Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 33, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 August 1895 — WELDING BY ELECTRICITY. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

WELDING BY ELECTRICITY.

Proce** by Which the Famous Liberty Bell May Be Mended. The old cracked bell hanging Idle and useless In Independence Hall may some day soon be made to lift up Its long stilled voice and ring out In all Its use-

ful vigor. Early in the present century the efforts of inventors, bell moulders and metal workers were directed to the accomplishment of this end, but without avail. Latterly the Bnme efforts werp made to mend other bells that had become dumb, but all without any fruitful results, and It was generally agreed that a cracked'bell was worth: only so much a pound as old metal. A system of electric welding has been devised by a Russian, .Slavianoff, by which old bells cracked to the very crown may be made as new. The new process Is known a# the “hydrO-eleetro-thermic" and It appears to offer interesting possibilities, though not yet fully developed. Its principle depends on tho ployment of a bath and In the development of hydrogen gas at tho negative pole. The gas surrounds tho port of the object to be treated, forming a high resistance to the Current, which Is transformed at this point Into calorific energy and communicated to the metal

or other object forming the negative pole. This method is said to bo an Improvement on the methods of both Thomson and Benardos, which are well known to metal workers, and It has been in successful operation for some time at the Perm gun works in Russia.

A BROKEN BELL.

RESTORED TO USEFULNESS.