The Liberty Bell

As the population of the colony of Pennsylvania grew, so did the need for an official building to house the colony's government body, the Pennsylvania Assembly. Construction of the State House (now known as Independence Hall) began in 1732. Part of the construction order included the making of a bell tower on the building's south side. When the steeple work was completed in early 1751 a bell was hung in the new tower. Unfortunately, this bell could not be heard throughout all parts of Philadelphia and it was decided that a new bell was needed. The Pennsylvania Assembly Speaker and Chairman of the State House Superintendents, Isaac Norris, contacted the Assembly's London agent, Robert Charles, by letter asking him to purchase a "good bell of about two thousand pounds weight" and included instructions for the inscription on the Bell. Charles commissioned the Whitechapel Bell Foundry in England under the direction of master founder, Thomas Lester, on November 1, 1751. The bell arrived in America in late August 1752, nearly one year later.
The new bell was set up in Independence Square to be tested prior to being hung in the new tower. The bell cracked on its very first test! Isaac Norris is quoted, "I had the mortification to hear that it was cracked by a stroke of the clapper without any further violence as it was hung up to try the sound." The bell's metal was too brittle to sustain even one stroke of the clapper. Local Philadelphia founders, John Pass and John Stow, were commissioned to recast the Whitechapel bell and strengthen its composition. The original bell was broken down and recast with additional metals added to it. In March of 1753, the newly recast bell was tested and hung in the tower of the State House. While this new bell was stronger, Philadelphians did not like the sound of the new bell. Pass and Stow were asked to recast the bell again.
Pass and Stow completed the second recasting in June 1753 and the Bell was again hung in the tower. The new Bell was still of questionable sound in some minds; however, it was deemed acceptable and it is this bell that eventually became known as the Liberty Bell. It is uncertain how the bell came to be cracked; the damage occurred sometime between 1817 and 1846. The bell is mentioned in a number of newspaper articles during that time; no mention of a crack can be found until 1846. In fact, in 1837 the bell was depicted in an anti-slavery publication uncracked. In February 1846 Public Ledger reported that the bell had been rung on February 23, 1846, in celebration of Washington's Birthday and also reported that the bell had long been cracked, but had been "put in order" by having the sides of the crack filed. The paper reported that around noon it was discovered that the ringing had caused the crack to be greatly extended, and that "the old Independence Bell...now hangs in the great city steeple irreparably cracked and forever dumb". The most common story about the cracking of the bell is that it happened when the bell was rung upon the 1835 death of the Chief Justice of the United States, John Marshall. This story originated in 1876, when the volunteer curator of Independence Hall, Colonel Frank Etting, announced that he had ascertained the truth of the story. While there is little evidence to support this view, it has been widely accepted and taught. Other claims regarding the crack in the bell include stories that it was damaged while welcoming Lafayette on his return to the United States in 1824, that it cracked announcing the passing of the British Catholic Relief Act 1829, and that some boys had been invited to ring the bell and inadvertently damaged it. The Liberty Bell weighs 2,080 pounds. The circumference around the lip (bottom) of the Bell is 12 feet and around the crown (top) is 7 feet 6 inches. From the lip to the crown measures 3 feet and the height over the crown measures 2 feet 3 inches. The thickness of the Liberty Bell at the lip is 3 inches and at the crown the thickness is 1.25 inches. The length of the clapper is 3 feet 2 inches and weighs 44.5 pounds. The yoke weighs 200 pounds and its wood is Slippery Elm. A metallurgical analysis of the Liberty Bell shows the composition to be approximately 70% copper, 25% tin, 2% lead, 1% zinc, .25% arsenic and .20% silver with trace amounts of gold, magnesium, nickel and antimony. The elements are found in differing ratios throughout the Liberty Bell suggesting that the casters, Pass and Stow, did not have a large enough furnace to melt down all the pieces of the Bell at one time during recasting, but used small crucibles to complete the project.