Extracts.

Lyttelton Times, Volume X, Issue 617, 6 October 1858, Page 2

Extracts.

THE NEW BIG BEN (Prom the 'Times.')

A little while ago, and the old Big Ben, of Westminster noise and notoriety, was brought to the hammer and broken up and done for. Comparatively a short period has elapsed since, that affecting1 ceremonial was gone through in Palace-yard; yet already, in a little back street in White--chapel, in the dingy foundry of Messrs. Mears, where nearly all the bells in England have been made, the new Big Ben has been cast, has been hung, and has been rung-—tlu} latter rather to the astonishment and alarm of the. whole vicinity, even to the " oldest inhabitant." About this new bell there is no mistake. It is simply

perfect as a casting in shape and in tone the latter being E,. which the late Ben yZ intended to produce, but which good inten tion was entirely frustrated by an undue thickness of metal in the waist of the monster. To Old Ben it is not necessary to allude further than this, and to say that his successor is formed of the same metal. Unlike his predecessor the present occupant of the loftiest belfry in London is tastefully ornamented with gothic figures and tracery in low relief. On one side of his waist is the portcullis of Westminster on the other the arms of England, sharp and clear, as if chased by the hand. Round the outer lip is cast in gothic letters:—

" This bell weighing tons——cwt qr r s- M»., was cast by George Mears, of Whitechapel, for the clock of the House of Parliament, under the direction of Edmund Beckett Denlson, Q.C., in the 21st year of the ES-SfSSSSXm?- ttf andMhe year of our

The exact weight of the bell is thus left blank, as up to the present it has not been weighed, but it is estimated as being as nearly, as possible 14 tons, or about two tons lighter than the old bell. But thouo-i there is less metal its dimensions are the same as those of its predecessor, though its form is slightly different. The head°is more rounded, and the wai?t more sloped in. . The sound-bow, or place on which the clapper strikes, is also, we believe, half an inch less in thickness than that of the old bell. The upper parts of the New Ben are as sound as those at the very bottom. There are no holes, no symptoms of nnsoundness or cracks, and no refuse of the furnace on the collar to tell that the metal was too rigidly economized. Everything is exactly as it was wished, and Mr. Denison has expressed himself satisfied that both in tone and manufacture it is excellent.

Our readers will of course recollect how the unexpected thickness of metal in one part of the old bell caused its note to alter from what it was intended—E, to E natural. With the present monster no accident of this kind has occurred, and its note is exactly as it was intended it should be —namely, E. It is at present suspended between shear legs, still in Mr. Mear's foundry, and the clapper with which it is struck is only a temporary affair of some 150 fo. or 1601b. But slight as is this mass when compared with its proper clapper, which is being manufactured at Broadvvell, it is quite sufficient to make young- Ben speak in tones that can be heard half over London. The soundspreads out with a solemn boom, rich, deep, and awfully sonorous, seeming to swell and grow upon the air with a ring that vibrates every bone and fibre in the listener's body, and that hangs about the bell for half-an-hdur after it is struck. So rich and full of sound is it that a slight stroke even with a common switch makes it ring with a tolerable tone, and the vibration after being struck with the clapper gradually settles down like the sound of a trumpet slowly dying away. The public have all heard, more or less, about the liberal use of silver in bellmetal, ami how some apocryphal bells are supposed to contain at least half their weight of this precious alloy—a myth in which many people persist in believing even down to the present day. But, alas for the faith in these- rumours, and for those novelists' whose heroines always " summon their attendants with a delicately chased silver bell/ it must be told that silver is not a sonorous metal, and that from experiments made with standard silver bells, it has been shown, beyond dispute, that they have very little sound, and that that little, too, is of the harshest and most unmusical kind. Their tone, in short, resembles nothing" so much as that tinpot clatter which a cracked sheep bell gives forth, and which, however, pleasing it may be as an accessory to a picturesque view, is decidedly most objectionable in a drawing-room!. With a view, however, of definitely testing the effect of a slight admixture of silver upon the tone of a bell, Messrs. Mears made four very small ones of the same metal as Ben. In one of these Is. 6d. worth of silver was put, m another Is. worth, in the third,, sixpenny worth, and in the fourth none. The mischievous effects of even this slight quantity of silver were here clearly shown, for that which had the least amount in it was the least injured in tone, and that which had none was the best sounding bell of all. It was fortunate that this was the actual result, for had it been precisely the reverse, we doubt if ever the United Commons of Great Britain and Ireland in Parliament assembled, would have listened for a moment to a proposition for engulfing sucu

