[Bell Historians] Bellfounding story

[David Cawley]

What a priceless story! Thanks Bill. Much better than all the other gloom 
and doom.

DLC
(CCC Bells 1974-2006; membership not renewed this time; no hard feelings.)

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Bill Hibbert" <bill at Y_12ac2sPUEJJbgDEtM8AuaK0CdbiJFmyEZvzGWtwn0n1wF__bZjVTnbqPSzXHXv16akwf6sXMzU0g.yahoo.invalid>
To: <bellhistorians at yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Wednesday, August 30, 2006 5:30 PM
Subject: [Bell Historians] Bellfounding story


>I finally met Robert Perrin last week after corresponding for years.
> I won't bore you all with discussions of bell acoustics but I will
> pass on the following story he told me . . .
>
> A numbr of years ago, an employee of some bellfoundry in the Midlands
> hatched a plot with accomplices to steal the foundry's stock of tin.
> The theft was successful, but the employee chose to take his share of
> the proceeds not in cash but in tin, which he hid in his locker in
> the foundry. When the police arrived at the foundry to investigate
> the theft, the employee lost his nerve and threw the tin into the
> furnace just as a bell was about to be cast.
>
> There is another alloy of copper and tin as well as bell metal,
> called speculum, with a much higher propertion of tin. Speculum is
> white and shiny and used to be used to make the mirrors of
> telescopes. The foundry staff were amazed when they took the bell
> that had just been cast out of the mould, to find that it was white.
> When upended and struck, it made no musical note, and after a few
> hammer blows, collapsed into a pile of fragments 'like glass breaking
> in a Tom and Jerry cartoon'.
>
> The theiving employee was charged, did time, and is said to have
> later run his own business casting handbells somewhere in south
> Derbyshire.
>
> Bill H
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