| Number of bells | 32 |
| Total weight of bell chandelier | 32 tons |
| Diameter smallest bell | 1 ft. 6 in. |
| Diameter largest bell | 6 ft. |
| Height of tower above terrace | 151 ft. 6 in. |
| Height of tower from bottom of foundation | 183 ft. 7 in. |
| Construction: | |
| Indiana Limestone with Granite Base. | |
| 1 Chandelier of bells | |
| 2 Galeria for Celestron | |
| 3 Carillon Console Room and Celestron Record Player | |
| 4 Power Room | |
| 5 Basement | |
A most spectacular step in bell-making comes when the copper and tin are melted and mixed in the oil furnace, brought to just the proper temperature, and then carried in a huge ladle from which the molten alloy is poured into the mold.
Larger bells are kept buried in dirt for days after the casting to retard their cooling. Sometimes weeks go by before the bell can be “shaken out” and the founder gets the final check on the accuracy of his calculations.
The Meneely Bell Company foundry represented a curious mixture of the old and the new. There was the main foundry with its large modern oil melting furnaces in which was blended the age-old mixture of copper and tin which is known in the textbooks as “bell metal”.... Out in the next shop were the blacksmith and his helper, skillfully working iron into the special bell mountings. Immediately behind this was the finishing room where large and small bells were cleaned and buffed, while finished ones were being set into their mountings for final tests before shipment. Upstairs, patterns and cabinets were fashioned from wood; while on a nearby drafting board a chime would take form as it would fit into its final position in the tower.
In making bells, there must be a complete understanding of the technical elements that make a bell ring true. Meneely’s men knew that a pure tone was a definite number of vibrations per second as sensed by the human ear.
The sound of a single tone is pleasant but colorless. The usual tone is made up of a number of different pure tones, blending together, with the dominant one giving the tone its pitch. Practically everything that will vibrate will produce a tone, but only certain combinations will have the musical qualities which distinguish them from unpleasant “noise.”
In this country, the commonest form of chime is that found in clock towers. Principally used to strike the quarters and hours, these bells are usually stationary and seldom number more than four or five; hence no complete airs can be played with them.
From an acoustical standpoint the Deeds Carillon is ideally located. The hills to the south provide a natural sounding board and enhance the tone of the music.
Chimes usually contain a minimum of ten bells, which give enough tones in the diatonic scale to permit the rendering of hundreds of complete hymns, folk songs, etc., in simple harmonies. Chimes are typically an American form of art and are found in our churches in every part of the country. The bells do not move, but the clappers are operated from manual claviers, or by modern electrical methods employing small piano-like keyboards.