A VERY WONDERFUL BELL.

Thames Star, Volume XV, Issue 4786, 12 May 1884, Page 2

A VERY WONDERFUL BELL.

A correspondent of the Philadelphia Press, writing from Kroto, in Japan, thus describes a wonderful bell: — "The temples here are few of them painted, and in some cases furnished with gorgeous paraphernalia, are not to be compared with those of Nikko and Shiba. Their distinguishing feature is the great bell, which swings in a monster wooden belfry half way up the hillside bf.ck of the buUdings proper. This bell is a huge bronze cup, with near!y perpendicular sides and a flat crown, which, like all other Japanese bells, is sounded by means of a huge beam, kept in place by ropes, but when occasion requires brought against the rim of the bell with great force. It requires twelve coolies to manipulate this beam. Formerly it was only rung once a year, but now it EBay be. heard, two or three times every month. This bell is one of the greatest wonders in Japan. , Bis 18ft high, 9J inches thick, 9ft in diameter, and weighs 124.C00 catties or nearly 74 tons. It was cast in a monster mould in the year 1623, so. that it is 250 years old now. I forget how much gold entered into its composition, but I have a stroog conviction that it was 15C31hs avoirdupois. As the bell was cast rim up, this is all in the crown, bui time has dimmed any lustre which it may have originally lent to the alloy: Only a miracle of casting could have ended in suob a magnificent tone, I struck the

rm of the bell softly with an open palm, tnd I suppose the vibration could have b?en heard 100 yards.- I was almost im* pelltd for the moment to believe that the affair was hollow after all."