What’s the purpose of the fire truck bell that is attached to the front bumper on engines these days?
Here’s a pic of one:
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/219/520485272_feaeedd256.jpg
Well, this article mentions that bells are now obsolete. So I’m going to guess it’s just for the sake of tradition or occasional ceremony (parades, perhaps). Firefighters, IME, are fairly inclined to hold onto tradition. (Experience based on conversations with two uncles, a cousin, and a friend who all are or have been firefighters.)
Yup, just a tradition. Usually rung only at special ceremonies.
To tack on to what others have said, yeah, it’s tradition.
Having said that much…
A new bell will run you upwards of $2000 or more. That’s a difficult nut to get the town fathers to bite into when you buy a new fire engine, and not something that a responsible fire chief would do (there’s a lot of other equipment you can buy for $2k). The two engines in my town that have bells (out of 7 main pieces of apparatus) have the original bells from their first trucks, going back seventy-odd years ago. The bells get passed along from truck to truck as new ones are purchased.
But, like the others had said, it’s a tradition thing. Plus they just sound nice.