Woodville Republican. (Woodville, Miss.) 185?-current, 1889-08-10
SOME LARGE BELLS.


Others OF Conaloornplo Size.
For 900 years after the Bishop Of
Nola first set up his church bell in
Campania no attempts were made at
casting large ones. The bell presented
to the church at Orleans in the eleventh
century weighed but 1900 pounds,
being then the largest in the world.
In the thirteenth century bells OF one,
two and three tons weight were not
rare. In the year 14O0 the Jacqueline
was cast at Paris. the first Of the great
bells, weighing, without the hammer.
$4,000 pounds, or seven and one-half
TONS
The rage for big bells soon became
passion. Seventy-two years later
Paris almost doubled her first effort in
the big bell line by casting one Of
twelve and half tons. The bell Of
Rouen was cast in 1901 1t weighed
S. 364 pounds.
The largest bell In the world at the
present time. or that ever has been, is
the famous King of Bells, now at Mos
COW, Russia. 1t was cast in the year
1882, partly from fragments OF another
great bell called the Giant, which was
broken in the early part of the Seven
teenth century by falling from its sup
port.
The Giant, although not as large as
the one Of which its fragments now
form a part, was, nevertheless, no
pigmy, as the reader my infer upon
being informed that its weight was
not less than 28S,0O0 pounds! It is
said to have taken the combined
strength Of twenty-four men to ring
the Giant in his palmy days. The
King of Bells, like the Giant has had
the misfortune to get broke. Five
years after it was cast, in 1887, during
great fire, heavy timber fell against
the King and broke an immense three
cornered piece from its side. leaving a
gap wide enough to admit two men
walking abreast. 1t is now on the
ground and is said to have been used
about ten years ago as a place of wor-
ship, the gap in the side serving as a
means Of ingress and egress The wri-
ter is aware that this sounds like a
fairy story, but surely there is nothing
about it in the least improbable, mas
much as the monster is 10 feet 3 inches
In height and 60 feet inches around
the margin! The weight of the colos-
sal folly has been variously given, but
never less than 443,0OO poundsl
Think of it, 220 tons. By some gross
carelessness several hundred pounds
of gold were said to have been incor.
porated in its composition. Russia
leads the world in the matter OF great
bells, Moscow also claiming second
place in the worlds championship il
its St. Ivan's which weighs 127, ,S3C
pounds. 1t is 16 inches in thickness
and 40 feet 0 inches in circumference.
China has several large bells, for
according to Father LIE Compte, Pekir
has seven bells, each Of which weighs
10000 pounds.
The great bell at Vienna, Austria
weighs 40,2OO pounds. The Largest
bell in Bohemia, that at Olmutz
weighs exactly 10000 pounds. "Big
Ben, y the pride of London. would lool
like farmhouse dinner bell compared
with the monster of Moscow above
mentioned, weighing but fifteen tons
"Big Ben" is not the largest bell o
London, however, st. Pauls Cathedra
having one which weighs 3S,47t
pounds. The largest bell on that won
derful piece OF architecture, St. Peter
Cathedral at Rome, Weighs but Is. Coz
pounds; hardly two-thirds the size o
the largest bell in America, that a
Montreal, which weighs 2S,560. Johr
w. Wright, in St. Louis Republic.