Bellfounding is the
casting
Casting is a manufacturing process in which a liquid material is usually poured into a mold, which contains a hollow cavity of the desired shape, and then allowed to solidify. The solidified part is also known as a ''casting'', which is ejected ...
and tuning of large
bronze bells in a
foundry
A foundry is a factory that produces metal castings. Metals are cast into shapes by melting them into a liquid, pouring the metal into a mold, and removing the mold material after the metal has solidified as it cools. The most common metals pr ...
for use such as in
churches,
clock towers
Clock towers are a specific type of structure which house a turret clock and have one or more clock faces on the upper exterior walls. Many clock towers are freestanding structures but they can also adjoin or be located on top of another buildi ...
and public buildings, either to signify the time or an event, or as a musical
carillon or
chime. Large bells are made by casting
bell metal in moulds designed for their intended
musical pitch
Pitch is a perceptual property of sounds that allows their ordering on a frequency-related scale,
or more commonly, pitch is the quality that makes it possible to judge sounds as "higher" and "lower" in the sense associated with musical melodi ...
es. Further fine
tuning
Tuning can refer to:
Common uses
* Tuning, the process of tuning a tuned amplifier or other electronic component
* Musical tuning, musical systems of tuning, and the act of tuning an instrument or voice
** Guitar tunings
** Piano tuning, adjusti ...
is then performed using a
lathe to shave metal from the bell to produce a distinctive bell tone by sounding the correct musical
harmonics
A harmonic is a wave with a frequency that is a positive integer multiple of the '' fundamental frequency'', the frequency of the original periodic signal, such as a sinusoidal wave. The original signal is also called the ''1st harmonic'', ...
.
Bellfounding in East Asia dates from about 2000 BCE
and in Europe from the 4th or 5th century CE. In Britain,
archaeological excavations have revealed traces of
furnaces
A furnace is a structure in which heat is produced with the help of combustion.
Furnace may also refer to:
Appliances Buildings
* Furnace (central heating): a furnace , or a heater or boiler , used to generate heat for buildings
* Boiler, used t ...
, showing that bells were often cast on site in pits in a church or its grounds. Centralised foundries became common when railways allowed easy transportation of bells, leading to the dominance of founders such as the
Whitechapel Bell Foundry
The Whitechapel Bell Foundry was a business in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. At the time of the closure of its Whitechapel premises, it was the oldest manufacturing company in Great Britain. The bell foundry primarily made church bells ...
and
John Taylor & Co
John Taylor Bell Foundry (Loughborough) Limited, trading as John Taylor & Co and commonly known as Taylor's Bell Foundry, Taylor's of Loughborough, or simply Taylor's, is the world's largest working bell foundry. It is located in Loughborough, ...
of Loughborough.
Elsewhere in the world a number of foundries are still active, some using traditional methods, and some using the latest foundry techniques. Modern foundries produce harmonically tuned bells using principles established in the late 19th century; some of these are also highly decorative.
Early history
![Bianzhong](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/80/Bianzhong.jpg)
Bellfounding has been important throughout the history of ancient civilizations. Eastern bells, known for their tremendous size, were some of the earliest bells, made many centuries before the European
Iron Age
The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age ( Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age ( Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostl ...
. The earliest bells were made of pottery, developing later into the casting of metal bells.
Archaeological evidence of bellfounding appears in Neolithic China.
The earliest metal bells, with one found in the
Taosi
Taosi () is an archaeological site in Xiangfen County, Shanxi, China. Taosi is considered to be part of the late phase of the Longshan culture in southern Shanxi, also known as the Taosi phase (2300 BC to 1900 BC).
Archaeology
Taosi was surround ...
site, and four in the
Erlitou
The Erlitou culture was an early Bronze Age urban society and archaeological culture that existed in the Yellow River valley from approximately 1900 to 1500 BC. A 2007 study of radiocarbon dating proposed a narrower date range of 1750 to 1530 B ...
site, are dated to about 2000 BCE.
