BELL. Bells are usually formed of a composition of copper and tin, called bell metal. When the proper proportions of the two metals are fused togetber, the com pound is poured into a mold. Authorities differ as to the best proportions of the copper and tin. Some give 80 parts of copper to 20 of tin, or 4 to '1; others state the propor tions as being 3 to 1. In the reign of Henry III. of England, it would seem to have been 2 to 1; and the small bronze bells discovered by Mr. Layard in the palace of Nim rend, are found to contain 10 of copper to 1 of tin. Hand-bells are often made of brass, antimony alloyed with tin, German silver, real silver, and gold. The notion that in old times silver was mixed with bel•metal to sweeten the tone, is a mistake. Silver, in any quantity, would injure the tone. The quality of a bell depends not only on the composition of the metal it is made of, but very much also on its shape, and on the propor tions between its height, width, and thickness; for which the bell-founder has rules derived from experience, and confirmed by science. The pitch of a bell is higher the smaller it is. For a peal of four bells to give the pure chord of ground tone (key-note), third. fifth, and octave, the diameters require to be as 30, 24, 20, 15, and the weights as 80, 41, 24, 10. A less quantity of the metal than is due to the caliber of the bell though giving the same note, produces a meager harsh sound; and the real or fancied superi ority in dignity of tone of some old bells, is ascribed to a greater weight of metal having been allowed tor the same note than modern econotny would dictate. Bells have been cast of steel, some of which have had a tone nearly equal in fineness to that of the best bell-metal, but deficient in length, having less vibration. Some have also been cast of glass, with a considerable thickness of the material; and these give an extremely fine sound, but are too brittle to stand the continued use of a clapper.
From a remote antiquity, cymbals and band-bells were used in religious ceremonies. In Egypt. it is certain that the feast of Osiris was announced by ringing bells; Aaron, and other Jewish highpriests, wore golden bells attached to their vestments; and in Allthens, the priests of Cybele used bells in their rites. The Greeks employed them (kodu) in camps and garrison; and the.Romans announced the hour of bathing and of business by the tintinnabulum. The introduction of bells into Christian churches is usually ascribed to Paulinus, bishop of Nolia in Campania (400 .t.n.); but there is no evidence of their existence for a century later. That they were first made in Campania, is inferred from the name given to hence campanile, the bell-tower. Their use in churches and monasteries soon spread through Christendom. They were introduced into France about 550; and Benedict, abbot of Wearmouth, brought one from Italy for his church about 6S0. Pope Sabinian (600) ordained that every hour should be announced by sound of bell, that the people might be warned of the approach of the horse eanonicee, or hours of devotion. Bells came into use in the east in the 9th c., and in Switzerland
and Germany in the 11th century. Most of the bells first used in Western Christendom seem to have been hand-bells. Several examples, sonic of them, it is believed, as old as the 6th c., are still preserved in Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. :fhey are made of thin plates of hammered iron, bent into a four-sided form, fastened with rivets, and brazed or bronzed. Perhaps the most remarkable is that which is said to have belonged to St. Patrick, called Phatraic, or " the bell of Patrick's Will." It is 6 in. high, 5 in. broad, and 4 in. deep, and is kept in a case or shrine of brass, enriched with gems and with gold and silver filagree, and made (as an inscription in Irish shows) between the years 1001 and 1105. The bell itself is believed to be mentioned in the Annals of Ulster as early as the year 552. Engravings as well of the bell us of its shrine, with a history of both, by the Rev. Dr. Reeves of Lusk, were published at Belfast (where the relic is preserved) in 1850. Some of the Scotch bells, of the same primitive type, arc figured and described in the illustrated Catalogue of the Aram°logical Museum at Edinburgh in 1856 (Ellin. 1859). The four-sided bell of St. Gall, an Irish missionary, who (lied about 646, is still shown in the monastery of the city which bears his name in Switzerland. Church-bells were suspended either in the steeples or church-towers, or in special bell-towers. They were loug of comparatively small size; the bell which a king presented to the church of Orleans in the 11th c., and which was remarkable in its age, weighed only 2600 pounds. In the 13th c., much larger bells began to be cast, but it was not until the 15th c. that they reached really considerable dimensions. The bell "Jacqueline" of Paris, cast in 1400, weighed 15,000 pounds; another Paris bell. cast ill 1472, Iveighed 25,000 pounds; the famous bell of Rouen, cast in 1501. weighed 36,364 pounds. The largest bell in the world is the great bell or monarch of Moscow, above 21 ft. in height and diameter, and weighing 103 tons. It was cast in 1734, but fell down during a tire in 1737, was injured, and remained sunk in the earth till 1837, when it was raised, and now forms the dome of a chapel made by excavating the space below it. Another Moscow bell, cast in 1819, weighs SO tons. The great bell at Pekin, 14 ft. Ligh, with a diameter of 13 ft., weighs 54 tons; those of Olinutz, Rouen, and Vienna, nearly 18 tons; that first cast for the new palace at Westminster (but cracked), 14 tons; that of the Roman Catholic cathedral at Montreal (cast 1847), 13} tons; "great Peter," placed in York Minster 1845, 10f- tons; "great Tom" at Lincoln, 5} tons; great bell of St. Paul's, tons.—See an interesting article on Bells in the Quarterly .Review for Sept., 1854.