I've mentioned the bell that hung at my parents' home on the Wabash and how I inherited it and had been carrrying it around in my trunk this fall. Well, in November I showed it to Tim who asked what I was planning to do with it. I said I didn't know - I didn't have a place to hang it but I didn't want to part with it, either. Tim asked if I'd like to hang it out at the barn.
Did I ever! We moved the bell into a storage room in the new barn, and with all the work Tim was doing restoring the old barn, I did not anticipate him getting it hung until spring.
Then, last week I got a text from Tim telling me to check my email. That email follows, sprinkled with bits of Tim's sense of humor.
Lynn,
Your Christmas present is mounted up near the gate to the north pastures. I will call it Lynns Christmas Bell, until after the new year when it will be called Lynns farmhouse dinner bell. It may become shortened to Abbys dinner bell, if she becomes trained to come to dinner when it is rung.
I think farmhouse dinner bell is the correct reference to this size of bell, as church bells and school bells, though shaped the same, were larger.
Yours has various identifying inscriptions and what I have learned from them is that a young apprentice by the name of Charles Singleton Bell (C. S. Bell) began working in a foundry in Hillsboro Ohio during the mid 1800s and designed this bell (and other things). A company in his name was created, changed hands and logos 3 times but incorporated in 1875 and then began mass produce these bells.
His story in interesting as he began as a foundry tradesman with a keen talent in metallurgy. While experimenting with a specific metal formula (a cast steel alloy) for various farm implements, he accidentally dropped a piece. When it landed, a very mellow bell tone emanated.
He immediately thought of a bell, called the new material Crystal Metal (not crystal meth -that came later) then went on to forge it into the shape of your bell. He patented it in 1861.
It is interesting/coincidental? that he became famous by making bells when his last name was Bell. Surely the word bell was invented long before him. Maybe he changed his name to Bell because of his love for them? Regardless, the C S Bell Company became a very prosperous and he became a wealthy and prominent citizen of Hillsboro Ohio -undoubtedly put the place on the map.
His patent date, (1861) remained on all of his bells, including yours, even though they were produced between 1875 and 1930.
Yours is in really good shape; no cracks in the bell housing and the clapper and yoke are both original and also in good shape. This leads me to guess that it was produced sometime in the early 1900s.
I worked it over with a wire brush and soaked it a few times in WD-90 rust preventer to get most of the rust off and seal it and added a pull chain.
Some people like to paint them black but I like the rust color myself ☺.
I mounted it on Lynns farmhouse dinner bell post ☺.
Hope you like it.
Here is wishing you and Craig a Merry Christmas and hope this will help you ring out the bells together.
Tim and Loni
