518 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



meeting', where a bell weighing 22,000 pounds, and one of 11,000 poitnds, 

 this latter bell could be heard farther than one twice its weight. This dif- 

 ference is owing to the proportion according to which they are made, and 

 the quality of the metal used. Those who use the best metal and propor- 

 tions, are compelled under the circumstances to use a much smaller clapper, 

 than they otherwise would, thus getting but half the volume of tone from 

 the bell that could be got by using a larger clapper. 



To obviate the difficulty of using a large clapper, it has sometimes been 

 the custom to hang heavy bells in such a way, that they could be unscrewed 

 at their support at the top, turned around a part of a circle, and fastened 

 ■up again. This method of hanging, though a valuable improvement, 

 involves great labcr, and does not reach all the difficulty. The danger of 

 sudden heating and cooling is not provided against, for instance, allowing 

 the bell-ringer to turn the bell every month, week or day, as the case may 

 be. Now suppose the bell is rung for one hour during Sunday, it will 

 receive at least 1,000 blows from a large clapper or hammer, in the same 

 place. With the bell turning apparatus here exhibited, the bell or clapper 

 would have gone round on its centre twice, in ringing one hour, and dis- 

 tributed the blows equally around the bell, so that only two blows would 

 be struck in the same place on the bell instead of 1,000. 



By this apparatus the bell is rotated while ringing without any trouble. 

 By no other yoke is this done, all other rotary yokes do not rotate the bell, 

 but ai'e simply arranged so as to enable the ringer to unscrew several nuts, 

 and then by main strength turn the bell a short distance; the model here 

 shown, can be turned round without unscrewing a single nut or bolt. The 

 value of this improvement will be best understood, when it is known that 

 at least 20,000 dollars worth of bells are broken annually by the old way 

 of ringing. The proprietors of one of our bell foundries have bought and 

 melted up over 10,000 dollars worth of broken bells in one year. 



The sound of a bell will go one-quarter further, if the mouth of the bell 

 is turned in a certain direction; that is, if the sound goes in one direction 

 four miles with the bell stationary, the sound will penetrate five miles in 

 the direction to which the mouth is turned. The distance at which bells 

 can be heard also varies with the weather. The barking of dogs and the 

 sound of bells have been heard by those in a balloon at a distance of five 

 miles from the earth. M^ idea is, that during a heavy snow storm the 

 sound cannot penetrate upward, and so passes along the earth, and is heard 

 further at such times; but in clear weather much of the sound passes upward. 

 The improvements made in bells in this country have been very great. 

 Before we began to make steel-composition bells the price was one dollar 

 and a half a pound; now the bells we make are not only cheaper, but also 

 much lighter. No other country can produce a bell of b flat with 1,900 

 pounds. Good bells are put into schoolhouses that can be heard several 

 miles for twenty cents a pound, and that, too, at the present advanced cost 

 of everything. The weight of these bells vary from fifty to two hundred 

 pounds; but the one-hundred pound bell is one mostly used for schools, and 

 can be heard for two and sometimes four miles. 



It seems strange that the combination of two soft metals — such as tin 



