376 Mr. E. Beckett Denison, [March 6, 



by Einmann, in 1784), that it did not answer to make bells of it 

 with the sound-bow thicker than the waist, as usual ; and if such 

 bells are worse than the thin ones of that composition, I can only 

 say they must be very bad indeed. I have seen also some cheap 

 bells, evidently composed chiefly of iron, but I do not know what 

 else, and they are much worse than the union metal bells. It is 

 hardly necessary to say much of glass, because its brittleness is 

 enough to disqualify it for use in bells ; but besides that, the sound 

 is very weak, compared with a bell-metal bell of the same size, or 

 even the same weight, and of course much smaller. 



There is another metal, which you will probably expect me to 

 notice as a desirable ingredient in bells, that is silver. All that I 

 have to say of it is, that it is a purely poetical and not a chemical 

 ingredient of any known bell-metal ; and that there is no founda- 

 tion whatever for the vulgar notion that it was used in old bells, 

 nor the least reason to believe that it would do any good. I hap- 

 pened to hear of an instance where it had been tried by a gentleman 

 who had put his own silver into the pot at the bellfoundry, some 

 years ago. I wrote to him to inquire about it, and he could not 

 say that he remembered any particular effect. This seemed to me 

 quite enough to settle that question. You may easily see for your- 

 selves that a silver cup makes a rather worse bell than a cast-iron 

 saucepan. 



Dr. Percy, who has taken great interest in this subject, has cast 

 several other small bells, by way of trying the effect of different 

 alloys, besides the iron and tin just now mentioned. Here is one of 

 iron 95, and antimony 5. The effect is not very different from 

 that of iron and tin of the same proportions, and clearly not so 

 good as copper and tin ; and I should mention that antimony is 

 generally considered to produce an analogous effect to tin in alloys, 

 but always to the detriment of the metal in point of tenacity and 

 strength. Again, here is a bell of a very singular composition, 

 copper 88*65, and phosphorus 11 '35. It makes a very hard 

 compound, and capable of a fine polish, but more brittle than bell- 

 metal, and inferior in sound even to the iron alloys. Copper 

 90*14, and aluminium 9*86, which makes the aluminium bear 

 about the same proportion in bulk as the tin usually does, seemed 

 much more promising. The alloy exceeds any bell-metal in 

 strength and toughness, and polishes like gold ; and as was 

 mentioned in the lecture here on aluminium last year, it is 

 superior to everything except gold and platinum in its resistance 

 to the tarnishing effects of the air. This alloy would probably 

 be an excellent material for watch wheels, the reeds of organ 

 pipes, and a multitude of other things for which brass is now 

 used — a far weaker and more easily corroded metal, but as yet 

 much cheaper. But for all this, it will not stand for a moment 

 against the old copper and tin alloy for bells ; in fact, it is clearly 

 the worst of all that we have yet tried. Here is also a brass 



