Exercising myself upon a dumb Bell

For some reason I find the quotes from this week's World Wide Words weird word, dumbbell, very hilarious. Apparently the original "dumb Bell" was just a fake bell that "affords the exercise called RINGING, by means of a rope, which comes thro’ the floor or floors down to a study or chamber, and was practised by an eminent physician who was very fat." Of course.