DELL. Bells of a small size are undoubt edly very ancient; the Hebrews, the Greeks, and the Romans used them. The large bells now used in churches are said to have been invented by Pardinus, bishop of Nola in Cam pania, about the year 400 ; and they were probably introduced into England very soon after their invention.
The city of Nankin in China was anciently famous for the largeness of its bells, but they were afterwards far exceeded in size by those of the churches in Moscow. A bell given by the czar Boris Godunof to the cathedral of Moscow weighed 288,000 pounds, and another given by the Empress Anne, probably the largest in the known world, weighed 432,000 pounds. According to Core the height of this last bell was 19 feet, the circumference at the bottom 03 feet 11 inches, and Rs greatest thickness 23 inches. The great bell of St. Paul's weighs between 11,000 and 12,000 pounds. The new Great Tom of Lincoln,' east in 1835, weighs 12,000 pounds ; the ' Great Toni of Oxford,' 17,000 pounds ; and the great bell cast in 1845 for York Min ster, the heaviest in the United Kingdom, upwards of twelve tons, or about 27,000 pounds. The most ponderous bell ever cast in this country was, we believe, that made by Messrs. Mears in 1843 for the Roman catholic cathedral at Montreal.
The tone of a bell depends conjointly on the diameter and the thickness ; a small bell or a thick bell giving, relatively, a more acute tone than one winch is either larger or thinner. Hence the founder regulates the diameter and thickness according to the musi cal pitch of the tone which the bell is to yield ; but, as this cannot be rigidly attained by casting only, the bells (say a set to form chimes) are attuned by chipping away some of the metal with a sharp-pointed hammer; reducing the diameter at the lower edge when the tone is too low, and reducing the thick ness at the part where the hammer strikes when the tone is too acute.
Some of the recent parlour or table bells are not only convenient but very elegant pro ductions. In Mr. Furlong's registered table bell, which is quite ornamental enough to take its place among other adornments of the table, we have only to press down a little button or knob at the top, when a sound is produced loud enough to be heard in a dis tant room. The knob acts upon a small spring which moves a hammer.
It has been suggested that a single bar of well-made cast steel would be the cheapest of all bells for small churches, on account of its sonorous quality. There remains the con sideration, however, how far such a substance would hear blows without fracture.
The casting of large church-bells is a process requiring great care and attention. Messrs. Mears, of Whitechapel, have for many years manufactured nearly all those made in this country of large dimensions. The operations are briefly described in a later article. [Fonmato.]