COLOGNE’S NEW BELL.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 30 January 1925, Page 2

COLOGNE’S NEW BELL.

ITS TRIUMPH AND TRAGfiDY. Recently the Cardinal Bishop of Cologne 'baptised and consecrated a huge bell, tjlie cost of which lias been, met jby State grant, municipal levy, and private subscription, to replace the “Kaiserglocke,”' which was mainly cast from Erenoh cannon captured in 1870, and during the war was converted into shells, to be used against the French. In height 10ft' 9i.ii, and 10ft 6in in: breadth, it weighs just under twenty-five tons, thus ranking in point of size about fifth in Europe. It is for its musical qualities, however, that the new bell will become famous, for tests have proved it to be almost perfect. An -expert declares that, the bell is “unique, a masterpiece of the bell-founding art which it would he difficult to equal throughout the world.” The tragedy of the bell lies in the fact that Heinrich. Ulrich, its maker, only lived to know that it was tested, and found true, and then he died before fulfilling his chief desire—to see his masterpieee in the cathedral spire, and to hear it ring.