The Tsar Bell is a monument of Russian bell casting art of the 18th century. The height with the jumper is 6.24 m, the diameter is 6.6 m; weight 202 tons. It has never been used as intended. The bell was cast by order of Empress Anna Ioannovna in 1730 in memory of her descendants of her reign. In 1737, during the Trinity fire, it was damaged and lay in the ground for about a century. In the first half of the 19th century, it was raised and installed on a pedestal in the Moscow Kremlin near the Ivan the Great Bell Tower.
The Tsar Bell, known in our time, had several predecessors. The
first, the Godunov bell, was cast in 1599. It was located on Ivanovskaya
Square in the Kremlin. The bell surprised both local residents and
travelers from other countries with its size and beauty - it weighed
33.6 tons. The bell served for almost 50 years, but broke due to a
strong fire in Moscow.
In 1651, they started talking about
casting a bell weighing 130 tons. Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich wanted to
entrust the work to Hans Falk, but Falk asked for five years to complete
and did not want to use the copper from the broken bell. Moscow masters
- Danila Matveev, his son Emelyan Matveev, assistants Kirill Samoilov,
Vasily Borisov and Semyon Simonov - were ready to do a similar job in a
year and using old copper. The bell was cast in 1654, using, among other
things, the metal of the previous one, and in December of the same year
it already rang from the bell tower, its sound spread over a distance of
up to 7.5 kilometers. This bell soon broke from a strong blow with the
tongue, and in 1655 Alexander Grigoriev took up recasting it. The master
worked on the bell for ten months, from February to December. In 1661,
the bell fell to the ground, but remained intact, and in 1674 it was
hung up again. The second bell almost repeated the fate of the first -
it crashed in 1701 due to a fire, having served for almost 50 years.
In 1730, Empress Anna Ioannovna wished to leave the memory of her
reign and ordered the broken Grigoriev bell to be recast.
The
decree of July 26, 1730 read:
Later, in the past years, by Decree of
the blessed memory of the grandfather of our Grand Sovereign Tsar and
Grand Duke Alexei Mikhailovich, a large Bell was built for the
Assumption Cathedral, in which the weight of eight thousand pounds and
this Bell was damaged by fire, for this reason, we, jealous of the will
of our ancestors, indicated that the Bell should be poured again with
replenishment, so that it contains ten thousand pounds in the
decoration, and for casting that Bell, take copper from the Berg
Collegium and from the Mint, where a decent one will appear, and take
tin from the Artillery, and buy all sorts of supplies and hire real
workers at a price; what about this entire departure and the raising of
that Bell is due to the monetary treasury, which is now available for
the expenses of the Preobrazhensky Order; and that dispatch should be in
the Artillery, and order that it should take place with all diligent
diligence soon and supplies would be bought in advance.
Decree of
July 26, 1730
This time the weight of the new bell was to be 200
tons. At first, they were looking for specialists abroad to complete the
task. The Frenchman Germain, the royal mechanic, "royal goldsmith and
member of the Academy of Sciences", received a generous offer, but
decided that it was a joke and refused to complete the task. Ivan
Fedorovich Motorin and his son Mikhail Ivanovich got down to business.
Little is known about Ivan Motorin. Date of birth not clear. In
1686, he inherited from his father, Fyodor Dmitrievich Motorin, a
foundry on Sretenka, became its owner, and, together with his brother
Dmitry, continued the bell-casting business. Information about 12 bells
made by Ivan Motorin has been preserved, of which two more are in the
Kremlin: Great Lenten (1704) and Nabatny (1714).
The bell was
planned to be cast according to the drawings from the Artillery Office.
First, Motorin made a small model and sent it with drawings and
estimates to St. Petersburg for approval. Discussion of the project and
preparation for implementation took two years. In November 1732, to a
request from the Senate about the progress of work, Motorin “answered
that the blanks would be made from June 29 in two and a half months,
from September 15, the manufacture of the casing would begin, and the
mold would be ready for casting by December 13.” Work on the bell began
in January 1733. Due to the huge size of the Tsar Bell, they decided to
immediately make it in the Kremlin. A hole ten meters deep was dug on
Ivanovskaya Square, and the space between the bell shape and the walls
of the foundry pit was covered with earth and rammed so that the casing
could withstand the pressure of the molten metal. Four casting furnaces
were stacked around the casting pit and a casing lifting device was
installed. Each furnace contained up to 50 tons of metal, from the
furnace it entered the casting bowl of the mold through special brick
grooves. Since there was not enough metal from the old bell, Motorin
requested an additional 5 tons of tin and 16 tons of copper.
On
November 26, 1734, permissions were received, a solemn service was held
in the Assumption Cathedral and received a church blessing, after which
metal smelting began. At work directly in the Kremlin, 83 workers were
employed, and in total, almost 200 people worked on the bell.