[Falkenhausen (1994), 132, Appendix I pp. 329, 342.] By the 13th century BCE, bells weighing over were being cast in China. After 1000 CE, iron became the most commonly used metal for bells instead of bronze. The earliest dated iron bell was manufactured in 1079 , found in
Hubei Province
Hubei (; ; alternately Hupeh) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, and is part of the Central China region. The name of the province means "north of the lake", referring to its position north of Dongting Lake. The prov ...
.
Development
Britain
Portable bells came to Britain with the spread of
Celtic Christianity, and most of those still remaining share an association with Scotland, Wales and Ireland. Bellfounding in Britain was due to
monasticism which provided demand and expertise in the early
medieval
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...
period.
Large bells in England are mentioned by
Bede as early as 670 CE and by the seventh or eighth century the use of bells had become incorporated into church services. Nearly 200 years later, in the tenth century is the first record of a complete
peal of bells
A "ring of bells" is the name bell ringers give to a set of bells hung for English full circle ringing. The term "peal of bells" is often used, though peal also refers to a change ringing performance of more than about 5,000 changes.
By rin ...
. The chronologies of the abbot
Ingulf
Ingulf ( la, Ingulphus; died 16 November 1109) was the Benedictine abbot of Crowland from 1087.
Life
Ingulf was an Englishman who, having travelled to England on diplomatic business as secretary of William, Duke of Normandy, in 1051, was made Ab ...
suggest that
Thurcytel
Thurcytel (or Thurkytel) (died 28 June 975?) was abbot of Crowland and perhaps also of Bedford Abbey.
Thurcytel of Crowland is known from the unreliable history of Crowland Abbey attributed to Pseudo-Ingulf, an account full of anachronisms in ...
, the first
Abbot of Crowland, presented
the Abbey with a bell named Guthlac, after which his successor,
Egelric the Elder cast an additional six bells—two large, two of medium size and two small—to complete a peal of seven. The same period saw other ecclesiastics involved in the founding of bells.
St. Dunstan, "The Chief of Monks", was an expert worker in metals and known bell caster. Two bells were cast under his direction at Abingdon which also held two others cast by
St. Ethelwold.
Methods of moulding by
lost-wax casting
Lost-wax casting (also called "investment casting", "precision casting", or ''cire perdue'' which has been adopted into English from the French, ) is the process by which a duplicate metal sculpture (often silver, gold, brass, or bronze) i ...
were described by the thirteenth-century Benedictine monk
Walter de Odyngton of Evesham Abbey.
Bellfounding as a commercial trade followed later. Independent craftsmen set up permanent foundries in towns, such as London, Gloucester, Salisbury, Bury St Edmunds, Norwich, and Colchester.
Although these attracted trade from the surrounding countryside, mediaeval founders did not confine themselves to bellmaking as their only source of livelihood. Instead, they often combined it with related trades, such as metal ware, utensil manufacturing and gunmaking. Some founders were itinerant, traveling from church to church to cast bells on site.
These early bells had poor tone, due to both their variable alloy composition and a lack of understanding of producing the correct shape for a harmonic tone; but over time the bell-shape was improved. The angles at the crown and soundbow were gradually flattened out and the waist became shorter, flaring more toward the mouth. Although tuning methods were still uncertain and empirical, sets of bells in diatonic scales were installed at important parish churches and monasteries.
Archaeological excavations of
churchyards in Britain have revealed
furnaces
A furnace is a structure in which heat is produced with the help of combustion.
Furnace may also refer to:
Appliances Buildings
* Furnace (central heating): a furnace , or a heater or boiler , used to generate heat for buildings
* Boiler, used t ...
, which suggests that bells were often cast on site in pits dug in the building grounds.
Great Tom of
Lincoln Cathedral was cast in the Minster yard in 1610, and the great bell of
Canterbury
Canterbury (, ) is a cathedral city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, situated in the heart of the City of Canterbury local government district of Kent, England. It lies on the River Stour.
The Archbishop of Canterbury is the primate of ...
in the Cathedral yard in 1762.
