Knoxville journal. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1874-1986, 1875-07-15
An Enormous Bell.

The famous Emperor bell, the casting Of
which has been completed, ranks fifth in
size among the great bells Of the world.
The largest are the two Moscow bells,
weighing respectively 1913 tons and sixty
three tons: but neither Of them are now
in use as the first was broken in 1877 and
the latter fell in 1855. The great bell Of
Pekin is said TO weigh fifty-three tons, and
the Novogorod bell thirty-one tons. The
Emperor be-! weighs over twenty-five tons
In describing this tintinnabulic monster a
writer in the London Builder says:
This famous new bell, which is to be
hung in the southern tower of Cologne
Cathedral, now rapidly reaching compile
ton, after the impulse given at the close Of
the Franco-German war, is cast from
French guns captured during that cam
paign, presented by the German Emperor
To the committee charged with the work of
completing that cathedral.
The bell has been cast at the machine
works Ito which is attached bellfOundry)
of Herr Andreas Hamm, al Frankenthal,
An industrial town of the Palatinate and
IL was only after two failures and after un.
| told anxiety and care that he was able To
produce the work which will hand down
| his name to posterity. 1t should be men.
| toned here that the first casting took
| place on Aug. 10, 1873; the second on
| Nov. IL of the same year; the third and
| successful cast was made on Oct. 3, 1874
| Before describing his handiwork let us
have look at its cradle. On entering the
machine works we notice on the right the
castingpit, nearly ten feet deep, twenty
| feet long, and sixteen and half feet broad
with the temporary bclfry and strong
| framework, to which the gin for raising
! the bell from the pit is secured. On the
| left Is the furnace, separated from the
casting-h house by wall. In the latter is
an opening, permitting the running in OF
| the molten bell-mctal into the mold The
usual mode of casting bells had 10 be some
what departed from, probably on accoun,
of the huge size Of the new bell and we
subioin the following account of the diff.
cult process;
In the pit hollow core of brickwoFk
was first erected. This received a coating
| of loan, and the whole was then smoothed
by means Of careful gauging until the ex-
terror of the core presented the same di-
mansions and form AS the intended bell
| On this core the so-calied false bcll'i or
model bell" was formed, also of loan
Ii had 10 be the exact counterpart of the
| real one; ii received the same decorations
and the same inscriptions, made partly OF
tallow and partly OF WAX. Another thin
coating was then applied to serve as a sep.
arator between the false bell and the
"shell'' of the bell. The latter rested on
| an iron ring, provided with eyes, and was
bound round besides with strong iron
hoops, to make II more secure. In the
hollow core fire was now lighted
| through an opening left at the top, and core,
! false bell and shell were thoroughly dried
and burnt hard; while at the same time
the decorations and inscriptions of the
false bell, formed Of wax and tallow,
melted. The shell was then lifted by
means of chains, the false bell broken up
and the shell lowered again in its place
and the whole covered up. A tackle OF
| eight sets of pulleys, which, in its turn,
had 10 be raised by another set Of tackle,
was put up for lifting the new bell at the
| proper time out of the pit The iron
beam 10 which il was suspended had a
| diameter of eight inches. The furnace,
with two CRATES at its working side each
OF an area of about thirty-three square
| feet, consumed at each cast twenty tons Of
coal. The metal was put in through an
opening al the back of the furnace on 10
the hearth, of an area OF over .hirty.six
square feet AZ the first cast each Of the
| twenty cannon used for the bell was
pushed in resting on truck. They
weighed together about $1,000 pounds
| German; TO this was added 5000 weigh.
OF tin. AT the first cast the metal