CRANE GAVE BELLS FOR LOWELL TOWER

Charles Richard Crane, Hon. '22, head of the Crane Manufacturing Company of Chicago, yesterday was revealed as the hitherto anonymous donor of the Lowell House bells, thus disposing of the rumor that they were the gift of President Lowell.

Mr. Crane, although never a student at Harvard, was awarded an honorary degree of LL.D. by the University in 1922 as having "sustained innumerable projects artistic, scientific and philanthropic," in the words of the official citation accompanying the degree.

Not Carillon

The bells, it was also learned, are neither a carillon nor a peal. They are merely a set of 18 Russian bells, upon which only Russian music can be played, and by a Russian bell-ringer. This last requirement is due to the fact that the tone of the bells is extremely low, lower than those of any European country, a characteristic of Russian bells. The set was secured in Leningrad, where the Soviet government had collected bells from churches all over Russia to be melted down.

Eighteen Bells

The set, which is, if not the only one, one of the few collections of Russian chimes in America, consists of 18 bells. Thirteen of these were cast within 100 years of each other, and half of the nineteenth century. The largest of the bells is nine feet in diameter and nine feet in height. Its weight, including the tongue is 27,000 pounds; it is one of the 16 largest ever hung in Moscow or its suburbs.

The second, third and fourth largest bells are respectively seven feet three inches, five feet three inches, and five feet, in height. The smallest bell is ten inches high and weighs about 25 pounds.

The bells have been hung, in the traditional fashion, it was explained. They will be played by wires and foot levers, with the exception of the largest, which requires a separate operator to play.