THE BIRTH OF THE BELLS

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 115, 13 February 1928, Page 6

THE BIRTH OF THE BELLS

CASTING THE CARILLON FOR WELLINGTON A CLOSE-UP VIEW OF THE PROCEDURE WILL THE TOWER BE READY? (By Nellie M. Scanlan.) Special to “The Dominion.” London, December 21, 1927. It was dusk and snowing gently, just a few days before Christinas, when 1 received a telegram from .Messrs. Gillett and Johnston, the bell founders at Croydon: “Casting first batch of Wellington bells to-morrow. Can you come down?” 1 went. England was in the grip of the severest winter for over a decade. It had been freezing continuously day and night tot over six days—freezing and snowing —and it promised an old-time Dickens Christmas. The sun was sinking, a dull red ball behind the murky clouds, as the train slid into Croydon, where the finest bells in the world to-day are manufactured. Wellington’s sturdy fight to have a memorial carillon ringing out across the harbour and the hills was this day crowned wit It triumph. As the iiviten bett-metal in the great cauldron was swung high to be poured into the prepared moulds, .Mr. Cyril Johnston himself directed the work. “Wouldn’t you like to~put sixpence into the mould, to be melted into the first Wellington bell?” he asked. I scrambled among coppers and halfcrowns. 1 hadn’t got a sixpence, but I soou borrowed one, and tossed it info the mould, where the stream of glowing metal, like a river of flame, swept it along in its tide. This was the first bell of the Wellington Memorial Carillon, Bell No. 38, und it bears the inscription : “SARI BAIR.” In Memory of Francis Davison, and Matthew Holmes, Given by their Father-in-law, Herbert P. Rawson. The big foundry stood , back from Whitehorse Road, and like any otherfoundry, it was full of lathes and machinery. From the swiftly descending dusk and icy air we had stepped into the gloom, where charcoal braziers glowed among the great bells, giving out a warmth sufficient io enable the men to work upon the metal. Bells of every size and at every stage were spread about. “Wo had already cast a number of bells for the Wellington Carillon before we received advice <1 at each was to bear an inscription,” said Mr. Johnston. “So tliqso bells are going to fill an order from. America, where no inscription is required.” The six Wellington bells ston'd in a row, and a little odd bell for' another destination was beside them. These first six bells. Lorn at a white mid-winter Christmastido in England, will one day neal out on a riid-suminer Christmas in New Zealand, carried on the wings of a Wellington breeze. And their voice will recall io memory the names of our gallant dead. Silently, almost reverently, we watched at the birth of the bells.

When the mixture of copper and tin. which is boated by a coke oven at the side, is sufficiently 1 ot fflio degrees run into thousands), the metal ’s released, and runs into a cauldron, sending a shower of sparks, like fireworks, all around. So exacting is the work, and so groat the need of care. that, a largo notice enjoins the visitor to silence. As thci flaming liquid was poured info the mould one could hear, in fanev. those bells ring out in the land we call TTonio and their tones echo among the hills. Besides these, which were ready for casting, was one of the larger bells, in the early stages of manufacture. At Croydon they have again discovered the almost lost art of making bells. There is something in the metal, the blend of copper and tin, but much of the accuracy of tone 'depends upon tbe shape and contour of the bell. But. finqllv. the tuning to an exact pitch is achieved by filing the inside of the finished bell. Three hundred years ago Continental bellmakers achieved almost perfect tone. In fact, a bell from Holland, over three hundred years old. was in the foundry for the purpose of being matched witli four other bells, and the expert said that the old bell was almost perfect in pitch. It was made by the last of the old founders of great repute, and their secret had apparently died with them. The pattern of the large bell had been made and the ‘‘core” of the bell was being built up of bricks and cement, with a coating of special .sand outside. When the core is finished, to fit the pattern, it is baked, and then a final smooth coating is applied, and it is baked again. Over this core is fitted a metal mould, with the inscription and decorations and this is braced with an outer metal cover. The space between the core and the metal mould with the inscription is where the molten bell-raetal is poured. It was after sunset when the bells Were cast./ At noon next day the outer cover would be gradually removed, gradually for fear the sudden fierce cold might crack the bell. In less than twenty hours the metal would be set, though not cold. The other five bells cast for Wellington were:—

No. 26: “Mahara,” in memory of Frederick Francis Marshall and Albert Gerard Marshall. No. 28: “Le Basse,” in memory of William Trenton Doughty.

