A decade before Paul Revere began making copper into sheets his introduction to the metal came in 1792 when his congregation urgently needed to replace their church bell. The bell in the tower of the New Brick Church in Boston’s North End had developed a significant crack and could only be rung in the case of fire. The leaders of the congregation gathered the funds to either recast or replace the bell and were considering their options when Revere, always willing to help his church, offered his services. Though he had already been considering expanding into bell making and had done some research on the process, he had not actually cast any bells before agreeing to make a new bell for the church. Though the finished product wasn’t perfect (the sound was described as “not clear” and “shrill”) he had successfully produced the first church bell cast in Boston.
The process wasn’t just new to him and Boston. At the time very few American crafters were even attempting to make large bells, with the majority of them coming from English foundries (even Philadelphia’s famous “Liberty Bell” was originally cast in London). Revere corresponded with experts in England about the metallurgy of making bells and even asked for samples of their raw materials so he could compare them to the resources he had on hand. All bells are made of a specific variant of bronze that is around 75% copper and 25% tin, usually with trace amounts of other metals like lead and silver. The quality of a bell’s sound comes from a combination of the exact chemical makeup and the shape. Though his first bell had left something to be desired he quickly improved and would go on to make numerous bells for the churches of Boston and beyond.
Although most of Revere’s bells were destined for steeples, he actually produced bells in three different sizes: the church bells often weighed between 500 and 1000 pounds, school bells weighed 100 to 500 pounds, and ship’s bells which usually weighed less than 100 pounds. Though each individual bell was profitable (averaging 50 cents a pound) the demand was never high enough to provide a major source of income. Revere only produced a little over one hundred bells between 1792 and his retirement in 1811 (though the company continued making them under Joseph Warren Revere – one of which, shown below, will be a featured artifact in the Paul Revere Museum of Discovery and Innovation).
The most famous of Revere’s ship’s bells was made for the USS Constitution in 1798. Far larger than the average ship’s bell, Constitution’s bell weighed in at 242 pounds. Unfortunately, this impressive specimen was destroyed during the battle with HMS Guerriere on August 19, 1812. Legend has it that the victorious Constitution crew replaced it with the bell captured from the enemy ship (not an unusual practice for the time). This bell was manufactured in Amsterdam in 1765 and could have been from the Guerriere but there are no firsthand accounts that confirm this. Regardless of how it made it onto the ship, the bell stayed on the Constitution until 1928 when it was replaced by a new bell and moved to the USS Constitution Museum where it still resides today.
Only one Revere bell is known to reside outside of the United States – one manufactured in 1843 by Joseph Warren Revere. Maria Revere Balestier donated the specially made bell to St. Andrew Church in Singapore. Maria, Sister of Joseph and youngest daughter of Paul Revere, was married to Joseph Balestier, the first American Consul to Singapore. Maria wished for the bell to be used to sound curfew every day at 8:00pm, part of an effort to make the notorious city safer at night. The bell was used by several different churches over the following years until it sadly cracked in the early 20th century. Today the bell resides in the National Museum of Singapore, a symbol of the connection between two countries. However, many of his bells still ring today – in churches across the country – a testament to their lasting craftmanship.
