[130] Id.
[131] Id.; appr., one suspended as a door-bell, servants’ bell, &c.
[132] A little bell, a hand-bell.
[133] A little round-bell.
Form, Manuf., &c. Bells of “the common and well-known shape, with a thick lip or sound-bow, are the most effective known instruments for producing a loud and musical sound, such as you want when you erect a large public clock, or put up a peal of church-bells.” “After trying a number of experiments, at Messrs Warner’s, I am quite satisfied that there is nothing to be gained by deviating materially from the established proportions of the best old bells.”[134] This view is borne out by the researches of the Government commissioners[135] who visited the Paris Exhibition, who report, that among the ‘founders’ of France and Belgium, there are no traditions of the art, nor any discoveries or appliances of modern science, tending to the improvement of bells, or to provide efficient substitutes for them; nor is there any known improvement on the established mode and usual material (BRONZE or BELL-METAL) for casting them. Sir C. Barry, indeed, according to Mr Dennison, “seemed rather impressed with the merits of cast-steel bells;” but both Prof. Wheatstone and Mr Dennison differ from him in opinion. Undoubtedly some cast-steel bells, of small size, have been produced, capable of yielding sounds of extraordinary clearness and richness, but, in most cases, owing to the difficulty in giving the peculiar molecular condition to the metal essential to a high degree of sonorousness, their tones are comparatively harsh and
disagreeable. Well-annealed glass offers a cheaper and better material than steel for large bells up to a certain size, whilst its tones are exquisite. As the depth of the tone of a bell depends chiefly upon the dimensions and weight of the sound-bow, it appears likely that by directing our experiments to the increase of these, and the diminishing of the thickness of the metal in the other parts, the quantity of metal required to produce large bells might be very greatly reduced. The sound of an Indian gong that may be easily held suspended by the hand is always rich and usually as loud and deep as a bell of ordinary construction which it would take several men to lift. The Chinese often use bells made of porcelain. Small hand-bells for the toilet and boudoir are often made of silver, and then yield tones which are remarkably soft, clear, and pleasing. The tongue, clapper, or hammer, of bronze bells should be of iron; and steel bells, of bronze. Glass and porcelain bells require the striking part of the tongue to be of box-wood, the proper weight being given by a ball of iron cast on the rod immediately above it, and a similar one screwed on the end of the rod immediately below it. In all cases the hammer-head, preferably globular, should strike the bell near the verge, and should be free from projections or asperities.
[134] Lecture on the ‘Form of Bells,’ deliv. at the Royal Institution, by Mr B. Dennison, to whom the Government intrusted the construction of the ‘great bells’ for the New Houses of Parliament.
[135] Prof. Wheatstone and Sir Charles Barry.
The casting, &c., of bells is essentially similar to that of other articles in bronze, of corresponding size, and particularly of cannon. See Bell-metal, Bronze, &c.
BELL′-METAL. Syn. Æs CAMPANA′′RUM, L.; Métal de cloche, Fr.; Glockengut, Glockenspeise, Ger. The alloy, usually bronze, of which bells, &c., are made.