Cooley's Cyclopaedia of Practical Receipts Volume I Part 85

=BELL.= _Syn._ CAMPA'NA,[128] CAMPAN'ULA,[129] NO'LA*,[130]

TINTINNAB'ULUM,[131] L.; CLOCHE, CLOCHETTE,[132] GRELOT,[133] Fr.; GLOCKE, SCh.e.l.lE, &c., Ger.; BELL, BELLA, BELLE, Sax. A hollow vessel or body, usually of cast metal, with a wide cup-like mouth expanding outwards, so formed as to emit sound when suspended and struck with a hard substance.

The word is also applied, either alone or in composition, to substances having the figure of a bell; as bells (of flowers), bell-animal, b.-flower, b.-gla.s.s, &c.

[Footnote 128: Appropriately, a large bell suspended or adapted for suspension; as that of a church, &c.]

[Footnote 129: A small bell.]

[Footnote 130: Id.]

[Footnote 131: Id.; appr., one suspended as a door-bell, servants' bell, &c.]

[Footnote 132: A little bell, a hand-bell.]

[Footnote 133: A little round-bell.]

_Form, Manuf., &c._ Bells of "the common and well-known shape, with a thick lip or sound-bow, are the most effective known instruments for producing a loud and musical sound, such as you want when you erect a large public clock, or put up a peal of church-bells." "After trying a number of experiments, at Messrs Warner's, I am quite satisfied that there is nothing to be gained by deviating materially from the established proportions of the best old bells."[134] This view is borne out by the researches of the Government commissioners[135] who visited the Paris Exhibition, who report, that among the 'founders' of France and Belgium, there are no traditions of the art, nor any discoveries or appliances of modern science, tending to the improvement of bells, or to provide efficient subst.i.tutes for them; nor is there any known improvement on the established mode and usual material (BRONZE or BELL-METAL) for casting them. Sir C. Barry, indeed, according to Mr Dennison, "seemed rather impressed with the merits of cast-steel bells;" but both Prof. Wheatstone and Mr Dennison differ from him in opinion. Undoubtedly some cast-steel bells, of small size, have been produced, capable of yielding sounds of extraordinary clearness and richness, but, in most cases, owing to the difficulty in giving the peculiar molecular condition to the metal essential to a high degree of sonorousness, their tones are comparatively harsh and disagreeable. Well-annealed gla.s.s offers a cheaper and better material than steel for large bells up to a certain size, whilst its tones are exquisite. As the depth of the tone of a bell depends chiefly upon the dimensions and weight of the sound-bow, it appears likely that by directing our experiments to the increase of these, and the diminishing of the thickness of the metal in the other parts, the quant.i.ty of metal required to produce large bells might be very greatly reduced. The sound of an Indian gong that may be easily held suspended by the hand is always rich and usually as loud and deep as a bell of ordinary construction which it would take several men to lift. The Chinese often use bells made of porcelain. Small hand-bells for the toilet and boudoir are often made of silver, and then yield tones which are remarkably soft, clear, and pleasing. The tongue, clapper, or hammer, of bronze bells should be of iron; and steel bells, of bronze. Gla.s.s and porcelain bells require the striking part of the tongue to be of box-wood, the proper weight being given by a ball of iron cast on the rod immediately above it, and a similar one screwed on the end of the rod immediately below it. In all cases the hammer-head, preferably globular, should strike the bell near the verge, and should be free from projections or asperities.

[Footnote 134: Lecture on the 'Form of Bells,' deliv. at the Royal Inst.i.tution, by Mr B. Dennison, to whom the Government intrusted the construction of the 'great bells' for the New Houses of Parliament.]

[Footnote 135: Prof. Wheatstone and Sir Charles Barry.]

The casting, &c., of bells is essentially similar to that of other articles in bronze, of corresponding size, and particularly of cannon. See BELL-METAL, BRONZE, &c.

=BELL'-METAL.= _Syn._ aeS CAMPANA"RUM, L.; MeTAL DE CLOCHE, Fr.; GLOCKENGUT, GLOCKENSPEISE, Ger. The alloy, usually bronze, of which bells, &c., are made.

The composition of bell-metal varies considerably, as may be seen below:--

1. (Standard.) Copper, 78 parts; tin, 22 parts;[136] fused together and cast in the manner described under BRONZE. The most sonorous of all the alloys of copper and tin. It is easily fusible, and has a fine compact grain, and a vitreous-conchoidal and yellowish-red fracture. According to Klaproth, the finest-toned Indian gongs have this composition.

[Footnote 136: The resulting alloy probably contains 7 Cu + Sn.]

2. (Founder's Standard.) Copper, 77 parts; tin, 21 parts; antimony, 2 parts.[137] Slightly paler and inferior to No. 1.

