370 Mi: E. Beckett Denuon, [March 6, 



sequence of the bell having a much grtiater power both of bearing 

 blows and of giving out sound than usual ; and if we knew nothing 

 more about the matter than that there is one large bell in England 

 which will advantageously bear a clapper twice as heavy in pro- 

 portion as any other, it would be enough to show that there must 

 be some essential difference between the constitution of tliat and 

 other bells, wliich is worth investigating. 



The art of bellfounding having sunk so low, as is indicated by 

 what has taken place at the Royal Exchange, and by the great bell 

 of York being not used at all, after having cost £2000, except 

 having the hour struck upon it by hand once a-day, it was obviously 

 necessary to begin at the beginning, as we may say, and take 

 nothing for granted as proper to be adopted, merely because we 

 find it in common use now. Accordingly, when 1 undertook the 

 responsibility of determining the size, and shape, and composition of 

 these five bells, the bellfounders having refused to take any 

 responsibility beyond that of sound casting according to orders, the 

 Ciilef Commissioner of Works authorised the making of such 

 experiments as might be required before finally determining the 

 design and composition of the bells. Those experiments have 

 only cost about £100, a small sum compared with the value of this 

 one beil, and quite insignificant compared with the importance of 

 success or failure in a national work of this kind. I may observe 

 also, that there is no reason to believe that the art of making large 

 bells is at present in a more flourishing state abroad than here. 

 Ail the foreign bells in the Great Exhibition of 1851 were bad. 

 Sir Charles Barry and Professor Wheatstone were requested by 

 the Board of Works to make inquiries on the subject at the 

 Paris Exhibition in 1855 ; and it appears that there is no foreign 

 bellfounder who has cast any bell above a quarter of the weight of 

 the Westminster bell ; and the proportions of copper and tin which 

 were stated to be used by the one who has the highest reputation, 

 M. Hildebrand, of Paris, differ from those which I am satisfied are 

 the best, both Irom the analysis of old bells of great celebrity and 

 from my own experiments. I am equally convinced, that the 

 French shape of bells is not only not the best, but is not so good as 

 what may be regarded as the standard English shape. 



I have said already that you may get any depth of note out of 

 a bell of any weight by making it thin enough. At first, everybody 

 who hears a bell, like that which stood at the west end of the Exhi- 

 bition of 1851, sounding with 29 cwt. very nearly the same note as 

 our 16 ton bell, is ready to pronounce the common form of bell, 

 with a sound bow of -^^\h. or tV^^^ ^^ ^^^ diameter, a very absurd 

 waste of metal. But did it ever occur to them to consider, how far 

 they could hear that 29 cwt. hemispherical bell ? It could not be 

 heard as far as a common bell of 2 or 3 cwt. ; and before you get 

 to any great distance from a bell of that kind, the sound becomes 

 thiii and poor, and what we call in bell-founding language, potty. 



