bellfounding

The tradition & historical record

Bellfounding is the casting and tuning of large bronze bells in a foundry for use such as in churches, clock towers and public buildings, either to signify the time or an event, or as a musical carillon or chime. Large bells are made by casting bell metal in moulds designed for their intended musical pitches. Further fine tuning is then performed using a lathe to shave metal from the bell to produce a distinctive bell tone by sounding the correct musical harmonics. Bellfounding in East Asia dates from about 2000 BCE and in Europe from the 4th or 5th century CE. In Britain, archaeological excavations have revealed traces of furnaces, showing that bells were often cast on site in pits in a church or its grounds. Centralised foundries became common when railways allowed easy transportation of bells, leading to the dominance of founders such as the Whitechapel Bell Foundry and John Taylor & Co of Loughborough. Elsewhere in the world a number of foundries are still active, some using traditional methods, and some using the latest foundry techniques. Modern foundries produce harmonically tuned bells using principles established in the late 19th century; some of these are also highly decorative. ¹

Bellfounding has been important throughout the history of ancient civilizations. Eastern bells, known for their tremendous size, were some of the earliest bells, made many centuries before the European Iron Age. The earliest bells were made of pottery, developing later into the casting of metal bells. Archaeological evidence of bellfounding appears in Neolithic China. The earliest metal bells, with one found in the Taosi site, and four in the Erlitou site, are dated to about 2000 BCE. By the 13th century BCE, bells weighing over 150 kilograms (330 lb) were being cast in China. After 1000 CE, iron became the most commonly used metal for bells instead of bronze. The earliest dated iron bell was manufactured in 1079, found in Hubei Province. ¹

Portable bells came to Britain with the spread of Celtic Christianity, and most of those still remaining share an association with Scotland, Wales and Ireland. Bellfounding in Britain was due to Christian monasticism which provided demand and expertise in the early medieval period. Large bells in England are mentioned by Bede as early as 670 CE and by the seventh or eighth century the use of bells had become incorporated into church services. Nearly 200 years later, in the tenth century is the first record of a complete peal of bells. The chronologies of the abbot Ingulf suggest that Thurcytel, the first Abbot of Crowland, presented the Abbey with a bell named Guthlac, after which his successor, Egelric the Elder cast an additional six bells—two large, two of medium size and two small—to complete a peal of seven. The same period saw other ecclesiastics involved in the founding of bells. St. Dunstan, "The Chief of Monks", was an expert worker in metals and known bell caster. Two bells were cast under his direction at Abingdon which also held two others cast by St. Ethelwold. Methods of moulding by lost-wax casting were described by the thirteenth-century Benedictine monk Walter de Odyngton of Evesham Abbey. Bellfounding as a commercial trade followed later. Independent craftsmen set up permanent foundries in towns, such as London, Gloucester, Salisbury, Bury St Edmunds, Norwich, and Colchester. Although these attracted trade from the surrounding countryside, mediaeval founders did not confine themselves to bellmaking as their only source of livelihood. Instead, they often combined it with related trades, such as metal ware, utensil manufacturing and gunmaking. ¹

François Hemony (c. 1609–1667) and his brother Pieter, Pierre, or Peter Hemony (1619–1680) were the greatest carillon bell founders in the history of the Low Countries. They developed the carillon, in collaboration with Jacob van Eyck, into a full-fledged musical instrument by casting the first tuned carillon in 1644. The Hemony Brothers are regarded as the first of the modern western bell-founders who used a scientific approach to casting the optimum shape and tuning bells to harmonic principles. ¹

Bells for the intention of producing functional sound are usually made by casting bell metal, an alloy of bronze. Much experimentation with composition has existed throughout history; the bells of Henry II had nearly twice as much copper as tin, while much earlier Assyrian bronze bells had ten times the amount of copper to tin. The recognized best composition for bell metal though is a ratio of approximately 80 per cent copper and 20 per cent tin. Bell metal of these ratios has been used for more than 3,000 years and is known for its resonance and "attractive sound". Tin and copper are relatively soft metals that will deform on striking. By alloying, a harder and more rigid metal is created but also one with more elasticity than the use of one alone. This allows for a better resonance and causes the bell to "vibrate like a spring when struck", a necessary quality as the clapper may strike at speeds of up to 600 miles per hour. The forces holding the tin and copper together cause vibrations rather than cracks when the bell is struck which creates a resonant tone. This metal combination also results in a tough, long-wearing material that is resistant to oxidation and subject only to an initial surface weathering. Verdigris forms a protective patina on the surface of the bell which coats it against further oxidation. The hardest and strongest bronze contains large amounts of tin and little lead though an alloy with more than 25 per cent tin will have a low melting point and become brittle and susceptible to cracking. This low melting point proved to be the nemesis of Russia's third attempt at casting the Tsar Bell from 1733 to 1735. ¹

Other materials occasionally used for bell casting are brass or iron. Steel was tried during the busy church-building period of mid-nineteenth England, for its economy over bronze, but was found not to be durable and manufacture ceased in the 1870s. They have also been made of glass, but although bells of this type produced a successful tone, this substance being very brittle was unable to withstand the continued use of the clapper. By popular tradition the bell metal contained gold and silver, as component parts of the alloy, as it is recorded that rich and devout people threw coins into the furnace when bells were cast in the churchyard. The practice was believed to improve the tone of the bell. This however is probably erroneous as there are no authentic analyses of bell metal, ancient or modern, which show that gold or silver has ever been used as a component part of the alloy. If used to any great extent, the addition would injure the tone not improve it. Small quantities of other metals found in old bell metal are likely to be impurities in the metals used to form the alloy. Decorative bells can be made of such materials as horn, wood, and clay. ¹

The text above is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Bellfounding”, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 licence. ¹

bellfounding is practice of casting and tuning bells, according to the structured record cited below. This entry was generated automatically from that record and has not yet been reviewed by a person familiar with the tradition. ²

The source record links this tradition to 9 external registers, which can be verified through the citation. ²