Rensselaer Republican, Volume 16, Number 40, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 June 1884 — Sleigh-Bells. [ARTICLE]

Sleigh-Bells.

How many boys and girls know how sleigh-bells are made? How do you think the iron ball gets inside the bell ? It is too big to be put through the holes inrthe bell, and yet it is inside. How did it get there ? This little iron ball is called “the jinglet.” When you shake the sleighbell it jingles. When the horse trots the bells jingle, jingle, jingle. In making the bell, this jingle is put inside a little ball of mud, just the shape of the inside of the bell. Then a mold is made just the shape of the outside of the bell. This mud ball, with the jinglet inside, is placed in the mold of the outside, and the melted metal is poured in, which fills up the space between the mud ball and the mold. When the mold is taken off, you see a sleigh-bell, but it will not ring, as it is full of dirt. The hot metal dries the dirt that the ball is made of, so it can all be shaken out. After the dirt is all shaken out of the holes in the bell, the little iron jinglet will still be in the bell, and it will ring right. It took a good many years to think out how to make a sleigh-bell.—Popu-lar Science Monthly.