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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Wingham Advance-Times, 1975-10-16, Page 2111 tkowsitlybonwilOyooi*Litskiwel lionoorp Wligb Aavosco. Thnee *Rd Mout 'For* Ceste dotote Is reod by 3.30$0 ,Poyle "hoortIoost got Mkiwooterp. Ootorlo'P.; (BoOot oo 34 reader* In sack of troOo homes,) Published every WOok in Tho Listowel Bonner, The Winghorrs 1dvorice4imes and The Mount Forest Confederate by Wenger Bros, Limited. TORONsip: CrollareactobW 16, UV /— An ancient art lics on. 0 • The bells of Breslau There was tune when you were born to the sound of bells, went to school to bells, were married with the sound of bells, were called to fight battles by bells and died to bells. It wasn't so long ago when •there wasn't quadraphonic, ste- reo or even mono. It was a time when the sounds of the world weren't too interesting if judged by today's passion for supersonic • speeds and eardrum smashing amplifiers. The bell's heyday came at a time when most of the sounds to be heard were either animal, vegetable or mineral and the echo of your own footsteps still held a position Of some import- ance in the sound landscape. Other musical instruments were abundant but none could compare with the sheer power of a bell. In this relatively silent world, the magnificently pure peal of a bell, filling a town or valley, carried with it a certain amount of magic. The churches were among the first to -recognize this magic. Throughout the ages bells have played a significant role in all religions with the exception of Is- lam. Originally, church bells were founded with considerable ceremony; many were beauti- fully inscribed, often with pray- ers or verse. Prayers were said while the metal was poured into the mold. The bells were then blessed by a church official, fol- lowed by thanksgiving and rejoic- ing. Today's bells seem to have slipped from that exalted posi- tion, suffering from what the 1970's know as sound pollution. LAST AlIFETIME—Herwarth Stbermer shows one of the bells he had just completed • buffing and polishing. Stoermer bells are guaranteed for 25 years. Some of the bells cast by Mr. Stoermer's forefathers are still ringing after 500 years. , Any nuthber of the success of the Industrial Itevolutien tan easily compete with the 1.;ice- startling boom of great handleast 1 for a nation the 13th century, our bell shape began to lose its roundness by the addition of a slight waist. Gradu- ally from this innovation evolved bells—reving diesel Metnea, Our present bell with its curvy howling sirens, droning air condi- 'figure which looks somewhat like tioners, wailing tape deck0 , an inverted teacup. A feature of , the list is endless! • this 'waisted' shape is its super - Gongs and Curves for tonal qualities. The oldest bell in the world, Into the Pot found near Babylon, is reputed to Russia an laim the largest be over 3,000 years old. bells in the world. The "Tsar Bells forhorses are mentload Kolokol" (King of Bells), cast in in the Bible in the book of TAO*, 1733, is the largest known. This riah XIV -20. super bell, 19 feet high, 221/2 feet Plutarch's "Life of &Mgr, in diameter, and weighing 193 telling of the siege of Xantheittrn tons, has never been rung. In Lycia in 42 B.C., states that 1737, shortly after being installed "Their bells, on nets streteb41 . in a tower in Moscow, fire des - across the river, rang 1,100 troyed the supporting structure people tried to escape by swine and the King of Bells came crash - ming." • ing down. An 11 -ton piece was The historian Flavius Joseph)* cracked from its side and it now wrote that "King SolomOn, Sin sits on a pedestal near the Krem- reigned from 974 to 937 B.C., hid lin. large bells on the roof of '10-4 A second bell in Moscow, temple to keep .the birds awal.weighing 110 tons, is the largest China, Japan, Burma, Ind in actual use. and- Egypt made use of bell** While we're on the subject of different formsso long ago thatto records, the highest bell in the trace their history is almost h•,:k world is situated in the Metropoli- possible. As early as 4,000 B.C., tife Chinese realized the potential Of the bell and began casting Mein in their foundries. They