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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>The replacement 3rd at Eastry is not one
of Loughborough's glories either! </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>DLC</FONT></DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=andrew_higson@79J5J2xR9EKq8f4JgJbg1QvjDkN1KI-JNugeyeYhf1zNRGTi9_S2WvUvqpW1BmJYx2BLCRNt1unWrgvjbSLj4B978V_8Dr_4kuimsmQ.yahoo.invalid
href="mailto:andrew_higson@cqpI5JpjYA1sMiEbkk4oR9_iiU6w-9LQQJS_ImZE0JmbY5Xfydik1F9Gj1ynYRnWp7NhQZgfCnA953I1VWv-4esd1N-R.yahoo.invalid">Andrew Higson</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A
title=bellhistorians@yahoogroups.com
href="mailto:bellhistorians@yahoogroups.com">bellhistorians@yahoogroups.com</A>
</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Thursday, August 31, 2006 1:13
PM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> RE: [Bell Historians]
Bellfounding story</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<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 --><SPAN style="COLOR: white"
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