LONDON: Edited, Printed, and Published by Richard Archibald Brooman, of No. 166, Fleet-street, in the City of London.-Sold by A. and W. Galignani, Rue Vivienne, Paris; Hodges and Smith, Dublin; W. C. Campbell and Co., Hamburg.

ON LARGE BELLS, AND BELL MACHINERY.

A series of very useful and entertaining papers on large bells and bell machinery, followed by discussions of much importance, has been brought before the Royal Institute of British Architects during the past and the present year. As several improvements in the methods of hanging and ringing bells have been introduced therein, we propose laying before our readers a few articles which shall embody all the most important and interesting portions of those papers and discussions. We begin with

A DESCRIPTION OF SOME ALTERATIONS IN BELLS, AND BELL MACHINERY,
BY W. L. BAKER, C.E.

Read at the Ordinary General Meeting of the Royal Institute of British Architects,

March 5, 1855.

The alterations to be described were planned for the purpose of improving, and not of radically changing the existing system of bell mechanism; they are not intended to supersede the athletic exercise of bell-ringing, but to furnish the ringer with a more perfect instrument. They will at the same time render bells much more durable, simplify their gear, and render it more impervious to the inroads of time and weather, and less liable to derangement. Before entering upon the particulars of my plan, it will be necessary to describe the principal features and details of the ordinary system of bell machinery, and the manner in which a bell is rung.

A bell hung in the ordinary way for ringing is suspended from, and firmly secured to a wooden beam called the stock, by means of long iron links; the lower ends of these links are attached to ears technically called cannons, cast on the crown of the bell, or to crossbars passing through the eyes of the cannons; the upper ends of the links, which are screwed, are passed through iron clamp plates bedded on the top of the stock, and are secured by nuts which are screwed with the aid of a spanner down to the clamps, until the tops of the cannons are pressed firmly up into a recess cut in the under side of the stock, so as exactly to fit their shape. The length of the stock is generally about two or three inches more than the diameter of the mouth of the bell, in order to give clearance between the skirt of the bell and the framing. At each end of the stock, and at the lower part of it, is fixed a pivot or gudgeon, which rests and turns in a brass bearing fixed in the framing. A large rigger wheel is attached to the stock, and by means of a rope connected with a particular part of the periphery of this wheel, a ringer is able to put the bell into a state of oscillation. After a few primary impulses a firm stroke is given to the bell by the clapper just at the completion of each arc of the bell's oscillation. The impulses being continued by the ringer is technically called raising the bell, because the centre of gravity of the bell at every successive impulse describes a larger arc, and at the termination of every oscillation is raised to a higher point than it had previously attained, until the arc of oscillation becomes a complete circle, and the bell is brought, at the termination of each oscillation, into a position of stable equilibrium, the mouth of the bell being upwards. By allowing the bell to pass a little beyond the vertical line, the ringer is able to hold it in a state of This is called setting the bell. When this has been once accomplished, an expert ringer is able, with very little effort, to pull off his bell again with just so much force as will make it retrace its path and ascend on the other side, until it arrives again in a vertical position, and he can set it at every oscillation, and consequently at every stroke of the clapper. The bell is thus in a state in which he has a considerable control over its movements, for although the ordinary oscillations of the bell are nearly isochronous, he can shorten and accelerate them by checking the rope, lengthen and render them slower by giving the bell more rope, or stop them altogether by setting the bell; and these various alterations in its movements may be made with a moderate amount of exertion on the part of the ringer, because the impulses necessary to produce them are given at the commencement, or near the termination of the bell's oscillations, when the vertical distance through which the centre of gravity of the bell passes is much shorter than the horizontal distance. Change-ringing could not be accomplished without the control which is thus given to the ringers over the movements of their bells. In simply ringing a bell after it has been raised, the only resistance to be overcome is that of the air acting upon the moving bodies of the bell, wheel, and stock, and the friction of the gudgeons, and although these resistances are scarcely felt by the ringer in ringing a well-hung bell for a few strokes, they begin to tell upon him if he continues ringing some time. One object, therefore, to be aimed at in hanging a bell, is to reduce these resistances as much as possible. The stay is a simple adjunct to a bell's gear, consisting of a vertical bar of wood attached to the stock, and projecting somewhat above it. When the bell is set, the extreme end of the stay comes in

rest.

19, 1836.

contact with a movable stop attached to the framing, which prevents the bell from overturning, and eases the ringer of the trouble of holding his bell when set.

