The Savannah morning news., 1902-11-08
cow BELLS.
Interesting Processes by Which
They Are Made, Tempered and


They Are Made, Tempered and
FURNISHED.
From the st. Louis Globe Democrat.
On a billy little side street in the
tree-embowered town of Collinsville is
hidden a queer factory where are made
the COW bells that go jinglng musical
ly up hill and down dale over such
widely diversing paths.
A neat little business office opens
into the wide-spreading, shadowy place
wherein is housed the machinery of
the plant as well as it's big hot fur
mace. The metal for the bells is re-
ceived in the shape of large fiat sheets
of thin iron direct from the rolling
mills. These sheets are passed under
heavy steam-run cutter, which trims
out the properly shaped pieces, resem-
bling patterns for a double bladed ak
These pieces are taken in hand by a
workman who fastens into the center
ring for the clapper and spans it
with a little iron strap for a handle,
and then the piece is bent down into
the familiar bell shape and it's sides
riveted together on the anvil.
Although the bell has grown into
recognizable shape, it lacks tone and
color, and these are gained by a coat
ing of brass and a bath in fiery fur
mace. At this stage the bells, which
run in six or eight sizes from the lit
tie three-inch sheep bells to the seven
inch cow bells, are placed one within
another until a, nest of four or five is
formed. The spaces between are filed
with crushed charcoal and brass filings.
Two nests are then placed together
within plumbago crucible resembling
an unglazed earthenware jar, whose
lid of the same material is held in place
by plastering of wet clay, and the
whole is ready for the furnace.
The furnace is a great square of fire
brick and iron, with a large frebox in
which roars d furious soft coal ire.
There is a side door opening into the
firebox behind the fire, and it is in this
chamber, filled with shimmering, rosy
heat that the crucibles are placed,
some two dozen at a time. Within
these heat-resisting crucibles a mys-
ferrous process goes on, for the brass
changes both form and place and
spends itself in a thin coat over the
imprisoned bells.
After about forty-five minutes the
furnace door is again apened and
within are seen the red-hot crucibles,
which are lifted out on a long-handled
shovel and laid in a row on the ground
out in the open air. When cooled to a
dull, dark red, the lids are pried off
by a man with a sharp iron pick and
hammer, and with long handled pinch
ers he throws the bells into the tubs
of water to cool and temper them
When cold they are ready for FURNISH
ing, which office they are made to per-
form for each other by inclosing lot
of them in a big wooden cylinder,
which is revolved by steam, and the
friction of the bells against each other
brightens them. Sometimes a lot of
leather scraps are thrown in, which
assist in the polishing. AS the tum-
bling bells make deafening noise, the
cylinder is shut away in tiny room
by itself
The bell tongues are made in foun-
dries, and come in all sizes, and are
composed of a wire tipped at one end
by an iron ball, while the other is
bent into hook and clinched through
the clapper ring, and 10! the bell is
finished.
Many years ago the first bells of the
place were cut and made by hand and
bronzed two at a time in little clay
wrapped iron receptacle buried in a
forge fire kept aglow by hand worked
bellows, the process taking three
hours.
From 10000 to $4,000 bells are made
yearly in this little factory, and
through the wholesale hardware
houses are shipped to all parts of this
country and to places beyond the sea.
1t would be interesting to follow the
bells from the factory in that quiet
little street to their final destinations
so widely separated
To the great cattle ranches of the
West were sent recently a lot of the
bells toned in sets of an octave. each,
and the bell bearers among the shift
OfI, to
musical chime. 1t was no easy task
to tune the different bells, for the notes
could not be represented by a mere
difference in size, but had to be evoked
by patient shaping with a. hammer, the
fiaring of the mouth of the bell raising
the key of it's voice. The ranchmen
claim that bells echoing in tunes across
the silent plains deter the wolves from
attacking the herds