When the casting was complete, a tower was built over the casting pit, and the bell raised directly up into the tower.
In some instances, such as in
Kirkby Malzeard
Kirkby Malzeard () is a village and civil parish in the Harrogate district of North Yorkshire, England.
There has been a creamery in the village making Wensleydale cheese for almost 100 years, first owned by Mrs Mason, then Kit Calvert, of Hawes ...
and
Haddenham the bells were actually cast in the church.
File:Cast Bells Whitechapel Bell Foundry 01.jpg, ''Cast Bells Whitechapel Bell Foundry, ca. 1880, State Library of New South Wales
File:Church Bells in the workshop at Whitechapel Bell Foundry.jpg, Church Bells in the workshop at Whitechapel Bell Foundry, c. 1880
File:Moulds for church bells Whitechapel Bell Foundry.jpg, Moulds for church bells in the workshop at Whitechapel Bell Foundry
The Low Countries
François Hemony (c. 1609–1667) and his brother Pieter, Pierre, or Peter Hemony (1619–1680) were the greatest
carillon bell founders in the history of the
Low Countries
The term Low Countries, also known as the Low Lands ( nl, de Lage Landen, french: les Pays-Bas, lb, déi Niddereg Lännereien) and historically called the Netherlands ( nl, de Nederlanden), Flanders, or Belgica, is a coastal lowland region in N ...
. They developed the carillon, in collaboration with Jacob van Eyck, into a full-fledged musical instrument by casting the first tuned carillon in 1644. The
Hemony Brothers are regarded as the first of the modern western bell-founders who used a scientific approach to casting the optimum shape and tuning bells to harmonic principles.
Materials
Bell metal
Bells for the intention of producing functional sound are usually made by casting bell metal, an
alloy
An alloy is a mixture of chemical elements of which at least one is a metal. Unlike chemical compounds with metallic bases, an alloy will retain all the properties of a metal in the resulting material, such as electrical conductivity, ductilit ...
of
bronze. Much experimentation with composition has existed throughout history; the bells of Henry II had nearly twice as much
copper
Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkis ...
as
tin
Tin is a chemical element with the symbol Sn (from la, stannum) and atomic number 50. Tin is a silvery-coloured metal.
Tin is soft enough to be cut with little force and a bar of tin can be bent by hand with little effort. When bent, t ...
, while much earlier Assyrian bronze bells had ten times the amount of copper to tin. The recognized best composition for bell metal though is a ratio of approximately 80 per cent copper and 20 per cent tin.
Bell metal of these ratios has been used for more than 3,000 years and is known for its
resonance
Resonance describes the phenomenon of increased amplitude that occurs when the frequency of an applied Periodic function, periodic force (or a Fourier analysis, Fourier component of it) is equal or close to a natural frequency of the system ...
and "attractive sound". Tin and copper are relatively soft metals that will deform on striking. By alloying, a harder and more rigid metal is created but also one with more elasticity than the use of one alone. This allows for a better resonance and causes the bell to "vibrate like a spring when struck", a necessary quality as the clapper may strike at speeds of up to 600 miles per hour.
The forces holding the tin and copper together cause vibrations rather than cracks when the bell is struck which creates a resonant tone. This metal combination also results in a tough, long-wearing material that is resistant to
oxidation
Redox (reduction–oxidation, , ) is a type of chemical reaction in which the oxidation states of substrate change. Oxidation is the loss of electrons or an increase in the oxidation state, while reduction is the gain of electrons or a ...
and subject only to an initial surface
weathering
Weathering is the deterioration of rocks, soils and minerals as well as wood and artificial materials through contact with water, atmospheric gases, and biological organisms. Weathering occurs ''in situ'' (on site, with little or no movement) ...
.
Verdigris
Verdigris is the common name for blue-green, copper-based pigments that form a patina on copper, bronze, and brass. The technical literature is ambiguous as to its chemical composition. Some sources refer to "neutral verdigris" as copper(II) ...
forms a protective
patina on the surface of the bell which coats it against further oxidation.
