378 



Mr, E. Beckett Denison. 



[March 6, 



bells is 22 to 7 twice melted ; or, reducing it for convenience of 

 comparison to a percentage, the tin is 24*1 of the alloy (not of the 

 copper), and the copper 75*86, which you see is very nearly the 

 same as the result of the analysis of the bell when cast. This may 

 seem extraordinary, because it is well known that the tin wastes 

 more in melting than the copper ; but no doubt the explanation of 

 it is, that the antimony which comes out with the tin in the analysis 

 goes in with the copper in the composition, unless special means are 

 taken to eliminate it, which is not worth while, as antimony pro- 

 duces the same kind of effect as the tin, and a little of it does no 

 harm ; as we know from intentionally putting some into a small bell, 

 though it is an inferior metal to tin both for bells and organ pipes, 

 in which I understand it is frequently substituted to stiffen the lead, 

 because the English organ builders will not use as much tin as the 

 old ones did, and the German ones still do. 



This 22 to 7 mixture, or even 3^ to I, which is probably the 

 best proportion to use for bells made at one melting, is a much 

 " higher " metal, as they call it, than the modern bellfounders, 

 either English or French, generally use. As there is no great dif- 

 ference in the price of the two metals, the reason why they prefer 

 the lower quantity of tin is, that it makes the bells softer, and 

 therefore easier to cut for tuning, which is obviously a very insuffi- 

 cient reason. I advise everybody who makes a contract for bells, 

 to stipulate that they shall be rejected if they are found on analysis 

 to contain less than 22, or at any rate 21 per cent, of tin, or more 

 than 2 per cent, of anything but copper and tin. 



Analysis of several Bell-metals. 



The founders were afraid that by insisting on so much tin I 

 should make the bell too brittle. I was satisfied that if they cast it 

 properly it would not be so ; and I shall now give some proofs of 

 that. The first is, that the bell has now been rung frequently with 

 a clapper from two to three times as heavy in proportion to the bell 

 as all the other large bells in England, and pulled sometimes by as 



