Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1879-03-28
weighing - Great BELL.

They have had n curious trouble in Russia
recently, in which the United States were in
directly called in to make an arbitration. One
of the great churches Of Moscow -"The Tenn
pie Of the Savior''-had ordered n new bell,
| and wished it to weigh not less than 800
poods-Gi, 500 pounds. The committee in
charge of the matter was present when the
metal was weighed, and everything was
thought TO be all right. The bell bears an in
scription 10 the effect that it weighs 500
poods, and the contractor thought that no
more evidence would he wanted but the old
saying, calling dogs tail leg does not make
it one, is brought to mind in this instance to
say bell weighs 500 pools does not make
it weigh that amount. Whispers went abroad
that some Of the metal had "evaporatod" in
the casting process, aud there WAS so much
talk on the subject that it was determined to
have the bell weighed in the interest of all
concerned.
There were no Russian scales of sufficient
capacity for the purpose, and so the committee
waited upon the Russian agent of Fairbanks
d Go. and asked for a scale that could settle
the dispute. lie accommodated them and the
scale was duly set up. In the presence of
large asscmb!age the bell was weighed to the
disgust of the contractors, if not to their sur
prise the bell was found to contain only IT,
Col pOods OF metal instead of the |. 500 stated
- N4lt iAlnAl Iltl'll. III tbullNtlpTh uttlhItI
the scales must be Incorrect and demanded
that they should be tested. Bars of railway
iron were piled on the scale until a weight
equal to that of the bell was reached, and
each lar Wa, carefully and separately weigh
ed. 'The test proved the correctness of the
Fairbanks scale. But the contractors were
not satisfied. and demanded another trial
This was accord, d, and then another, and an
other. until the scale was tested no less than
eighteen times, and each time its perfect ac-
curacy was shown. The affair caused no lit
tie excitement at Moscow, whore the whole
population is interested in all that pertains to
the church, and a high compliment was paid
to the mechanical skill Of the Americans in
making scales
The bell is thus shown to weigh -, ,54
pounds, instead Of -, 500 pounds, which was
the contract. Its immense size can be best
realized by comparing 1t with other bells in
existence. In round figures. the bell in ques-
tiou weighs 20 tons; the great bell at Vienna
weighs Il TONS and there is another of the
same size at Olmutz. Next is the bell Of Sens,
weighing > tons, and then come the bells of
Erfurt, - tons; Westminster, l3 Madge-
burg, l3 Notre Dame of Paris, - and the
bells Of Cologne, Breslau, Amiens, and
Schaffhausen, / tons each. Bells of 10 tons
are in York Rheims. Vienna, Bruges and
Lyons. and there are bells Of < tons in Mar
settles, Gorlitz, and st. Peters Mt Rome. The
largest bell in America is in the tower of the
cathedral at Montreal. II weighs 247SO
pounds or II tons, which is less than lialf the
weight of the new monster at Moscow. The
famous great bell Of Moscow, which has "a
piece broken out in consequence of a fall, is
said to weigh 22O tons. There is another bell
in Moscow which weighs "a tons, and there
are three others weighing from 1G to ~ tons.
Noygorod, the ancient capital of Russia, has
bell of 81 tons which dates from n very an-
cient period in fact, there has been no large
bell cast in the Muscovite Empire since 1917.
The new production may be fairly considered
one of the remarkable things of the century
and it is rather singular circumstance that
st. Johnsbury, Vermont, should be so closely
identified with Moscow in the early history of
this great bell.