Bell (Hollow sounding instrument)

Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)

a hollow, sounding instrument of metal. The metal from which bells are usually made (by founding) is an alloy, called bell-metal, commonly comparts of copper and 20 of tin. and 20 tin , The proportion of the copper, according to the sound re- hours. 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 art where the bell is struck by the that part 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, 72, 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), 132, 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) , 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 thellas from one-third to one-fifth of the weight nounce hours, the odd numbers half