Going like the clappers...

[Gadgetmanx]

Where does this phrase come from?

[andy hughes]

I believe it comes from bell ringing. Bell 'clappers' which make the bell ring move at considerable speed when a complicated change is being rung - making considerable noise doing it.

[Quizmonster]

I'm sure Andy's right about church bells and their clappers, but if you click http://www.google.com/search?q=clappers&sitesearch=www.phrases.org.uk

you'll be offered a page with about twenty versions of the same question. Clicking on each of these will reveal a raft of suggestions, including the idea that it is from wartime RAF usage and the one that it refers to people clapping at a 'happy-clappy' type of religious service. They're worth reading just for interest's sake.

[Harrowarrow]

All of those answers seem fanciful to me. I have understood from my very young days that the phrase derives from a sexually transmitted disease [once commonly known as the "clap"]. Such diseases spread very quickly, as we know, and therefore something is said to travel like the "clap" or "clappers"