an amount- ofour-' silver icurrencyi as. would have been required to produce an- appreciable effect on the solemn note of the bell of Westminstei\'; Even/supposing that so ' small a quantity as one shilling's Worth, was nielted with, each P !mnc!-°f. bell-metal, yet'the'cost of no more than this slight admixture/would amount to no-less than £1,600 sterling. The various processes connected with bell-founding are most peculiar,:though, at the same time, very little known. As it is not probable that we shall again have such an opportunity of describing the different stages of manufacture on.sp gigantic a scale, we shall shortly describe the processes * which have brought Ben to his present state of perfection, merely premising that the, same routine is, followed with every bell above two cwt. In the .first place, then, poor old ; Ben having been broken up into small pieces, and carted ; .away into those obscure foundries behind the Whitechapel-road, the operation was commenced by digging a larg« circular pit in the centre,of the foundry, -15 feet deep, by 15 broad. On the ground in the centre of this, about five months ago, the "core," as it is termed, was commenced. Thiscoi-e is the centre or niiddle portion of the mould on: which, .the bell is cast^and iri the present case, having to resist considerable pressure, it was made, of proportionate solidity and strength; l;3Q0 fire-bricksjistayed across the. inside with bars of-iron, went to the construction of Ben's, core, and this was afterwards coated over thickly with cement, and the outside smoothed down with the most delicate finish. Having been properly dried (an operation which took a considerable time), the" thickness" in cement w^as y next: formed on the outside of the core. ; -This thickness is nothing less than a perfect facsimile of the intended bell, which is formed by hand-gauges fixed on the top of the core, revolving, and reducing it everywhere to the prescribed equality. On this thickness the ornamental moulding, date, and inscription of the bell, &c.,,were,/moulded when dry. Over this comes the. "pope," or puter case,of clay, between whiohand the core,, when the thickness is;removed, the bell is cast.., The cope, therefore requires to be built over the other with the most perfect nicety, and in the case of Ben to be constructed also of immense strength,: in order to resist the weight of the fluid metal when the casting is made. Ben's cope weighed seven toils, and was made upon a framework of massive iron bars and,rings, and over this the clay,- largely mixed.'.with horsehair to bind it mure firmly, was. laid to a thickness of'"l 2 ■inches. Thus,; then, the core, thickness, and cope having all been built over one another, and baked to the hardness'6f metal, the " thickness!' is rernove'd from between the' cope and the core, the space it'leavesforming the mould "iir which the ; bell is to be cast. 'The whole of the pit to the ■ level qf the* top of tlie^ cope is then filledin.with \ earth, which is ramnied down to ah exceeding ■ hardness, so as to support, the .cope" 'on' every ', side, and when this is done, all is ready .for the casting. . , , ; These different operations were not completed j for Be'ii until four months after their commence,ment, owings during the winter to the alternations of "frtist "and thaw, which delayed the dry-> ing of the loam to a considerable extent. All, was, however, in \;eadiness just a month since, and on the evening* previous to casting about; -18: tons of :metal were put into : the furnaces., rOn .the following night, at half ,past seven; ■ o'clock, they were opened, and; the mould filled, in exactly twenty-one -The metaL consists^ as we said, of the material of. the for-; mer bell, with the addition of two tons to sup-, ply the waste in melting. The new rhetal is, of course, like the old,' and composed in the! proportion of 22 of copper to 7 of tin. On this occasion, probably for the first time iv bell founding, hot air was blown into the; mould during the whole day of casting. This practice ■ has been for some time adopted in large cast-, ings of brass or gun-metal, and it was made one of. the terms of the contract with Mr, Mears. • The object of it is to prevent the sud-r den cooling of the; surface of the metal, and the porosity to which large castings in cold moulds are liable from that cause. ..The result of. all these labours and. precautions is, as we have «seen s a perfect Big :; Ban at last, and one that is a credit to our manufacturing, skill. - Some few da 3's will probably-elapse' before it is removed from Messrs.'Mears's foundery, but.when once it has-been properly tested, it will be'hoisted to its final resting place in thetop of tliecloclitower without further delay. Unfortunately, the shaft" in the clock-tower^—the only avenue ' by which it can now reach the summit—is not sufficiently wide to, admit of its passing up in its proper position. It must, therefore, be hauled up on .its side, .and, ;; afterwards turned over on its mouth, when it reaches the summit of the tower, both of which operations consider-- ■■■ ably enhance the difficulty of the whole undertaking. Quce at the top, however, its suspension in its iron collar-will be comparatively easy. A. great deal of nonsense has appeared 'jn some of our; .contemporaries as to Big Ben forming one of a chimo which is to be rung in merry peals on all, festive occasions. The' absurdity ; of supposing that any human being ..could ring this monstrous bell as one would the six-cwt. tenor of <a village spire need scarcely be' ipointed out, especially, when we say that even; any attempt to ring it with its quarters as! a peal,!-would infallibly bring the tower down be-: 'fore' a single change had'sounded!• The bell will merely strike the hours, rising only occasionally/and at long intervals, jye trust, to the solemn dignity of announcing the griefs of our . natiou—of tolling for-'tho grieateafc of our' dead, ' , ; .