were: crude in comparison to the highly polished beauties we know tod*,',. However, they rang and that' what was important. The earij Chinese bells had the shape of * globe or beehive. Because cone tinual use weakened them and .often cracked their outer rims, 64 iron bendlvasittided to Strength!! en the run. This iron rim .dras- . deafly altered the tone of the bell and the Chinese subsequently_di- covered that all tonal qualities of a bell were controlled by the thickness of this rim. Thus began the study of the tuning of bells. The Chinese bells continued to evolve in the beehive shape and they tended to have'the clappers on the outside. They come to us as the flattened, closed• gong which has no particular tonal quality but a distinctive oriental sound. Our Western bells favored clap- pers on the inside and the open shape of the original model. In tan Life Insurance Tower, 700 feet above New York City. Its sound carries for 28 miles. The Bourdon Bell which makes up part of the Rockefeller Memo- rial Carillon at Riverside Church in New York, at 18% tons, is the largest tuned bell. in the world as well ag; the largest ever cast in ngland. It doesn'tmatter if it's the biggest, -the tallett, or simply one 401#$:0:fells ,develop a per- ** WAtfttlietir4nwn- - - Most of us have memories wrapped up in some bell, whether it's a school bell, a church bell, or at very least, a telephone bell. O Bells call the faithful to prayer, bells cry out the sorrow of death, the bliss of marriage, the excite- ment of St. Nick, the laughter of a sleigh ride or just the slow ap- proach of old Daisy across a field. Bells warn of danger at sea, of fire in town, and in the past, of the onslaught of the enemy. Pity the bells that cried the on- slaught of an enemy! If the enemy was victorious, the bells were mercilessly thrown into the melting pot to become cannons which were used to fire upon the very people they had served so well. What a life! When the hostili- ties were over, they were once again thrown into the melting pot to be recast into bells and to re- turn to their peaceful object of serving the people. Bells, whether collectively, like sleigh bells or individually, like the Liberty Bell, have very dis- tinct personalities. People speak Of them with a sense of signifi- cance in that they bring back many personal memories and historical associations. Melting, Molding and Music Bell casting is an ancient art, and bell metal has had apprwd- mately the same composition over the centuries. It is made of pure copper and tin -13 parts copper to four of tin. In charac- ter, it is a hard crystaline and very durable metai. The addition of more tin in- creases its hardness. While this tends.to improve its musical qua- lity, it also makes it more brittle. Various methods of moulding and casting are known, but of these, the clay model method and the impression method have been the most widely accepted. How- ever, the impression inethod has received the greatest favor by bell makers in recent years. The metal, if in large quanti- ties, is melted in a coal or oil fired reverberatory furnace. At a bright orange heat—about 1100 degrees Celsius—the metal is tapped off into the molds.' Bells of up to a ton can be taken out of the molds after a day. A five -ton 'bell ,can take the beat PartOt a Wok .tiork handled or triMming. The art of bell tuning was prac- tised on the continent for some time before it was nearly per- fected by the Hemony Brothers in the 17th century. Bells are tuned. with a giant tuning fork—by filing the rim, the tone is sharpened; by increasing its thickness, thetone is lowered. The test of a well -made bell is its note (actually three: a "strike" note, a 0.hurn" note an octave lower, and an overtone). It follows that if it's.a well -made bell, it has a good note. A bell's distinctive tonal quali- ties depend on its size and shape. No measurable alteration of tone or tune of a bell takes place over the years. Many are calling in their individual voices after 500 or more years of faithful service. The quality of an old bell's tone does suggest, however, that it be- comes more mellow with the passing of time. (Don't we all.) Bells and Breslau Herwarth