But at the University of Oxford, they have an electric bell that has been ringing essentially non-stop on one set of batteries for about 178 years! Is the energy crisis solved then? Perhaps not.

It was replaced with an electric siren in the 1934, but the bell remained atop the old engine house until this month when a crew removed it for an upcoming estate sale. Now the Shrewsbury ...

They are found in electric motors and loudspeakers. Electric bells like the ones used in most schools also contain an electromagnet. The slideshow describes how an electric bell works.