[Footnote 137: More antimony, or some other metal, is often added, as subsequently noticed; but always to the injury of the alloy as bell-metal.]

3. Copper, 80 parts; tin, 20 parts.[138] Very deep-toned and sonorous.

Used in China and India for the larger gongs, tam-tams, &c.

[Footnote 138: Equal to about 8 Cu + Sn. In some gongs the proportion of tin is so low as 22, or even 20 parts, to 100 parts of copper.]

4. Copper, 78 to 80 parts; tin, 22 to 20 parts. Usual composition of Chinese cymbals, tam-tams, &c.

5. Copper 75 (= 3) parts; tin, 25 (= 1) parts.[139] Somewhat brittle. In fracture, semi-vitreous and bluish-red. Used for church and other large bells.

[Footnote 139: Nearly equal to 6 Cu + Sn.]

6. Copper, 80 parts; tin, 10-1/4 parts; zinc, 5-1/2 parts; lead, 4-1/4 parts. English bell-metal, according to Thomson. Inferior to the last; the lead being apt to form isolated drops, to the injury of the uniformity of the alloy.

7. Copper, 68, parts; tin, 32 parts.[140] Brittle; fracture conchoidal and ash-grey. Best proportions for house-bells, hand-bells, &c.; for which, however, 2 of copper, and 1 of tin, is commonly subst.i.tuted by the founders.

[Footnote 140: Equal to about 4 Cu + Sn.]

8. Copper, 72 parts; tin, 26-1/2 parts; iron, 1-1/2 part. Used by the Paris houses for the bells of small clocks or pendules.

9. Copper, 72 parts; tin, 26 parts; zinc, 2 parts. Used, like the last, for very small bells.

10. Copper, 70 parts; tin, 26 parts; zinc, 2 parts. Used for the bells of repeating watches.

11. Melt together copper, 100 parts; tin, 25 parts. After being cast into the required object, it should be made red hot, and then plunged immediately into cold water in order to impart to it the requisite degree of sonorousness. For cymbals and gongs.

12. Melt together copper, 80 parts; tin, 20 parts. When cold it has to be hammered out with frequent annealing.

13. Copper, 78 parts; tin, 22 parts. This is superior to the former, as it can be rolled out. For tom-toms and gongs.

14. Melt together copper, 72 parts; tin, 26 to 56 parts; iron, 144 part.

Used in making the bells of pendules or ornamental Parisian clocks. For clock-bells.

_Concluding remarks._ Castings in bell-metal are all more or less brittle; and, when recent, have a colour varying from a dark ash-grey to greyish-white, which is darkest in the more cupreous varieties, in which it turns somewhat on the yellowish-red or bluish-red. The larger the proportion of copper in the alloy, the deeper and graver the tone of the bells formed of it. The addition of tin, iron, or zinc, causes them to give out their tones sharper. Bis.m.u.th and lead are also often added to modify the tone, which each metal affects differently. The addition of antimony and bis.m.u.th is frequently made by the founder to give a more crystalline grain to the alloy. All these additions are, however, prejudicial to the sonorousness of bells, and of very doubtful utility.

Rapid refrigeration increases the sonorousness of all these alloys. Hence M. D'Arcet recommends the 'pieces' to be heated to a cherry-red after they are cast, and after having been suddenly plunged into cold water, to be submitted to well-regulated pressure by skilful hammering, until they a.s.sume their proper form; after which they are to be again heated and allowed to cool slowly in the air. This is the method adopted by the Chinese with their gongs, &c., a casing of sheet-iron being employed by them to support and protect the pieces during the exposure to heat. In a general way, however, bells are formed and completed by simple casting.

This is necessarily the case with all very large bells. Where the quality of their tones is the chief object sought after, the greatest care should be taken to use commercially pure copper. The presence of a very little lead or any similar metal greatly lessens the sonorousness of this alloy; whilst that of silver increases it. This last metal has been detected in many old church bells remarkable for the richness of their tones--articles of silver plate having been cast into the crucibles of the founders, as votive offerings, by the pious Christians of former ages.

The specific gravity of a large bell is seldom uniform throughout its whole substance; nor can the sp. gr. from any given proportion of its const.i.tuent metals be exactly calculated owing to the many interfering circ.u.mstances. The nearer this uniformity is approached, or in other words, chemical combination is complete, the more durable and finer toned will be the bell.

In general it is found necessary to take about 1-10th more metal than the weight of the intended bell, or bells, in order to allow for waste and scorification during the operations of fusing and casting. See BELL, BRONZE, COPPER, &c.

=BELLADON'NA= (-don'a), [It., Sp., Port.; Eng., L., Ger.;[141] B. P.]

_Syn._ DEAD'LY NIGHT'SHADE, DWALE; BELLEDAME, BELLADONNE, &c., Fr.; ToDTLICHER NACHTSCHATTEN, TOLLKERSCHE, TOLLKRAUT, WOLFSKIRSCHE, &c., Ger.; AT'ROPA LETHA'LIS*, SOLA'NUM FURIO'SUM*, S. LETHA'LE*, S. MANIA'c.u.m*, S.

MELANOCER'ASUS, &c., L., Bot. var. Literally, fair lady; in _materia medica, botany, &c._, the usual name (adopted from the Ital.) of _at'ropa belladonn'a_ (Linn.), an indigenous, poisonous, perennial, herbaceous plant, of the nat. ord. Solanae (DC); Solanaceae, Endl., (Lind.). It flowers in June and July, and its drooping, purple blossoms are common ornaments of our hedges and wastes where the soil is calcareous. It is supposed to be the 'insane root' of Shakespeare.[142]

[Footnote 141: As a borrowed word.]

[Footnote 142: 'Macbeth,' Act I, Scene 3.]

The parts of this plant used in medicine and pharmacy are the "fresh leaves and branches to which they are attached; also the leaves separate from the branches, carefully dried, of _atropa belladonna_; gathered, when the fruit has begun to form, from wild or cultivated plants in Britain"

(B. P.).

_Prop., Uses, &c._ Every part of this plant contains ATRO'PIA, and is consequently highly poisonous. Every part, except the berries, is ftid when bruised, and of "a dark and lurid aspect, indicative of its deadly narcotic quality."[143] Its berries, which are of a glossy violet-black, and of the size of a small cherry, are sweet-tasted, and not at all nauseous. Children and tired travellers and soldiers, allured by their beauty and the absence of disagreeable flavour, have frequently been induced to eat them; but in all cases poisoning, often fatal, has followed the indulgence.[144] Belladonna is, however, in qualified hands a safe and most valuable medicine. Its chief use is as an anodyne, antispasmodic, sedative, and discutient, and particularly to diminish sensibility and allay pain and nervous irritation in a variety of diseases--neuralgia, arthritic and migratory rheumatic pains, painful ulcers, cancer, spasmodic rigidity, strictures, and contractions (especially of the bladder and uterus), angina pectoris, iritis, epilepsy, ch.o.r.ea, hooping-cough, hysteria, mania, fevers, phthisis, asthma, &c.; also as a prophylactic of scarlet-fever,[145] hydrophobia, and salivation, as a resolvent in enlarged and indurated glands (particularly when painful), as an agent to produce dilation of the pupil during surgical examinations and operations, &c., &c. It is employed both internally and externally, and in various forms, as is noticed under its 'preparations' elsewhere. _Dose._ Of the powder, 1/2 to 1 gr. twice a day, gradually and cautiously increased until dryness of the throat or dilation of the pupil occurs, or the head is affected.

[Footnote 143: Pereira, 4th ed., vol. ii, 545.]

[Footnote 144: One hundred and fifty French soldiers were thus poisoned at Pirna, near Dresden. (Orfila, 'Tox. Gen.')]

[Footnote 145: Of 2027 persons who took it, and were exposed to the contagion of scarlet fever, 1948 escaped. (Bayle, 'Bibl. Therap.,' t. ii.

p. 504.) Of 1200 soldiers who took it only 12 became affected. (Oppenheim, 'Lond. Med. Gaz,' vol. xiii, 814.) In this country, however, except among h.o.m.opaths, it has not found much favour as a prophylactic.]

_Pois., &c._ Belladonna and its preparations are poisonous to _all_ animals, but very much more so to the carnivora than to the herbivora. It also acts as a poison on vegetables.

_Treatm. Ant., &c._ These may be the same as those employed in poisoning by aconite, atropia, and opium. The stomach must be cleared as soon as possible, followed by active purgation. Unfortunately emetics have scarcely any action, and, therefore, must be given in large doses, a.s.sisted by tickling the fauces, &c. If copious vomiting does not rapidly follow, the stomach-pump may be had recourse to. When the poison has been removed from the stomach, copious and continued draughts of astringent vegetable solutions (weak decoction of galls or oak-bark, or strong coffee or green-tea), should be persisted in for some time; followed by like draughts of water soured with any mild vegetable acid (as vinegar, lemon-juice, citric or tartaric acid, &c.) _Detec._ The contents of the stomach or vomited matter may be searched for the berries, leaves, seed, or portions of the root; all of which are easily recognisable. The usual physiological and chemical tests of atropia may also be applied to these and to the organic liquids supposed to contain the poison. See ALKALOID, ATROPIA, EXTRACTS, OINTMENTS, TINCTURES, VEGETABLE JUICES, &c.