In my patent improvements there are three principal features :-First, a circular boss is cast on the crown of the bell, through which a single bolt of sufficient strength is passed, and attaches the bell to the stock. Secondly, metal is used instead of wood for the stock and other parts. Thirdly, the bell is attached in such a manner to the stock (whether by a single central bolt, or by casting an axis on the top of the crown, or by any similar contrivance), that the bell may be turned round its vertical axis, and present in succession a fresh part of the bell to the blows of the clapper. To facilitate the turning of heavy bells, a screw or pinion and toothed wheel are connected to the boss. The accompanying engravings (p. 360) represent my improvements. Fig. 1 is a side view, fig. 2 is an elevation partly in section, and fig. 3 shows the wheel and pinion arrangement. A is a main central bolt; B, the crown of the bell; C, a boss on the crown, B; D, an iron stock; EE are parts to screw the bell to the stock; F is a square part of the main bolt; G G are the gudgeons; His a toothed wheel; K, an endless screw; L, a square part of the screw's spindle to receive a spanner; M is a catch for the stay, and N is the stay.*

To cast a central boss is a much more simple operation than to cast cannons on the crown of a bell, as the latter are complicated and expensive to mould, and without care are liable to turn out faulty. The method of attaching the bell to the stock is rendered much more simple by using one main bolt, instead of six to ten links, with their necessary nuts, clamps, and cross-bars; one large bolt is also more secure than a number of small ones, which, in all probability, will not all be screwed up equally tight, and consequently there will be a greater strain on some than on others. The stock of a bell, which is generally more or less cranked, has to stand considerable strains and counter strains, and when made of timber, the bell and wheel are attached to it by iron bolts and fastenings. To insure sufficient strength, it is therefore necessary that a tough and hard wood should be used. Elm possessing these qualities to a greater extent than any other available wood in this country, is that most approved of for the purpose. But elm is one of the worst woods for swelling, shrinking, and warping, when exposed to variation of temperature and moisture; the consequence is that, as the summer advances, all bolts and iron fastenings connected with the moving gear of a peal of bells get loose and require tightening up. The gudgeons also being let into the stock, and bolted to it, are consequently thrown out of truth, and this cannot be permanently rectified in a wooden stock. The Reverend W. C. 1.ukis, † in his paper on bells read before the Wilts Archæological Society, on the 18th September, 1854, very justly observed, "Bells require very constant attention to keep them in proper ringing order; when you consider their enormous weight, the different parts of their harness, the iron and wood of which it is composed, bolted and screwed together, the frame-work on which they hang, and which in revolving they violently shake and vibrate, and then reflect that the iron and the wood are both exposed to continual changes of atmosphere, when one of those materials expands the other contracts, and that then the bells cannot oscillate so easily, you will form some idea of the care and attention they require to keep them in ringing order." But all the defects which thus attend the use of wooden stocks are completely and effectually remedied in properly constructed iron ones, because the latter have much greater rigidity, and are not liable to warp. The variations caused in them by the extreme temperatures of winter and summer are exceedingly small, and the expansion and contraction is always of a regular nature, so that neither the gudgeons nor any other parts are ever thrown out of truth. Cast-iron stocks have the further advantage of rendering the gudgeons capable of being simply and firmly fixed, and accurately turned; and as their lateral surface is about four-tenths of that presented by wooden ones, they consequently offer a proportionately less resistance to the air when the bells are being rung. A peal of bells would also be rendered fire-proof by the further addition of iron framing.

It is well known by those who are conversant with the subject, that the clappers of bells, by constantly striking the same parts of the sound-bow, wear two indentations, which may be found even three-quarters of an inch deep in bells that have not been cast more than from thirty to fifty years. These indentations must necessarily weaken a bell considerably in the very part that has to sustain the blows of the clapper. It is not uncommon in examining large bells to find that it has been thought prudent or necessary to quarter them, that is, to turn them horizontally one quarter round, in order that their clappers may strike fresh parts of the sound-bows at right angles to those they previously struck. This alteration is attended with much trouble and expense, for the following reasons:-First. The cannons are cast to suit properly only one way of fixing the bell to the stock, so that when

See also printed Specification of the Patent of Mr. W. L. Baker, 25, Parliament-street, Westminster, (No. 841, 1854). ↑ Wilts Archæological and Natural History Magazine, No. 4, April, 1855.