Difficulties immediately began at work. There were already 94 tons of
copper in the furnaces, later another 21 tons were added. On November
28, tin and copper weighing 33 tons were loaded into the furnace. And
after 43 hours of operation of the furnaces, they found that two of them
were lifted by the hearths (the horizontal lower surface in the furnace
furnace) and the copper was gone. Repairing furnaces "on the go" almost
led to a fire and a subsequent stoppage of work. The craftsmen decided
to melt the remaining metal in two furnaces and add 106.5 tons of tin
and copper. For this, 600 bells weighing 27 tons, 68 tons of cannon
copper and 11 tons of tin were brought from the cannon yard. On November
29, the situation with stoves worsened. In order to prevent leakage of
copper, the molten metal was released into spare furnaces and started
repairing the furnaces. At the same time, it was discovered that the
machine for lifting the bell-shaped casing was on fire. It was not
possible to quickly put out the fire, because of this the bell shape was
damaged. It had to be dismantled to check the condition and fix the
damage. The next day, Ivan Motorin gave a written explanation of what
had happened.
Ivan Motorin died less than a year after the start
of work - on August 19, 1735, and the work completely passed to his son
Mikhail. Under Mikhail, foundry workers remained - his father's serf
Gavril Lukyanov "son of Smirnaya" and the townsman of Ogorodnaya Sloboda
Andrey Fedorov "son of Molyars". Reports testify to the increasing pace
of work: from October 6 to October 12, 57 people were employed, the next
week - 85, then - 114, and from October 27 to November 2 - 166.
By the beginning of the new casting, taking into account fire prevention
measures, another 400 people took part in the work. On November 23,
1735, the furnaces were lit again, and after 36 hours of melting, copper
was fired into a bell shape. Casting took 46 minutes, 7 tons of metal
were delivered every minute. The casting was completed in two days. The
height of the bell was 6.24 m, the diameter was 6.6 m, and the weight
was about 200 tons. When the metal cooled, work began on applying
decorative ornaments and inscriptions. At that time, they could not get
a huge bell out of the casting pit.
For the casting of the Tsar
Bell in 1736, Mikhail Motorin received a reward of 1,000 rubles and the
rank of foundry workshop master.
On the surface of the bell, the
masters applied bas-reliefs with images of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich and
Empress Anna Ioannovna. There are also images of Jesus Christ with the
Virgin Mary, the apostles Peter and John the Baptist. The engraver
responsible for the decor was the master Fyodor Medvedev.
On June 9 (according to the new style), 1737, the Trinity Fire
occurred in Moscow, which was considered great until the fire of 1812.
According to the generally accepted version, during this fire, a wooden
building over a pit with a bell caught fire, burning logs began to fall
into it. During the rescue, the bell fell from special bridges, which
then cost 62 thousand rubles, gave 10 longitudinal through cracks, and a
piece weighing 11.5 tons broke off from it.
Versions of the
appearance of the fragment
When the Trinity fire began, the chased
work was coming to an end. The bell was filled with water so that it
would not melt, but uneven and rapid cooling led to the formation of a
dozen cracks and a fragment.
The fragment could appear after the fall
of the bell during the rise.
The bell could crack due to
technological errors in casting, which were attributed to a fire.
The
bell was hung up and fell down during the fire
Modern research
has cast doubt on the fact that the ductile bell-bronze bell was
shattered during a fire, and suggest that the cracks were caused by
faulty technology. The version is also supported by the fact that the
bell stood on the grate after the fire - it could not have fallen so
exactly in the same place that it occupied after low tide. Therefore,
most researchers believe that the bell was not taken out of the pit -
they repeatedly and unsuccessfully tried to raise it after the fire.
The broken bell remained in the ground for almost a hundred years,
as it was considered too heavy. In 1792 and 1819, unsuccessful attempts
were made to raise the bell, and in 1821 the pit was cleared and
enclosed with stairs and railings. Tours were organized for those
wishing to see. There were projects to raise the bell and restore it by
soldering. Projects were rejected because of the high cost and fear that
it was impossible to solder an 11.5-ton piece with a guarantee of
maintaining a normal sound. Therefore, the bell has been preserved in
the form in which it was removed from the pit in 1836.
The project for lifting and installing the bell on the pedestal was
developed by the architect Ivan Mironovsky in 1827-1831. The French
engineer Auguste Montferrand was commissioned to carry out the project.
It took six months to prepare. The first ascent ended unsuccessfully:
due to the gravity of the bell, four ropes burst at different times and
one of the blocks broke. The workers had to put logs under the bell and
return it to its original place. For the second attempt, new ropes were
ordered, the number of gates was increased to 20. On July 23, 1836, the
second rise of the bell began, it lasted 42 minutes 33 seconds. When the
bell was raised, the pit was covered with a platform of logs, skids were
placed on the skating rinks and the bell was lowered onto them. In three
days, the bell was moved and on July 26 (according to the old style) was
installed on a pedestal next to the bell tower of Ivan the Great, where
it is currently located[1]. Since that time, the bell has become one of
the main Russian sights. The bell was placed on a pedestal trimmed with
white stone (designed by the same Montferrand), inside - red brick. A
commemorative plaque with the text was fixed on the pedestal: “This bell
was cast in 1733 by order of the EMPRESS Anna Ioannovna. He remained in
the land for a hundred and three years and by the will of the most pious
SOVEREIGN EMPEROR Nicholas I was appointed in the summer of August 1836
on the 4th day. Montferrand crowned the bell with an orb - a symbol of
royal power, thanks to this orb the bell received its nickname "Tsar
Bell".
