1857.] 071 the Great Bell of Westminster, 381 



Not only is this a very roundabout process, but without great care 

 in putting the cope on again, the bell is apt to come out not uniform 

 in thickness all round. I have seen broken bells twice as thick on 

 one side as the other. Messrs. Warner's plan is to make the cope 

 of iron larger than would fit the bell ; that is lined with the casting 

 loam, which is turned by an inside instead of an outside sweep, and 

 the junction being between an iron plate at the bottom of the core, 

 and the flanch at the bottom of the cope, they can be fitted together 

 more accurately than the clay core and cope can be, and moreover 

 boated together, so as to resist the bursting pressure of the melted 

 metal, instead of having to rely merely on the sand with which the 

 pit is filled, and such weights as may be laid upon it. The core 

 and cope were both made very hot before the pit was closed in with 

 sand ; for that is still necessary to prevent too rapid cooling, which 

 makes bell-metal soft, and what you may call rotten in texture, 

 and indeed if it is rapid enough, will make it malleable. This bell 

 was kept in the pit 12 days before the sand was taken out, and even 

 then the cope was too hot to touch, and it was left two days more 

 before it was taken off. It has now changed its colour so much 

 from the effect of the London damp and air, that you must trust to 

 my statement, that until it came here it presented that peculiar 

 mottled appearance which is so much admired in organ pipes, rich 

 in tin ; in fact, a gentleman who came to look at it immediately 

 remarked its " fine silvery hue," with that inveterate propensity to 

 discover silver in bell-metal which seems to defy all chemical refu- 

 tation. It is remarkable that the tin does not show itself in this 

 way, if it is less than about ^V of the copper, i.e., about 23 per 

 cent, of the alloy. 



I have now told you all that is likely to be interesting about 

 the construction of this bell, so far as its shape and composition 

 affect the sound. But the description would be incomplete without 

 a short notice of another feature in the design, very subordinate 

 indeed to those which I have yet spoken of, but still not insig- 

 nificant : I mean the construction of that part of the bell by which 

 it is to be hung. The common, indeed I may say, the universal 

 method, for no other has been ever used for large bells, is to cast 

 six ears or loops on the top or crown of the bell, which are techni- 

 cally called canons, and through which certain iron hooks and straps 

 are put to fasten the bell to the stock. Small bells may be securely 

 enough hung by a single canon or plug with a hole in it, like the 

 common house or hand bells, or in any equivalent way. This 

 method of hanging by canons had long appeared to me unsatis- 

 factory on account of its weakness ; for not only has this metal 

 no very great tenacity lengthwise, but the canons are always the 

 weakest part of the casting, from being nearest to the top ; and, I 

 believe, there are few old peals in the kingdom in which some of 

 the bells have not had their canons broken, and replaced by iron 

 bolts put through holes drilled in the crown. Moreover, this 