No. 31: The New Zealand Permanent Forces bell.

No. 32: “Vailima," the sth Wellington Regiment bell. No. 33: "Übique,” the "D" Battery bell. “Is the campanile nearly finished?" Mr. Johnston asked me, and reluctantly I had to tell him that it was not yet begun; It would sftem that Wellington will soon have a shipment of bells—49 of them—sitting along the wharf looking for a home, if something is not done soon about tho tower. They were very excited at the foundry, as the order to cast the new carillon for Louvain has just been received. It was certainly a feather in England’s cap to have Belgium coming to Croydon for bells, passing over the head of the old Continental makers. The superiority of English bells is now universally acknowledged, and America conies to Croydon for her carillons, also. “It would take any Continental firm five years to make the Louvain bells,” said ’ Mr. Johnston, “but wo can now double our output at a day’s notice.” I may say that the Wellington Carillon wiil be sot aside, and the last of tho great Rockefeller bells for New York delayed also, until the urgent work for Louvain is completed, as the whole carillon is required before July 1 next. The Rockefeller Carillon was first sot in a Park Avenue Church. New York, where the bolls were on a level with the housetops and nearly maddened the neighbourhood. Dr. Forsdick, New York’s most noted preacher, had been asked to transfer to the church with tho carillon, but as he considered a congregation of 750 waste of time, at his suggestion a Rockefeller Baptist Church, to accommodate 2500. is now being built on Riverside Drive. It will have a tower 450 feet high, and 10 feet wide, to accommodate the carillon. The present carillon of 53 bells at Park Avenue is w lie transferred to the new church wncn it is completed, and more bells, large and small, are being made to bring the total up to 103. Many of these bells nre now ready, and* the great 20-ton bell, the largest ever cast in England, was being “tun ed.” Held tipside down in a large frame, men were seated inside the lip, filing

away slender shavings of metal. They were tuning the bell. This bell could not be struck, but with a mallet Mr. Johnston struck several of the larger ones —11 tons, 9} tons, 7 tons, and their great tones boomed and reverberated Some of the bells were marked inside with cryptic signs in chalk. These are the instructions where and how much to file away for tuning. This is tho great art, and - Mr. Johnston attends personally to the tuning of each bell.

“Much depends on the metal, but most on the design, and the final accuracy of tone is achieved by what ve call tuning. How? That is our secret,” he said, smiling. “But nothing Is left to chance; there is no guesswork. Sometimes when we are searching for the solution of one problem we chance upon a new discovery." Miss Johnston, sister of the bell founder, is a carilloneur, and has been studying in Belgium. Special training is necessary, so they told me, but an organist usually finds it much simpler to learn, as there is some resemblance between the method of playing both instruments.

“It would be well if the Wellington carilloneur could come to England and have some lessons before the bells are shipped out,” suggested Mr. Johnston. A clavier can be obtained for practising, where tiny hammers hit metal bars, tuned like the bells, and so the outside world is spared the first crude attempts, and skill may he obtained and new music learned. A baby carillon is installed at the foundry, mid while we had tea Miss Johnston played a Christmas hymn, which she is to broadcast this week. But the little bells gave out a shrill treble unlike the glorious notes of the great, bells. She wore thick fingerstalls on her little fingers, for the pegs which are the keys are struck with closed fist, and the little finger strikes the wood. One phase of carillons which is specially interesting this firm is the collection and adaptation of music for the bells. There are numbers of musicians composing and arranging special music, but it is not all satisfactory. Some has too many notes, some not enough. The development of carillon music is really in its infancy. But with the recent return to favour of the bells, America, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Continental cities installing carillons, a sudden impetus has been eiven to thia form of music.