In the autumn of 1979, the Tsar Bell was restored - it was
cleaned of late paintwork, which made it possible to study the relief
decorations.
Modern technologies make it possible to produce a
larger bell. But when such a bell is struck, most of the waves will be
in the infrasonic spectrum, which can cause anxiety and even panic in
people and animals. Studies show that the optimal weight for heavy bells
is 32 tons.
According to the analysis of the laboratory of the mine corps, the alloy of the Tsar Bell contains 84.51% copper, 13.21% tin, 1.25% sulfur, later revealed another 0.036% gold, which corresponds to 72 kilograms, and 0.26% silver, which corresponds to 525 kilograms.
In the mid-1980s, some deformation of the pedestal was
noticed, as a result of which there were fears about the possible growth
of cracks in the bell. At the request of the Minister of Culture of the
USSR, and in accordance with the instructions of the Minister of Defense
of the USSR, the Military Academy named after F. E. Dzerzhinsky (now the
Academy of the Strategic Missile Forces named after Peter the Great) was
instructed in 1986 to carry out a set of works on the restoration and
preservation of the Tsar Bell. The real state of its cracks was assessed
using the acoustic emission (AE) method. To carry out AE diagnostics of
the bell, employees of the Research Institute of Mechanics and Applied
Mathematics of the Rostov State University (NIIM and PM RGU) were
involved under the guidance of the head of the AE laboratory, Ph.D. S.
I. Buylo. From the Academy F. E. Dzerzhinsky, these works were provided
by the colonel, Ph.D. n. A. I. Gnevko. Diagnostics of the Tsar Bell was
carried out in two stages with the help of an instrumental AE complex of
our own design brought from Rostov-on-Don.
At the first stage,
the parameters and features of the AE radiation of the bell material
were studied. This part of the work was carried out on the territory of
the Academy. F. E. Dzerzhinsky when testing specially made large-sized
(more than 10 cm thick and weighing about 100 kg) samples from a bronze
alloy, identical to the material of the bell. On the second stage,
already in the territory of the Kremlin, work was carried out on
acoustic calibration and diagnostics of the Tsar Bell itself. The work
on the bell consisted, if we do without scientific terms, as if in its
"listening" for the presence of ultrasonic radiation of growing cracks.
It was found that the state of the Tsar Bell at the time of diagnosis
was satisfactory, and catastrophic destruction does not threaten it in
the near future.
For further monitoring of the condition of the
cracks in the bell, the Rostovites were offered to make a multi-channel
AE diagnostic system with the installation of a separate sensor at the
top of each of the large cracks. However, for the permanent installation
of receiving AE sensors on the bell, it was necessary to coordinate many
different issues. For example, it was necessary to prove that a
constantly working system listening to a bell would not be able to
listen to anything else “inappropriate” around, etc. The discussion and
coordination of these issues dragged on. Soon perestroika came, and
everyone was not up to the bell.
Judging by some external signs,
a slight deformation of the bell still continues. The “tradition” of
pushing metal coins into the cracks of the bell is also alarming. And if
earlier small coins had a composition close to the material of the bell,
then the current ones are made of completely different metals, which, in
the presence of moisture, can cause noticeable electrochemical corrosion
of the material inside the cracks. For a reliable assessment of the
state of the Tsar Bell in the future, it is necessary to periodically
carry out a procedure for diagnosing the possible growth of cracks in
its walls using non-destructive testing methods.
The largest bell of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra was also called "Tsar". The bell was made in 1748 (its weight was 64 tons), in 1930 it was destroyed, recast at the Baltic Shipyard in St. Petersburg in November-December 2003 (the weight of the new Lavra Tsar Bell is 72 tons). Today it is the largest functioning bell in Russia.
In the spring of 2016, a team of scientists from the University of California at Berkeley, Stanfod University and the University of Michigan reproduced how the Tsar Bell might sound if it had not been damaged. To do this, scientists created a mathematical model and, using the finite element method and other types of modeling, calculated how an object from a certain material is deformed under a certain influence and what sound accompanies this deformation. First, scientists reproduced the sounds of existing bells and compared them with real ones, and then demonstrated how the Tsar Bell would sound.
In August 1919, the VSYUR command issued its own currency, on banknotes in denominations of 1000 rubles there was an image of the Tsar Bell. Because of this, the money was nicknamed "bells".