Belknap
GEORGE EUGENE, an American naval officer, born in Newport, N. H., Jan. 22, 1832; was appointed appointed mid- midshipman in the navy in 1852; became Lieutenant-Commander in 1862; Commander in 1866; Captain in 1872; Commodore in 1885, and Rear-Admiral in 1889; and was retired in 1894. He took part in the capture of the Barrier Forts on the Canton river, China, in 1856; and in the Civil War was present at the bombardment of the forts and batteries in Charleston harbor, and in both of the attacks on Fort Fisher. In 1873, while engaged in deep sea sounding in the North Pacific Ocean, he made discoveries concerning the topography of the bed of the ocean that found high favor : mong scientists. He was appointed Superintendent of the United States Naval Observatory in 1885, and, among other works, published "Deep Sea Soundings."
He died April 7, 1903.
BELL quired, the size of the bell, and the impulse to be given. The depth of the tone of a bell increases in proportion to its size. A bell is divided into the body or barrel, the ear or cannon, and the clapper or tongue. The lip or sound bow is that part where the bell is struck by the clapper.
Bells were used very early in the form of cymbals and hand bells in religious services. They were used in the early monasteries to announce the hours of prayer. Generally they were made of tubes, struck with a hammer. They are said to have been first introduced into Christian churches about 400 A. D., by Paulinus, Bishop of Nola ir. Campania (whence campana and nola as old names of bells); although their adoption on a wide scale does not become apparent until after the year 550, when they were introduced into France. The oldest of those existing in Great Britain and Ireland, such as the "bell of St. Patrick's well" and St. Ninian's bell, are quadrangular and made of thin iron plates hammered and riveted together.
Until the 13th century they were of comparatively small size, but after the casting of the Jacqueline of Paris (62 tons) in 1400, their weight rapidly increased. Among the more famous bells are the bell of Cologne, 11 tons, 1448; of Danzig, 6 tons, 1453; of Halberstadt, 7½, 1457; of Rouen, 16, 1501; of Breslau, 11, 1507; of Lucerne, 7½, 1636; of Oxford, 7½, 1680; of Paris, 124/5, 1680; of Bruges, 104, 1680; of Vienna, 17%, 1711; of Moscow (the monarch of all bells), 193, 1736; three other bells at Moscow, ranging from 16 to 31 tons, and a fourth of 80 tons, cast in 1819; the bell at Lincoln (Great Tom), 52, 1834; of York Minster (Great Peter), 10%, 1845; of Montreal, 132, 1847; of Westminster (Big Ben), 152, 1856; (St.
Stephen), 13½, 1858; the great bell of St. Paul's, 172, 1882. Others are the bells of Ghent (5), Görlitz (10%), St.
Peter's, Rome (8), Antwerp (714), 01mütz (18), Brussels (7), Novgorod (31) mütz (18), Brussels (7), Novgorod (31), Pekin (532). See BELL, LIBERTY.
Bells, as the term is used on shipboard, are the strokes of the ship's bell that proclaim the hours. Eight bells, the highest number, are rung at noon and every fourth hour afterward, i. e., at 4, 8, 12 o'clock, and so on. The intermediary periods are indicated thus: 12:30, 1 bell; 1 o'clock, 2 bells; 1:30, 3 bells, etc., until the eight bells announce 4 o'clock, when the series recommences 4:30, 1 bell; 5 o'clock, 2 bells, etc. The The proportion of tin varies, however, thellas from one-third to one-fifth of the weight nounce hours, the odd numbers half of the copper, according to the sound re- hours.