BELL
BELL
by digging out the space beneath it. Other large bells are the Great Bell of Pekin (53½ tons), and the Kaiserglocke of Cologne cathedral (26 tons), made out of 22 French cannon. The largest bell in the New World is in the cathedral of Nôtre Dame at Montreal (29,400 lbs.). Many early superstitions have gathered around bells; they were believed to drive away storms and pestilence and to put out fire. From religious customs connected with them bells have acquired a sacred character. At one time they were tolled when any great personage was passing out of the world, and they are now often tolled after deaths and before funerals. The ave bell, sanctus bell and vesper bell are among those used in the Roman Catholic church. The curfew bell was rung to warn people to put out their fires and lights at eight o'clock in the evening, and this eight o'clock bell is still rung in many parts of England and Scotland. Many churches now have peals or chimes, on which tunes are played. Tune-playing bells are sometimes sounded by means of a cylinder, just as a barrel organ; others are played with keys by a musician. The best chimes consist of from eight to twelve bells. The muffled peal, which gives one of the finest effects, is rung with a leather cap over half the clapper, making the chimes first clear and then dull. In casting bells, the core or part which fills the inside of the bell is first made of brickwork covered with soft clay; then the outer mold or cope is fashioned in the form of the outer surface of the bell and fitted over the core, leaving a hole in the top for the escape of the air. The melted metal is then poured in. Electric bells have of recent years been extensively used in offices and houses. See ELECTRICITY.
Bell, Alexander Graham, one of the inventors of the telephone, was born at Edinburgh in 1847, was educated at the High School and in Germany, and in 1872 introduced into the United States the system of deaf-mute instruction which his father had invented. Having for some time experimented on the transmission of sound by electricity, he exhibited his telephone at Philadelphia in 1876, and its success from that time on was assured. He has also invented the radiophone. Since 1881 he has lived in Washington. Considered as the inventor of the telephone, Bell's great merit lies in the fact that he, at the same time with Elisha Gray, recognized that human speech cannot be transmitted by means of an intermittent current, but requires an undulating current.
Bell saw that an intermittent current might reproduce the pitch and amplitude of a sound, but without a continuous current one could not reproduce the quality of the sound.
Bell, Henry (1767-1830), a Scottish engineer, born in Linlithgowshire, who served his apprenticeship to his uncle, a millwright, but later became interested in ship-modelling under John Rennie of London, the notable civil engineer. Returning to Helensburgh, on the Clyde, in 1808, he pursued his experiment with the steam engine and achieved fame by constructing and sailing on the Clyde the steamship Comet, the herald of steam navigation in the Old World. Fulton, it is asserted, gained his ideas of steam navigation on water highways from Bell.
Bell, Henry Haywood (1808-68), American rear-admiral, was born in North Carolina and in 1823 entered the United States Navy as midshipman. He early saw service in China and in 1856 was in command at the attack on the Barrier Forts, at Canton. In 1862, during the War of the Rebellion, he acted as fleet captain of the West Gulf Squadron and led a division of gunboats in the attack upon Forts St. Philip and Jackson, part of the defences of New Orleans. In the following year, he took command of the blockading squadron during the temporary absence of Admiral Farragut. In 1865 he was in command of a United States Squadron operating in the East Indies, and two years later met his death by drowning in an attempt to pass in his barge over the bar at the mouth of Osaka River, Japan.
Bell, John, a notable Tennessee publicist, speaker of Congress and founder of the Whig party, was born near Nashville, Tenn., in 1797, and died at Cumberland Iron Works, Tenn., September 10, 1869. Graduating in 1814 from the University of Nashville, he studied law, and in 1817 became a senator for his state. From 1827 to 1841 he served in Congress, and for a year was speaker of the house. In 1841 he became secretary of war in President Harrison's cabinet, but resigned the office when President Tyler abandoned the Whig party. After some years of retirement, he from 1847 to 1859 was United States senator, and in 1860 became candidate of the Constitutional Union party for president. He took no part in the Civil War, as he condemned secession, though he abjured coercion.
Bell, Robert, I.S.O., D.Sc., M.D., C.M., F.G.S., F.R.S.C., F.R.S., was born in Toronto, June 3, 1841, and educated at McGill
ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL
