Mould methods

[Carl S Zimmerman]

At 15:18 +0000 on 2003/04/29, under the subject "Re: Longest 
inscriptions", jwalton22rg asked about the...
>inscription on the French bell formerly at
>Sevenoaks. Would this have been created using the usual reverse
>lettering on the cope technique, or by the lost wax method?

This prompts me to ask concerning English bellfounders (past and present):
1. Who first used a separate cope mould, and when?
2. When did the separate cope mould technique become "usual"?
3. Who last used the lost wax technique, and when?

While I don't pretend to be able to answer those questions 
definitively with respect to American bellfounders in general, I can 
say that Fulton of Pittsburgh, PA, appears to have used a separate 
cope mould at least as early as 1865, while the first Stuckstede 
foundry in St.Louis was certainly using the lost wax technique as 
late as the late 1880s, and quite possibly until after 1900.

Carl