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<DIV><SPAN class=618225711-31082006><FONT face="Baskerville Old Face"
color=#0000ff>A good yarn and the identities were so cleverly
disguised!</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=618225711-31082006><FONT face="Baskerville Old Face"
color=#0000ff></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=618225711-31082006><FONT face="Baskerville Old Face"
color=#0000ff>The incident occurred on 22nd October 1975 and the bells involved
were one of the many ill fated Liberty bells that we were casting for WBF and
the replacement 3rd for Eastry in Kent.</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=618225711-31082006><FONT face="Baskerville Old Face"
color=#0000ff></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=618225711-31082006><FONT face="Baskerville Old Face"
color=#0000ff>The story varies a bit in that the latter bell was tuned quite a
bit before the notes suddenly did a nose dive, presumably as the bell gave way
and a replacement had to be made. The liberty bell was scrapped without being
touched further.</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=618225711-31082006><FONT face="Baskerville Old Face"
color=#0000ff></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=618225711-31082006><FONT face="Baskerville Old Face"
color=#0000ff>The culprit must have had a large locker. Some sources suggest
speculum metal should have a minimum of 33% tin, which meant that he would have
been secreting about 400lbs of tin ingot. I guess the percentage wasn't that
high, but high enough to render the bell useless - I wonder what would have
happened if the bell had been successfully tuned to the right notes and
hung.....</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=618225711-31082006><FONT face="Baskerville Old Face"
color=#0000ff></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=618225711-31082006><FONT face="Baskerville Old Face"
color=#0000ff>Andrew</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=618225711-31082006></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV class=OutlookMessageHeader lang=en-us dir=ltr align=left><FONT face=Tahoma
size=2>-----Original Message-----<BR><B>From:</B> bellhistorians@yahoogroups.com
[mailto:bellhistorians@yahoogroups.com] <B>On Behalf Of </B>Bill
Hibbert<BR><B>Sent:</B> 30 August 2006 17:31<BR><B>To:</B>
bellhistorians@yahoogroups.com<BR><B>Subject:</B> [Bell Historians] Bellfounding
story<BR><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV id=ygrp-text>
<P>I finally met Robert Perrin last week after corresponding for years. <BR>I
won't bore you all with discussions of bell acoustics but I will <BR>pass on the
following story he told me . . .<BR><BR>A numbr of years ago, an employee of
some bellfoundry in the Midlands <BR>hatched a plot with accomplices to steal
the foundry's stock of tin. <BR>The theft was successful, but the employee chose
to take his share of <BR>the proceeds not in cash but in tin, which he hid in
his locker in <BR>the foundry. When the police arrived at the foundry to
investigate <BR>the theft, the employee lost his nerve and threw the tin into
the <BR>furnace just as a bell was about to be cast.<BR><BR>There is another
alloy of copper and tin as well as bell metal, <BR>called speculum, with a much
higher propertion of tin. Speculum is <BR>white and shiny and used to be used to
make the mirrors of <BR>telescopes. The foundry staff were amazed when they took
the bell <BR>that had just been cast out of the mould, to find that it was
white. <BR>When upended and struck, it made no musical note, and after a few
<BR>hammer blows, collapsed into a pile of fragments 'like glass breaking <BR>in
a Tom and Jerry cartoon'.<BR><BR>The theiving employee was charged, did time,
and is said to have <BR>later run his own business casting handbells somewhere
in south <BR>Derbyshire.<BR><BR>Bill H<BR><BR></P></DIV><!--End group email --></BODY></HTML>