After having described the method of laying down the tunes on a music clock barrel, it may be thought unneces sary to explain the method of putting on the quarters of a clock quarter or chime barrel. But, simple as it is, we conceive it will be both interesting to the general reader, and acceptable to workmen who may not be in the habit of contriving for themselves, or who may not have had an opportunity of seeing it executed by others.
Quartep are commonly struck on a set of eight bells, from G to G in octave, or they may be numbered 1, 2, fk, &c. on to 8. The quarter barrel may have eight circles turned on it, so as to correspond to the quarter ham mer tails. Five, and sometimes ten, quarters are put on the barrel ; we shall, however, in this instance only lay five on the barrel. Take a wheel cut into 50 teeth not rounded off, and screwed temporarily on the end of the barrel ; pro vide an index, and a piece of brass bent so as to apply to the barrel when in the turn bench, in the manner of a straight edge, and the index spring tight in the teeth; take a. point, and make a slight trace across the circle, which corresponds to high G or No. 1, then move the index a tooth, in the direction the quarter barrel turns when moved by the wheel work ; make a trace across the circle intend ed for the second hammer, and so on. When the eighth circle has been marked, move the index two teeth for the first hammer of the succeeding quarter, and so on till the whole is completed; the barrel may then be drilled and pinned accordingly. Should the intervals between the quarters be thought too little for lucking, the wheel, in place of 50, inay be cut 55, and this will allow three teeth in place of two for the intervals. G, A, B, C, D, E, F G, may also be represented by the figures I, 2, 3. 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8. No. I. being the high G, and 8 the low G T e changes given in the following set of chimes or quartets, will exhibit how to proceed in putting them on the barrel,. after what has been already said.
set of Chimes for Clock Quarters ; the barrel making twt revolutions in the hour.
With the number of 8 bells and hammers for the quar ters of a chime or quarter clock, a great variety may be produced ; and where it may be preferred to have the chime or quarter barrel to make one revolution for the ten quarters which are given in the course of every hour, we shall give a specimen of a set of chimes which may be put on such a barrel.
4 set of Chimes for Clock Quarter Barrels, which make anc revolution in an hour.
It is still a point undetermined, whether the common shape of the bell, or that which is called the dish-form, and used chiefly in house clocks, is the best. The great expence which attends experiments on bell founding will probably keep this point long undecided. Being in pos session of a manuscript, containing some of Professor Lud Iam's remarks on the subject of bell founding,* which we conceive to be very valuable, we shall lay them before our readers. I saw a great deal of the art of bell founding," says Mr Ludlam, 66 in the time of the late Mr Thomas Eayre of Kettering, a man who had a true taste for it, and spared no expence to make improvements. Much of tone depends on minute circumstances in the shape ; and Mr Eayre had crooks or forms cut on thin boards, carefully ta ken from the inside and outside of all the good bells he could find. This county (Cambridge) and Northampton abounds with the best bells I ever heard, cast by Hugh Watts of Leicester, between 1630 and 1640. Ringers in general, who are commonly constituted the judges of bells, (and as such are feed by the bell founder,) regard neither tune nor tone. The hanging of the bell is all they regard,
that they may show their dexterity in change-ringing. That shape of a bell that is best for tone, (a short one,) is not the best for hanging, so tone is utterly disregarded ; to please the ringers, and to get money, is all. In my opinion, the thinner the bell and deeper the tone the better, provid ed it is not shelly, that is, like a thin shell, with such a tone as the fragments of a broken Florence-flask will give. A deep tone always suggests the idea of a great bell, is more grave, and better suited to the slow strokes of a church clock, and is heard farther. The clock in St Clement Dane's church in the Strand, London, strikes the hour twice—once on the great bell in peal, and again on its oc tave or 12th, I know not which ; listen to them, and you will perceive which is most agreeable and best heard. The son of Mr Thomas Eayre, who was a good bell founder, cast a dish-bell of five or six hundred weight, for the church clock at Boston, in Lincolnshire, the tone of which was very deep and wild. Mr Thomas Eayre, very early in life, made a curious chime for Sir T. Wentworth, after wards Lord Mahon, and father of the Marquis of Rock ingham, which had thirteen dish-bells, the biggest about two hundred weight. This is at Harrowden, near Ketter ing. Thomas Eayre, his son, and his brother Joseph, be ing all dead, to their bell-founding business one Arnold succeeded, who had worked with Joseph Eayre, and is now at St .Neot's, Huntingdonshire. Arnold I believe to be a much better bell founder than the White Chapel bell founders, though by no means equal to old Thomas Eayre. Romilly always would confound Thomas Eayre with Jo seph Eayre, and so imputed the faults of the one to the other. Romilly was so•conceited when at Leicester, where there is undoubtedly the best peal of bells in the kingdom, (partly old Watt's and partly Thomas Eayre's,) that he would not so much as deign to hear them. I cannot help thinking that a bell of five or six hundred weight, of the dish form, might be cast far fitter for your purpose, than one of the church form. But who will do it ? Who has had any experience of bells of this form ? It must also be observed, that small differences, in the form, in the shape or thickness of the sound-bole of a church bell, will make great differences in the tone. All I can say is, it is not the weight of metal, but something resulting from the shape of the bell, that gives both freedom and depth of tone, as I can prove by many instances. 'What that shape is that makes a bell so willing to speak, is a question which a good bell founder ought to be able to answer. It is a known and undoubted fact, that a bell speaks much bet ter, when both the clapper and the bell is hammer harden ed, and when they are worked in to touch each other in many points. I now recollect, that above 40 years ago, Thomas. Eayre made a large turret clock, with. quarters, for Lady E. Germain,(now Lord G. Germain's,) at Dray ton, near Thrapton, Northamptonshire, all the bells of which are Dish-Bells of a large size. I know not their weight exactly, but suppose the biggest four hundred weight—they are heard a great way."—" There is an in strument brought from China, called a gon or gong, made of hammered brass, or of some sort of a metallic compo sition, about 16 inches over. The drawing is a section of it.