The hardest and strongest bronze contains large amounts of tin and little lead though an alloy with more than 25 per cent tin will have a low melting point and become brittle and susceptible to cracking.
This low melting point proved to be the nemesis of Russia's third attempt at casting the
Tsar Bell
The Tsar Bell (russian: Царь–колокол; ), also known as the Tsarsky Kolokol, Tsar Kolokol III, or Royal Bell, is a , bell on display on the grounds of the Moscow Kremlin. The bell was commissioned by Empress Anna Ivanovna, niece o ...
from 1733 to 1735.
The bell was never rung, and a huge slab cracked off (11.5 tons) during a fire in the
Kremlin in 1737 before it could ever be raised from its casting pit. Burning timber fell into the casting pit, and the decision was whether to let it burn and risk melting the bell or pour water on it and risk causing it cracking from cooling it too quickly. The latter risk was chosen and, as feared, because of uneven cooling, the bell was damaged.
The present bell is sometimes referred to as Kolokol III (Bell III), because it is the third recasting; remnants from the old bell were melted down and the metal reused to cast the new bell. This practice was fairly commonplace, as the metal materials were very costly.
Bell metal was considered so valuable that the first bronze coins for England were made in France out of melted-down old bells.
Other metals
Other materials occasionally used for bell casting are
brass
Brass is an alloy of copper (Cu) and zinc (Zn), in proportions which can be varied to achieve different mechanical, electrical, and chemical properties. It is a substitutional alloy: atoms of the two constituents may replace each other wit ...
or
iron
Iron () is a chemical element with Symbol (chemistry), symbol Fe (from la, Wikt:ferrum, ferrum) and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 element, group 8 of the periodic table. It is, Abundanc ...
. Steel was tried during the busy church-building period of mid-nineteenth England, for its economy over bronze, but was found not to be durable and manufacture ceased in the 1870s. They have also been made of glass, but although bells of this type produced a successful tone, this substance being very brittle was unable to withstand the continued use of the clapper.
By popular tradition the bell metal contained
gold
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile me ...
and
silver
Silver is a chemical element with the symbol Ag (from the Latin ', derived from the Proto-Indo-European ''h₂erǵ'': "shiny" or "white") and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical ...
, as component parts of the alloy, as it is recorded that rich and devout people threw coins into the furnace when bells were cast in the churchyard. The practice was believed to improve the tone of the bell. This however is probably erroneous as there are no authentic analyses of bell metal, ancient or modern, which show that gold or silver has ever been used as a component part of the alloy. If used to any great extent, the addition would injure the tone not improve it.
Small quantities of other metals found in old bell metal are likely to be impurities in the metals used to form the alloy.
Decorative bells can be made of such materials as horn, wood, and clay.
Casting process
![Bellfounding Popualrmechanics](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ab/Bellfounding_Popualrmechanics.jpg)
The principle of casting bells has remained essentially the same since the 12th century. Bells are cast mouth down, in a two-part mould consisting of the core and a mantle or
cope
The cope (known in Latin as ''pluviale'' 'rain coat' or ''cappa'' 'cape') is a liturgical vestment, more precisely a long mantle or cloak, open in front and fastened at the breast with a band or clasp. It may be of any liturgical colour.
A c ...
placed over it. These are produced to accurate profiles so an air space exists between them which is filled by the molten metal.
Measurement and templating
Firstly the bell profile is calculated to exact specifications to ensure it can be properly tuned. Two wooden templates called "strickle boards" are used to shape the moulding clay. One matches the dimensions of the outer bell (called the case or cope); the other matches that of the inner bell (called the core).
Generally these boards are stock profiles that have been developed, empirically and by calculation, for each size of bell.
