Show BELLS OF THE WORLD A Talk with the Maker of the Peals of Gothams New Cathedral The new bells which have just been hung in St Patricks cathedral are among the finest of their kind in this country but they can hardly be classed with the great bells of the world Clinton H Meneely who put up the cathedral peals gave to a reporter an interesting story about bells and their metallic composition I Russia leads the world in the making of chimes peals and church bells he said In the city of Moscow alone before the French revolution there were several hundred hun-dred large bolls and many splendid ones have been added since The simple fact that Russians regard the sound of bells not only as a holy summons to church but also as a part of the very act of worship accounts ac-counts for their love of bells and their extravagance ex-travagance in procuring them The Russians Rus-sians never tire of ringing their bells and in Moscow the sounds which are produced on the Sabbath without regard to harmony har-mony are absolutely painful The Great Bell of Moscow or Czar Kolokol emperor of bells is by far the largest in the world Its weight is about four hundred and forty thousand pounds and its cost in simple structural material was about three hundred thousand dollars To this were added precious jewels and plate amounting in value 1000000 by the Russian nobles at the time of the casting Tho dimensions of this bell are 21 feet in heightand22 feet in diameter It was cast by order of the Empress Anne in 1734 from the metal of a gigantic predecessor which had been greatly damaged and is ornamented on the side by several figures one of which represents the Empress in flowing robes The bell was originally suspended from beams which being destroyed by fire in 1734 permitted the heated bell to fall to the ground and break since which time it has been dumb The Emperor Nicholas had it raised in 1837 and placed upon a low circular wall in the Kremlin It is now consecrated as a chapel the opening in its side being large enough to admit two men standing abreast Tho bell is carefully guarded and the Russians will not allow a particle of it to be carried away The cathedral of Moscow has another monster bell weighing 120000 pounds It is suspended in the tower of Ivan Veliki and when it is rung three times a year all the other bells are silent The ringing is said to produce a trembling effect throughout through-out the city In the same tower are forty other bells each of which weighs many tons The bells of Russia are fixed immovable im-movable to their beams Their tongues are slung by means of leather bands and are moved by ropes drawn in such a manner man-ner as to cause the blows to fall on the surface at three points directly opposite to each other The bells of China rank next in size to those of Russia In many parts of China can be seen enormous bells lying on the ground their weight having broken down the towers in which they were suspended The bells are excellent workmanship and are adorned with inscriptions inside and outside They are of inferior tone however how-ever and not of a good shape The dullness dull-ness of their sound is increased by the fact that they are struck with wooden mallets instead of iron clappers The great bell of China in Pekin weighs 120000 pounds It is 14 feet high and 12 feet in diameter In Nankin there is a bell now lying on the ground which weighs 50000 pounds grf dj hth 3hr In Japan there are many largo bells They are of the same shape and composition composi-tion as those in China and are by no means musical They are suspended in low I towers near the temples and are sounded by means of wooden beams swinging from the roofs to which straw ropes are attached at-tached The bells of Holland and the neighboring counties come next in point of size They are hung about every church and public building in endless variety and as the people are exceedingly fond of the tones of bells they are never left at rest In some cases a single tower contains not less than fifty bells Here is a partial list of the biggest bells in other countries In Vienna and Olmutz there are two bells weighing each 40000 pounds A bell in Rouen France weighs 30000 pounds The largest bell in Westminster West-minster England weighs 30003 pounds one in Erfurt Germany the same weight one in Notre Dame cathedral Paris 30000 one in St Peters Rome 17000 the Great Tom at Oxford 17000 one at Rennes France 16000 the Jacqueline Paris cast inAD 1400 15000 the Great Tom of Lincoln England 12000 and the bell of St Pauls London 11500 The weight of the bells in the United States fall considerably consid-erably below these figures although intone in-tone they are perhaps better The composition of bells has been about the same in all agesnamely copper and tin the proportions alone being different And the experience of ages has shown that those are the only capable metals of producing pro-ducing a proper ringing alloy Iron and steel and sometimes gold and silver have been put into the composition of bells as an experiment but solely to the injury of the tone Iron and steel have been found the least suitable owing to the harsh disagreeable disagree-able sounds which they alone are capable of producing while silver and gold being in the nature of lead are more incapable of producing the full clear tones requisite in a bell People speak of the silver tinkling of the bell Nowthe fact is that if a bell were made of silver there would be very little tinkling The tons of a bll is tho result of its vibrations When struck a tell changes shape and these changes constitute the vibrations At ono moment a bell is an oval with its longest diameter at exactly i right angles to the position of its longest I diameter at tho preceding instant The number vibrations Ina bell in a given I time varies directly as the square of thickness thick-ness and inversely as the bells diameter i or as the cube root of its weight The number of changes which can be played I upon a chime of bells is wonderfuL Twelve bells will allow no less than 479001600 < cKanges hoer Now York Commtrchd Atlccr I |