Everything You Need To Know About Bells

Bells have been used for hundreds of years as an instrument of warning, to gain attention or as a call to prayer.

A bell is a percussion instrument known as an idiophone, an instrument which creates sound by way of vibration.

Bells can be made from many types of materials, but are genrally made from forged metal, usually bronze.

Bells can be used in three ways;

1)       By way of a clapper that is housed within the body of the bell that hits the inside to create sound which has been manually or mechanically pulled from below.

2)       By way of striking the outside of the bell either by hand or mechanically.

3)       By way of suspending the bell from a yoke and letting the bell be pushed to and fro by hand or mechanically or by letting the wind blow it.

BELL MUSEUMS 

There are three famous bell museums found around the world, they are: 

The Whitechapel Bell Foundry Museum, Whitechapel, London, UK.

Ancient Bell Museum, Dazhong Temple, Haidan, China.

The Bell Museum, Gescher, Germany. 

BELL TERMINOLOGY.

Words associated with bells include:

CAMPANOLOGY - The study of bells.

CAMPANOLOGY - The art of bell ringing.

CAMPANILE - A free standing bell tower.

CARILLON - A set of many bells worked mechanically to create a musical peal. 

 PARTS OF A BELL.

There are ten constituent parts to a bell, they are: 

1) YOKE

2) CROWN

3) HEAD

4) SHOULDER

5) WAIST

6) SOUND RING

7) LIP

8) MOUTH

9) CLAPPER

10) BEAD LINE 

SOUNDS OF A BELL.

There are three types of sound attributed to a bell, they are: 

A CHIME - A set of bells tuned diatronically.

A PEAL - A group of two or more swinging bells.

A TOLL - A single bell rang in slow repetition.

Famous sounding bells of the world are Big Ben in London UK, which is world reknowned for it's hourly chime and The Lutine Bell, also in London UK, housed at the Lloyds of London Insurance company headquarters, which is rang in times of international disaster, when a ship sinks at sea or when a British royal dies.   

THE WORLD’S LARGEST BELLS

Found below are the world’s seven largest bells, they are:

 

THE TSAR BELL.

Is the world's largest bell and is situated in Moscow’s Kremlin Square in Russia.

Manufactured between 1733 and 1735 this huge bell, which was cast from bronze, weighs 216 tons, is twenty  foot high and twenty one feet wide.

The bell does not ring as it broke in 1737 but it still remains a major tourist attraction.

THE MINGUN BELL.

The world's second largest bell is situated in Mingun in Myanmar and was manufactured between 1808 and 1810.

The bell is twelve feet high and has a diameter of sixteen feet.

The bell does not house a clapper so is therefore struck by hand. 

THE WORLD PEACE BELL.

Situated in Millenium Park in Newport, Kentucky, the thirty three ton copper cast bell is the world's largest swinging bell and the world's third largest bell by overall size.

It was manufactured in 1998 in readyness for the new millenium of 2000.

KING SEONGDEOK BELL.

Possibly one of the world's oldest bells the bell located at The National Museum in Gyeongji in South Korea is 3.3 metres high with a diameter of 2.27 metres and weighs 18.9 tons.

The bell was manufactured in 765 during the reign of the king of which it was named after, King Seongdeok.

It used to be rang by way of striking it’s exterior with a mallet but due to it's age this does not happen any longer.

THE PUMMERIN BELL.

Cast in 1951 from metal obtained from captured Turkish canons the bell located at the Stephensdom in Vienna, Austria weighs 130 kgs, is 3.14 metres tall and has a diameter of 2.94 meters, and is the world's third largest swinging bell and the world's fifth largest bell by overall size. 

CARILLON BELL

The world's largest carillon bell is situated at the Stephen Foster Folk and Culture Centre at the State Park in White Springs, Florida, USA,  which contain ninety seven bells. 

  

CHANGE RINGING BELLS

The world's largest group of change ringing bells are situated at Liverpool's Metropolitan Cathedral in England. The system is made up of thirteen bells surrounding a large sixteen ton main bell, known as Big George, and set into concrete (the first bells in the world to be made in such a way) which are housed sixty seven metres above ground.