Cog Rattle

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The Cog Rattle is a wooden hand-rattle. The repeated slap of the blade springing back against the rotating cog wheel makes the rattle's unmistakable sound. Cog rattles have few orchestral uses ; in the past they signaled the approach of leprosy sufferers. Today, you are most likely to hear the cog rattle at a football game.

Family
Percussions
Pitch range
None.
Material
Usually wood.
Size
Variable.
Origins
The cog rattle evolved as a warning signal - designed to alert those nearby of approaching danger - in Europe during the Middle Ages (the period between about A.D. 400 and 1400).
Classification
Idiophone: an instrument that produces its sound through the use of the material from which it is made, without needing strings or a stretched skin.
And also...
Some Spanish and Swiss churches have cog rattles with blade up to 7 ft (2 m) in length. Operated by a rope, they sound in the week before Easter, when the bells are silent because they "go to Rome to be blessed."

picture of Cog Rattle