That Rings a Bell
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That Rings a Bell Bells are among the oldest musical instruments used in human civilization, developed independently by many cultures. Named after the Anglo-Saxon word bellan, meaning "to bellow," bells are hollow vessels that have been made in primitive societies out of horn, glass, shell, clay, wood, or other materials of little resonance. Once civilizations began to work metals and use resonant bronze alloys, bells became much more widely used. Dishes, pots, and staves of hammered or cast metal make a clear tone—as opposed to mere noise—when struck; the first bells modified these shapes to generate a louder or more pleasing tone. Bells, struck by an interior clapper or exterior mallet or hammer, have been found among many peoples in different parts of the world. Used as magical amulets and ceremonial instruments, bells have been reputed to dissolve storm clouds or to summon rain, to thwart demons (when worn as amulets) and to communicate with the gods. Bells have also been used as patriotic symbols and war trophies; invaders frequently silenced town bells of captured towns to emphasize their conquest. Early metal bells began to appear in the Bronze Age, made from beaten plates with notches cut in the corners, then folded into square shapes. Prior to this, small metal plates were strung on thongs and clattered together, or pebbles were placed inside open-mouthed rattles to make loud sounds. In his 1951 book, Bells of All Nations,
Ernest Morris shows a photo of what is purported to be the oldest bell still in existence, found near Babylon and dating from 1000 B.C. The civilizations of Japan, Burma, India, and Egypt also began to use bells at about the same time. In China, as early as the second millennium B.C., bells were used as genuine musical instruments, made of varying sizes and arranged in sequences to make chimes. Chinese bell-making reached its pinnacle in the Chou dynasty, from 1122-221 B.C. References to bells abound in ancient literature, from the Bible to the Greek plays of Euripides and Aristophanes, to Roman descriptions by Ovid, Strabo, Manilius, and others. King Solomon (974 to 937 B.C.) supposedly kept large gold bells on the roof of his temple "to keep the birds away." Plutarch wrote of the siege of Xanthus in Lycia (42 B.C.),
describing how the besiegers deployed bells on nets stretched across the river, which would ring if people tried to escape by swimming. Paulinus, the bishop of Nola in Campania, Italy, is given credit for creating the modern form of the bell around A.D. 400 when he supposedly instructed workers to suspend a large copper or bronze kettle upside down from the top of the church, where it could be made to ring as a bell. Small copper bells, similar to modern jingle bells, have been uncovered in ancient Peruvian tombs, which date to the pre-Inca era (though no earlier than about A.D. 500, the beginning of the metal age in that area). During the Dark Ages, riveted plate bells (such as cow bells) became popular in Europe. In Ireland, copper was available, but no tin for the smel
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