Photo: ...Taylor Bell Foundry...

...CLICK ON PHOTOS...

...Preparing the moulding case for Great Peter of York Minster - notice the man on the ladder - that's a big mould!...



...Turning the newly cast bell on Loughborough's large bell turning lathe...

Interesting. First photo shows a jig they used for applying ?(maybe clay) and second photo shows ornate design on outside of bell which must have been carved into the inside of Mold.

Great pics Lathefan

Taylors are in Loughborough (English Midlands), world famous bell founder.
Their bells are in the US.

Lot's of info on the web about them, here's a starter John Taylor & Co - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I visited the John Taylor Bell Foundry in Loughborough in 2014 and took the works tour. It's a must if you are in the area. They are still very much in business and the site and heavy machinery has to be seen to be believed.

Hello guys,
I am most intrigued by the size of the mould for this great bell, I wonder how it compares in size to the great bell in London known as Big Ben? It would seem the biggest bell ever cast was poured in Moscow a long time ago, It would seem the foundry burned down and to extinguish the blaze they hosed the fire & cracked a lump out of that large casting It is said to be still on display.

The bell moulder uses techniques not far removed from the medieval foundry men, although the scale & size are as remote as chalk from cheese I always think in many ways the making of the mould is a much easier task than that of the moulder manufacturing a loam mould for a big steam engine cylinder where there is a great deal of re-entrant angles, port cores, ribs and God knows what else.

However not in any way to detract from the high skills of the bell founder, It is a most exacting & high art with many tricks and hidden arts only obtained by a long and detailed apprenticeship.

It is of note to observe the most peculiar shaped moulding box, built up in sections with a fair amount of holes cast in its sides both as a method of venting off mould gases during casting and also to hold the mould wall

The mould is built up by applying a moist stiff mud like material to the rough inner face of the moulding box or flask, This refractory moulding mixture comprises a mix of ground rock sand, , used foundry sand, clay- wash, dried horse manure, for a heavy mould wall section sometimes chopped straw was added this burned away during drying to give little interstices in the dried mould wall to carry off the gases generated during casting. In this moulding mix was frequently added goat hair or horse hair (Poor old Dobbin He was plundered for his body materials!) this also gave a strong open sand mixture

The use of horse hair for this purpose, Other industrial purposes, & upholstery, gave rise to a statutory regulation under the British factory Acts The Mongolian Horse Hair Regulation designed to cut down the spread of Anthrax, I notice it is still mentioned in my Hargreaves copy of the factory act.

The two big "H" section girders across the top of the mould give a hold to the top bearing into which runs the vertical spindle held securely top and also with a footstep bearing bolted to the bottom cast plate, which is bolted over the bottom mouth of the huge moulding boxes.

As the moulder draws his wooden strickle round the circumference of the mould , its front face position is governed by the bearers holding it to the vertical shaft or pole The moulder applies a course backing layer, lets it dry for a couple of days, then roughens its face, and applies a finer layer, His final layer applied before fire drying is applied about the thickness of a Puree or fine milk pudding.

You might be wondering about the ring of lettering or design is stamped into the mould face in a trough swept into the mould at the appropriate position, This design stamp is upon occasions cast in block tin attached to wooden carriers, The moulder has to remember in the mould he is working upside down, Room for confusion?

The inner face of the bell (The Core) is swept onto a central heavy iron bell shaped casting The same procedure is carried out in sweeping it up, As carried out on the mould wall It is a very skilled task to get the metal section correct, On the final coring up The core is located on a seating swept above the mould cavity.

The final task is to ram the mould up in that deep pit in moulding sand apply the runner boxes and cast your mould, not a job for the faint hearted.

Where do you suppose that ringing in my ears came from?

Another tour well worth taking is the Whitechapel bell foundry, in the Jack the Ripper area of London. But even without the tour - they don't tour when pouring - just wandering around, both outside and inside, gives the flavor of the place. It claims to be the oldest continuously operating business in England. Dates to Shakespeare's era, and has to its credit the bells of Big Ben, our Liberty bell, and other similar jobs. One of its modern specialties is handbells.

Lathefan, you're really going to have to stop this. You have doubled the time out of my day that I spend on PM. Speaking seriously, though, the sort of thing you, and Asquith, and Joe Michaels, and Dr. Holland, and many others have contributed to the history of machining and metalworking is superb. History is largely an old man's game, and I can tell from my interest in all these posts that I am getting there.

-Marty-