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Show Liberty Bell Has Missing Twin i . ' - : 3 '' ' ' ' kf-VW V 'll 1 " "" " V " 1 " ww"iiii)i ii liiiii 1 1 T.ii Wti'.FSV -4 r : . ; ' - ' , ? l ' t I; f -? t 4 , r " ' , ' - ' V ; ' J) 1 . 1 '" ft '? " ' .iM1 iw- I . - "".-JJ The famous old liberty oe;i a . hird caning. The first cracked; the second wouldn't "clang" properly; the last tone was okay but it cracked, too. . ,-51 Long-Lost Sister of Freedom's Free-dom's Gong Cannot Be Located. The Washington bi - centennial year, with its focusing of attention upon the War of the Revolution, brings up again that century - old mystery: Where is the Liberty bell's missing miss-ing twin? Here's the story: The original Liberty bell was cast in London, England, on the order of the superintendents of the ! state house of Pennsylvania. It i cost about $500, exclusive of shipping ship-ping charges, j The First Crack-It Crack-It arrived in Philadelphia early in September, 1752, and was set up on a truss in the yard of the state house for a test. It cracked after the first few strokes. Pass and Stow, a Philadelphia firm, melted down the cracked bell, added more copper to the metal, and recast it. Tt clunked, instead of clanged. The state assembly, meanwhile, had ordered the London firm to cast a duplicate of the original bell. The Third Cast-Pass Cast-Pass and Stow, trying again, melted down the bell a second time and again recast it. This time the result was better. Meanwhile, the second English bell had arrived; the two were tone-tested side by side. There wasn't much difference in the tone, so the American - cast bell was hung in the state house tower on June 1, 1753. Where's the Other Bell? The English bell- was paid for and stored away, for use in case the American bell cracked. But the American bell did service for years, ringing out liberty to a small crowd of 300 people gathered to hear the first reading of the Declaration of Independence. For 80 years its mellow tones rang out to make American ' history. his-tory. The Last Crack-Then, Crack-Then, tolling for the funeral of Chief Justice John Marshall on July 21, 1S35. it cracked. It was abandoned for 11 years but no one seems to have remembered remem-bered its sister-bell, still stored away, somewhere. Some attempts were made to restore re-store the original bell, but they did not succeed. It was not until years, later that it was taken out of' obscurity and made into a national shrine. But the other bell Liberty's twin sister? No one knows. |