Stoermer, son of Carl, grandson of Christian, is our link with a family of bell - makers who began in Germany 400 years ago and whose bells ring around the world! Bell -making in the Stoermer family is an art which has been passed down from fathen to son. Their exact process is a closely - guarded secret. HerWarth Stoer- mer still won't let anyone inside the foundry when he is actually casting bells: Herwarth's.lather, Carl, left Germany .in 1931, aLtbe height of the depression, and at a Wile when Germany was, embarking on its Nazi era. The, first bell which Carl cast after arriving in Canada hangs in the Stoermer Bell Foundry near Breslau, Ont., today. The inscription reads, "Good luck in bad times". the navy have gone down' with ships lost at sea. There they rest today in the black of the ocean floor, with only the odd ocean current to stir a mute thump from these once -vibrant instru- ments. The Stoermer Bell Foundry has a few refinements from.the ,days of old—power polishing tools and an oil forge furnace ---but their craft of preparing Molds and pouring molten Metal for bells has changed little in the last cen- tury. This New Year's Eve, wher- ever you are across North Ameri- ca, when Guy Lombardo b*na , to grin -and . belts, begin to think of the Stoermer Fenn Chances are it's one Qf that's doing all the ring' The Big BellEra In the early 1950's ni' never-ending search bigger, faster, cheaper, perfected thetlectroalc, really quite an invenfi fraction of the‘price of hand -cast bells you cart have twhat most agree is an exact duplicatioi The Stoermers have made the s°u°4 °f 4°11. *ft!iY, church bells, school bells, tea willsoultidttlhattnesinwsthallicet°lP:rejltint bells, Swiss bells, sleigh bells, cast bells are opting for the elec- cow bells, ship bells, fog bells, tronic bells. ' chimes, gongs, peals and caril- The traditional bells are :too Ions. 0\ heavy, too costly, and require an Their bells weigh from six expensive structure to, support ounces to six tons, and can be them. There is also difficulty in found today on a church steeple ' finding Musicians to play -them. in Newfolindland, a university Possibly we're witnessing the O bell tower in British Columba, end of an era. Electronic belts truiliktiu_toroit#,. At:Ntile - may signal the 4emise of the Stratford Shakeilieirean- POSH,' great bandcastbells (JJis lime I first year the Stoerinershave not' I founded one of the very large bells.) However, electronic bells, like !I a lot of electronic gizmos, lack some essential quality of the genuine article. They can un- doubtedly produce a sound that equals in every respect the sound produced by a hand -cast bell, but ; . . . when I'm walking down a golden, autumn street on a big blue-sky day, and I hear the gentle voice of a, bell—I conjure up an image of a massive shiny bell, flashing back and forth, startling some birds from its bel- fry. Dammit, I don't want to think of mindless reostats buzz- ing, endless tapes whirring and empty belfries ringing! Hemmingway said, "Ask not for whom the bell tolls." I sin- cerely hoe it's not for the bells themselves. val, or at sea on Royal Canadian Navy ships and Merchant Marine vessels. The Stoermers cast three bells • for St. John's Lutheran Church in Waterloo. They weigh nearly 4,000 pounds and are called Faith, Hope and Love. Love, a 1,200 pound giant with a 40 -inch mouth, is keyed to F - sharp. The two smaller bells are Hope, at 600 pounds keyed to A, and Faith at 300 pounds dongs in C -sharp. When the wind is in the right direction the 22 -inch diameter bell the Stoermers made for the University of British Columbia can be heard 30 miles across the English Bay! They have even supplied Davy Jones' Locker with a few' bells. Several of the bells they cast for SIX OUNCES TO SIX TONS—The Stoermer Foundry makes bells in all -sizes and shapes. Herwarth Stoermer stands in the sh‘wroom of the foundry which makes bells costing a couple of dollak ranging up to whatever your ear- GOLD MEDAL—Herwarth Stoermer's father, Carl, and drums can imagine. grandfather, Christian, stand beside their display of bells at an industrial exhibition in Germany in 1894. Their master craftsmanship won them a Gold Medal titat day.