Constructing the mould
An exact model of the inner face of the bell is built on a base-plate using
porous
Porosity or void fraction is a measure of the void (i.e. "empty") spaces in a material, and is a fraction of the volume of voids over the total volume, between 0 and 1, or as a percentage between 0% and 100%. Strictly speaking, some tests measure ...
materials such as
coke,
stone
In geology, rock (or stone) is any naturally occurring solid mass or aggregate of minerals or mineraloid matter. It is categorized by the minerals included, its Chemical compound, chemical composition, and the way in which it is formed. Rocks ...
, or
brick. It is then covered first with
sand
Sand is a granular material composed of finely divided mineral particles. Sand has various compositions but is defined by its grain size. Sand grains are smaller than gravel and coarser than silt. Sand can also refer to a textural class o ...
or
loam (sometimes mixed with straw and horse manure) and clay to form a smooth profile. This is given a profile by means of the inner strickle board. It also known as the "false bell" and is then dried with gentle heat in a kiln.
The false bell is then covered with
molten
Melting, or fusion, is a physical process that results in the phase transition of a substance from a solid to a liquid. This occurs when the internal energy of the solid increases, typically by the application of heat or pressure, which inc ...
wax and figures and
inscriptions, also made of wax, applied on top by hand. The false bell is painted over with three coats of fireproof clay and then enclosed by a
steel mantle overcasing. The empty space between the false bell and the mantle is filled in with cement and left to harden before the mantle is lifted off. The false bell is chipped away from the inner core to leave the wax and cement. Any leftover scraps of the false bell are removed with a blow torch. The mould is then set over a coke fire to melt the remaining wax and evaporate any water that has accumulated.
Instead of using a steel mantle and cement, the inner and outer moulds can also be made completely out of loam. In that case, the moulds are usually constructed inside out—first the inner mould on top of a coke, stone, or brick core, then the false bell including wax decorations as above, and finally the outer mould with added iron ring and fiber (e.g. hemp) reinforcements. At this stage the steel ''staple'', from which the clapper will hang, is inserted. Separating agents are used to prevent the false bell from sticking too closely to both of the moulds. Finally, after lifting up the outer mould, the false bell can be destroyed and the outer mould lowered back down onto the inner mould, ready for casting.
Pouring the metal
The outer bell mould in the cope or mantle is lowered over the inner mould and they are clamped together, leaving a space between them, which the molten metal will fill. The complete mould is sometimes in a casting pit which stabilises it and enables slower cooling, or above ground in open air, depending on the foundry's traditions.
The raw materials of
copper
Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkis ...
and
tin
Tin is a chemical element with the symbol Sn (from la, stannum) and atomic number 50. Tin is a silvery-coloured metal.
Tin is soft enough to be cut with little force and a bar of tin can be bent by hand with little effort. When bent, t ...
are melted in a furnace until they become liquid at a temperature of approximately . Often scrap bronze from old bells is added, especially if the bell being cast is a replacement for an existing bell, which is in effect being recycled.
The liquid metal is skimmed to remove impurities, then poured into the mould, using either a tilting ladle suspended from a crane, or else a system of brick channels constructed in the casting pit, which allows the metal to flow directly from the furnace into the individual moulds.
As the metal enters the mould, holes in the top of the mantle ensure that gases are able to escape, otherwise there would be a risk the bell would be porous and susceptible to cracking.
Porosity can also develop if the mould is damp, or is not at the proper temperature, or the metal when poured is not hot enough. The casting is allowed to cool for up to several days and large bells can take over a week to cool. Small bells, those under , can be removed from the moulds the following day.
Cooling
After the bell and equipment have cooled, the mould, containing the newly cast bell, is raised from the pit by the projecting
trunnion
A trunnion (from Old French "''trognon''", trunk) is a cylindrical protrusion used as a mounting or pivoting point. First associated with cannons, they are an important military development.
Alternatively, a trunnion is a shaft that positions a ...
s of the bell case. The core plate is unclamped and the core broken out. The bell is then carefully extracted from the case. At this stage, any remaining loam adhered to the bell is brushed away and
flash
Flash, flashes, or FLASH may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
Fictional aliases
* Flash (DC Comics character), several DC Comics superheroes with super speed:
** Flash (Barry Allen)
** Flash (Jay Garrick)
** Wally West, the first Kid F ...
(excess metal), which may have formed below the bell's rim—owing to mould contraction in the presence of hot metal—is trimmed off. This completes the casting process.
Tuning
Bells are cast with defined profiles which were perfected in the early 20th century to ensure they can be
harmonically tuned by the removal of small amounts of metal to adjust their harmonics. For a carillion or an English ring of full circle bells, the strike note of each bell must accord with the diatonic scale of the others, and to produce that the harmonics of each bell must be tuned to harmonise with its strike note. As a bell's strike note is affected slightly by its harmonics this can be an iterative process. An initial assessment is made to arrive at an average pitch for the scale, as this is dependent on casting tolerances. Because of this compromise large bells are therefore not always tuned to
concert pitch
Concert pitch is the pitch reference to which a group of musical instruments are tuned for a performance. Concert pitch may vary from ensemble to ensemble, and has varied widely over music history. The most common modern tuning standard uses ...
.
Much experimentation and testing was devoted over the centuries to determining the exact shape that would result in the best tone. In the early days of bellfounding, bells were profiled using empirical methods and the inside of the bell or edge of the lip was chipped away to adjust the tuning after being cast. With the invention of modern metalworking machinery, this was more accurately done using a vertical tuning lathe, which could remove metal at any position up the waist of the bell, thus allowing tuning of different harmonics, and the reliable introduction of harmonic tuning into the manufacturing process.
Metal can only be removed during the tuning process; it cannot be added. Therefore, a bell is cast with slightly thicker profile than is needed for harmonic tuning. To tune the bell, it is placed on a vertical tuning lathe and metal removed by a cutting tool as it rotates. The bell tuner must be highly skilled and formerly used tuning forks to establish the tuning; this is now done electronically, but still requires great manual skill in the use of the cutting tool. Only by this means can bells be harmonically tuned.
The bell's strongest
harmonics are tuned to be at
octave intervals
Interval may refer to:
Mathematics and physics
* Interval (mathematics), a range of numbers
** Partially ordered set#Intervals, its generalization from numbers to arbitrary partially ordered sets
* A statistical level of measurement
* Interval e ...
below the nominal note, but other notes also need to be brought into their proper relationship.In general, the smaller the bell the higher the
pitch, with the
frequency
Frequency is the number of occurrences of a repeating event per unit of time. It is also occasionally referred to as ''temporal frequency'' for clarity, and is distinct from ''angular frequency''. Frequency is measured in hertz (Hz) which is eq ...
of a bell's note varying with the square of its thickness and inversely with its diameter. The thickness of a church bell at its thickest part (the "sound bow") is usually one thirteenth its diameter.
If the bell is mounted as cast, without any tuning, it is called a "maiden bell". Russian bells are treated in this way and cast for a certain tone.
Fitting the clapper
The preferred material for the bell clapper was
wrought iron
Wrought iron is an iron alloy with a very low carbon content (less than 0.08%) in contrast to that of cast iron (2.1% to 4%). It is a semi-fused mass of iron with fibrous slag inclusions (up to 2% by weight), which give it a wood-like "grain" ...
but because this is no longer obtainable wood or cast iron clappers are now used. The clapper or tongue is manufactured in a similar process as the bell. Special care is given to cast the clapper at the proper weight, as a clapper that is too light will not bring out the true tones of the bell and a heavy clapper might cause the bell to crack.
Holes are drilled into the top of the bell, and the clapper is attached to the inside of the bell either by a metal link or a leather strap. Finally the bell is installed in the tower.
See also
*
Benjamin Hanks (1755–1824), goldsmith, instrument maker, and first maker of bronze cannons and church bells in America.
*
Leamy Acoustic Art
References
Literature cited
*
*
*
*
*
External links
*
Video explaining bell TuningVideos of the 23 tonne London Olympic bell being cast, tuned and installed.
{{Authority control
Metalworking occupations
Campanology
Casting (manufacturing)