BELLS AND CARILLONS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21019, 7 May 1930, Page 3

BELLS AND CARILLONS.

HOW THEY ARE MADE AND RUNG. LECTURE BY MR CYRIL F, '• . JOHNSTpN. • (Prom Our Own Correspondent.) ' , _ LONDON, February 27. At Lady Newnes’s house, Prince’s Gate yesterday, Mr Cyril F. Johnston {of Messrs Gillett and Johnston, makers of the Wellington carillon) gave an interesting lecture on “ Bell Pounding and Bell Ringing.” The proceeds from the sale of tickets went to the funds of the Federation of Working Girls’ Clubs. Mr Johnston used several fairly heavy bells to illustrate tuning,- and a two-octave drawing room carillon for playing accompanied selections. His lecture was illustrated by 100 lantern slides. Bell founding began with the monks, said Mr Johnston, but later it got into the, hands of itinerant bell founders, who cast the bells in the churchyard on in the church itself. The bells were originally hung from an oak frame, and some of these heavy bells were still to be seen in ancient churches of England. modern founder had to. compromise with some of the old customs and modern -engineering, but this could be done without injury to the quality of the bells. The lecturer described lmw» the be IN wore made. The first thing was a draw>ng, both of the outside of the, bell and' the inside. From this drawing a strigil board was made, which, when revolved, scraped out the shape of the outer bell m a wet mould of loam. The mould |Vthe inner shape of the bell was built in with bricks which were coated with w« loam. Here, again, a strigil board wm used to get the shape. The drying 01 the moulds might take 10 days to thrweeks, according to the size of the boll. When dry a second coat of finer loan was put on the moulds, and’ at this stag, the imprints and inscriptions were mach in reverse. After a second drying tin outer mould was placed over the top o; the inner mould, arid thus the.unoccu pied space inside was the shape of Tin required boll. On casting day the metal was poured in from the top. It was u mistake to think that the best bells hail silver or precious metals in them. The only silver was that from coins of tlie realm which were thrown into the molten metal for sentimental reasons. MODERN TUNING. A week later the bells were taken from their moulds and trimmed and sand , blasted. Then came the tuning.-. The old system was-to tune each hell indiv.idu nliy, so that the notes struck at three ■■'liferent points formed a chord. A more elaborate system of tuning was intro duced on the Continent a good main years ago, but it was not taken up in Engv.ir.d until Canon Simpson wrote let tors to the papers and said a good many rude things about mlr bells. Now, five nnt'-s < n • ir.'i I. I) ~-e brought into’har mony, and each bell is in tune with the others of the peal. The lecturer showed some interesting pictures of bells in process of beiim rung. Some are rung with ropes. Some are swung by men treading on a platform, bb the largo bell in the Notre Dame at Fans. In Spain bell ringers have a little habit of swinging' on the ropes through the open windows of the towers to the peril of their lives and the lives of the people in the streets below. Mr Johnston went on to speak of carillons. Ho showed a picture of the vast crowd on the town moor listenin'Wellington carillon. “It has had- two temporary' towers,” lie said, ‘ the one at Newcastle and th • other in Hyde Park. It is waiting shipment to New Zealand, but whether the architect has been chosen yet to build the tower we do not quite knb.w.” Pictures of famous bells were shownthe broken Kremlin boll, the largest in the world, the 120-ton Moscow bell, tin 80-ton bell in Burma, and the GO-ton bell m Pekin. The St, Margaret’s, Westminster, .band of bell rings muc an illustration of change ringing on ■ hand bells, and Mr Johnston played on the drawing-room carillon, accompanied on the piano.