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What we need to know to give you
intelligent and accurate bell information.
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Get it all the first time so you don't have to go up a 2nd time.
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For our own curiosity (humor us), the city and state you are emailing us from.
The city and state where the bell is now located.
Where is it physically?
tower/inside or outside display/at ground level/in a barn/garage/storage, etc.
The city and state it was originally located at, if different from where it is now located.
From the bell:
foundry name, foundry city, year, church/institution, all other printing, and logos.
Additional info on the bell may be unnecessary at first, but can be of historical value, later on.
If held up by a frame, the lettering on the frame.
Both Meneelys and Jones sometimes interchanged.
Rehung bells might have any handy manufacturer's A-frame.
If inconvenient to weigh the bell, then cross reference the diameter for an approximate weight and tone.
Tone, Weight, Diameter Cross Reference chart
- figure others by knowing one of these.
If the tower is inaccessable, you might try ringing it and use a pitch-pipe to figure the tone and go from there.
Knowing that the hardware for the bells - yoke, frame, clappers and hammers - were also
made in their shops, those weights were sometimes added into the weight charged for the bells.
What is your bell worth?
Don't even think about cleaning it before reading this first.
Clean a bell
- drastically different for bronze and iron bells.
Most bells are of more value somewhere within a community than scrap value.
Once scrapped, they are lost forever.
For insurance purposes, the inscriptions on the bell may make the value considerably higher.
Bells are meant to be rung! so maybe mount it securely with a rope attached to the clapper or a rubber hammer attached to the frame.
Worried about someone ringing it maliciously?
You can't ring a bell without somebody hearing it.
However when calling a scrap dealer, the makeup of a bronze bell is approx. 77% brass and 23% great lakes tin.
Steel/Iron bells are all steel with no mixture involved.
The only published records existing for any foundry appear to be the one below:
If a Clinton Meneely, Meneely and Kimberly, or Meneely of Troy 1872-1954 (not West Troy) (not Watervliet), you
may be able to find out more information by consulting The Kehn Book below or in section 2T.
The Kehn Book ** Clinton Meneely of Troy - all bell sales - voluntarily transcribed into EXCEL by Jess Brodnax
Use these hints to make your search of this EXCEL Data Base faster for you.
Hit [open], then wait patiently for spread sheet to open, hit [enable macros],
then hit CTRL-F (find), fill in [search for] (it is not case sensitive), hit [find] or [find all].
The EXCEL line number will show on the left, and you might have to go left and right to get all the info.
So far, since our 1993 use of this somewhat alphabetized transcription, only a few bells seem to have escaped recording from the maze of handwritten information available to Pius Kehn.
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