chiming machinery after the striking is done. Chimes were much more popular years ago than they have been until lately. The old-fashioned machinery used to be rude enough, consisting chiefly of a large wooden barrel, stuck, like that of a musical box, with pins. These pins pulled the hammers that struck upon the bells, and the time was regulated by a rope coiled round one end of the barrel driving two or three wheels connected with a fly-wheel. More recent inventions have improved upon these conditions. The barrel is sometimes of cast-iron instead of wood, with steel or brass pins fixed in it to lift the hammers, and a very heavy weight is necessary to give the motive power. Instead of the ordinary method of raising the hammers and letting them fall by means of the pins on a chime barrel, the hammers are immediately after use returned to their places in striking position ready to be liberated by the pins on the chime barrel, and upon being so liberated are prepared to strike again. The tunes to be played upon these bells will of course be such as are adapted to the particular number of bells in each case, and the cost of the entire chimes depends upon the number and sizes of the bells—so used, varying with the circumstances,—the size and capacity of the tower, and the difficulties to be overcome in providing accommodation for the necessary bells, weights, chime barrel, &c. In each instance, as with turret clocks, the cost of the whole works depends to a great extent upon the cost of fixing the machinery. The tones of the bells have to be carefully provided for, as also the best position in which they can be heard at a distance. With fourteen bells of different sizes almost any tune can be played.
One was erected recently upon the new principle, of which the cost was something under £5000, including 12 bells weighing from five to seven cwt. each, clock, architect's charges, gas-fitting, and £1200 for timber-trussing, floors, &c. The Carillon machine is let off by the clock and plays seven times on the ringing peal of bells, but is adapted to play twenty-eight tunes on fifteen bells. It is wound up every morning and plays eight times in twenty-four hours, i. e. once every three hours, giving the tune on each occasion three times, and occupying about four minutes in doing so. At the expiration of the 24 hours the tune changes involuntarily, and of course with seven tunes there is one for each day in the week. The Carillon machinery is connected with the clock and set in motion thereby, by a lever which at three hours' intervals dislodges a pin and allows the weights, 14 cwt. each, to act upon the machinery, the speed being easily regulated, as in clockwork, by revolving vanes. The barrels are five feet long, by one foot in diameter, and are studded with brass pins like that of a musical box. When the bells are required to be rung, a bar is turned down on the keys which prevents the motion of the machinery for any length of time that the ringing is to be continued. Notwithstanding that the twenty-six hammers weigh from 2 cwt. to 70lbs each, it is possible that the tunes could be played by means of an ivory keyboard, as in a church organ, and with almost as much ease and facility.
Persons requiring to know the cost of a Church or Turret Clock should furnish the Clockmaker with the following data:—
| How many Dials? | |
| Their Diameter? | |
| Their Elevation, or distance | |
| from the ground? | |
| If to be Illuminated? | |
| Of what material is | |
| Dial to be? | |
| Can the Movement be | |
| placed on a level with the | |
| centre of Dial, if not, how | |
| far above or below it? | |
| Is the Clock to strike? | |
| if so, on what size or | |
| weight bell? | |
| If to strike halfhours | |
| or quarters, or how many | |
| bells, and their sizes and | |
| weights? | |
| What number of feet | |
| can be obtained for descent | |
| of weights? | |
| What length of Pendulum | |
| will the building | |
| admit of, and is a compensating | |
| Pendulum required? |
A FEW DATES AND DETAILS FOR
ALMANAC READERS.
The following data may be found useful in studying an Almanac.
The columns for SUNRISE AND SUNSET are nearly the same year after year for any given place; for by the alteration of styles and the day allowed at Leap Year the civil and astronomical year are almost exactly the same; but the difference in latitude of different places makes a London almanac useless for sunrise and sunset, say at Edinburgh. The sun rises at each place to a greater height in June than in December, but he is always at a less height in Edinburgh than in London both in winter and summer, Edinburgh being farther than London from the equator, where the sun is more immediately overhead.