patent bell

[Anne Willis]

I was looking through the 1848 London Post Office Directory and found the
entry for 'Mears, Chas & Geo.  church & musical bell founders, & sole
manufacturers of the patent bell, 267 Whitechapel road'

What is/was a 'patent bell'?  

In the same year John Warner & Son were brassfounders at 8 Jewin crescent,
and Alfred F. Warner was a tinplate worker at 25 Union street, Bishopsgate.
Did the two get together to cast bells, one supplying the copper, the other
tin?




Anne