Insights

The McShane Bell Company traces its roots to 1856 and grew to become one of the largest manufacturing enterprises in Baltimore, producing thousands of bells for installation around the world. In 2019, the company relocated to the St. Louis area and now specializes in: 

• Bell Sourcing
• Ringing Systems
• Frames & Fittings
• Maintenance & Inspections
• Restorations

Situated just 20 minutes northeast of downtown St. Louis, the bell company may be reached at:

Bookended as it was between two world wars, the interwar period of 1918 to 1939 was a time of dramatic fluctuation. From the Roaring Twenties to the Great Depression, and from the dismantling of empires to the rise of communism, feelings of hope and patriotism commingled with the horrors of memory and the dread that something even worse was on the horizon.

On the first day of December 1863, as the Civil War raged across America, the celebrated literary critic and poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow received a telegram. It bore grave news. His son Charles, a Second Lieutenant in the 1st Massachusetts Cavalry, had been severely wounded during the Battle of Mine Run near Orange County, Virginia. The father raced to Washington, D.C., where his son was being transferred for surgery – a bullet had come within an inch of shattering his spine. It would be a long and painful recovery.

Where are you from? It’s a simple question that often inspires feelings of pride or nostalgia. In metropolises the world over, people are constantly on the move. Coming, going, moving in, moving out. To find a person that was born and raised and still living in their birthplace can be a challenge. Are you a native New Yorker? Glaswegian? Seoulite? To find out if a person is a true Cockney, or native of east London, requires a simple test: Were you born within earshot of the Bow Bells?
 

If you listen closely to the jubilant ringing of peal bells, you might be able to discern a pattern. Try to pick out one individual bell by listening for its distinctive tone. Next, observe when that bell rings in relation to those around it. Does it ring first in the sequence, then second in the following sequence? You’re well on your way to determining which method is being rung.

What does the sound of a bell mean to you? How does it make you feel? In "The Bells," Edgar Allan Poe relies on a rhetorical device known as a diacope (the repetition of a word or phrase) to pull the reader into ever-darker emotions and feelings about bells. Best known for his poetry and short stories, and credited with bringing mystery and the macabre into the American literary canon, Poe was a master of the pen. His use of alliteration and repetition has brought chills and goosebumps to generations of readers.

When a ship sinks, significant assets slip beneath the waves – lives are lost, the vessel is fragmented, and the cargo is buried under shifting sands and colonizing sea life. The owner of said ship would be none too pleased, which is why seagoing vessels are insured against such calamities. Who would take on this risk? Enter centuries-old Lloyd’s of London, one of the world’s most famous insurance markets with roots in marine liability.

What is it about the crisp ring of a bell that signals achievement has been won? Perhaps it is the feeling of sweet aural relief after an exhausting trial. Maybe it’s the indication you have captured a prize when others haven’t. Or even still, the ring of a bell might announce to those as far and wide as the sound may carry that a new victor is in town. Whatever the reason, bells are for winners.

This is the story of when bells come home. For hundreds of years, bells have accompanied navies and merchant fleets across the world. A practical and symbolically-important instrument onboard the vessel, a ship’s bell signals the time, indicates the position of the ship in heavy fog, honors lost sailors, and may even be used as a makeshift baptismal font.

The medieval bell tower of Bruges, Belgium, is an imposing Brabantine Gothic structure that rises some 272 feet above the capital of West Flanders. For those intrepid climbers who brave the bell tower’s 366 steps, the reward is a stunning perspective of the city and its environs. It is a view certain to leave a mark in the mind’s eye.

So it was with Henry Wadsworth Longfellow who, in the summer of 1842 while on a European excursion, surmounted the bell tower on his way to the healing baths. In his diary shortly after, the poet recorded his impressions: