 1913 and 1915, the building holds much history for Johns Hopkins University.?It was only the third building constructed after the University was moved to the Homewood campus from its original downtown location on Howard St.

Renovated in 1998, the five bells located within the tower are a product of Baltimore's McShane Bell Foundry, one of the oldest operating bell foundries in the country. Other clients of the Foundry include Geneva College and numerous churches and cathedrals throughout the world. Of all the bells they have created, the company says it is "very proud" that it is their work that helps set the milieu for Hopkins students every day.

In the early 1900s, the clock mechanism worked in conjunction with the bell, but this system had put a lot of stress on the clock tower and was potentially harmful to its future existence.

Now, the clock is controlled electronically. The new strikers, bells and complicated control panel ensure that the clock will be around for years to come.

The clock rings from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Four bells inside the clock tower ring every 15 minutes, with the fifth and largest bell chiming along every hour. The sequence is made up of specific tones, the first, second, fifth, sixth, and seventh in the key of D. This rhythm is the Westminster chime, undoubtedly the world's most famous chime, originally fitted to the clock of the University Church, St. Mary's the Great, in Cambridge, England. The words to this chime come from Handel's symphony, "I Know That My Redeemer Liveth."

It's hard to imagine that even 100 years ago, many of the first students enrolled in Johns Hopkins heard the same sounds we hear daily.

Although the bell certainly functions to keep us awake or remind us just how late we are for class, it's omnipotence has been present for years before us, and will be present for years to come, resonating in the ears of some of the most prominent history makers of the past, and some of the potential history makers of the future.