What a world of solemn thought their monody compels!

Bells, that is. Those words are Poe’s, these are Arthur Weise’s in 1886, describing Troy’s then world-famous bell industry:

The fame of having tens of thousands of church bells ringing round the earth made in her foundries is realized by Troy. In the distant missionary fields in Africa, along the fertile borders of the Nile, beyond the ruins of Ninevah, near the jungles of India, around the pagodas of China, over the heathen-inhabited islands of the Pacific, in every part of the wide extent of the United States, the sound-waves of Troy bells billow and break.

The fame came from a number of companies, including Julius Hanks (succeeded by his brothers and then his son), who first cast bells, surveying instruments and cannon in Gibbonsville, which became West Troy, which became Watervliet, before moving to Fifth and Elbow (now Fulton) in Troy in 1825. There his firm cast church-bells ranging from 100 to 3,000 pounds. Then in 1852 Jones & Hitchcock began manufacturing church bells at First and Adams streets, becoming the Jones & Co. Troy Bell Foundry in 1873. But by far the most famous was the Meneely Bell Company, which was on the east side of River Street between Washington and Adams. It was originally formed in 1869. Weise writes:

The company’s constant reception of orders from different parts of the world for church-bells is an honoring attestation of their excellence. Their shape, weight and tone are based upon the combination of so many essentials that the business is one which obtains its distinction from the adaptation of bells to the places and purposes for which they are intended. The company’s foundry is fitted with all the necessary appliances for moulding and casting bells of different weight and size. The quality of a bell’s sound or sonorousness depends on its shape as well as on the metal used in casting it. Copper and tin are the best materials for making clear-toned bells. The most approved proportions are 78 parts of copper and 22 of tin. Not unfrequently the company receives jewelry to be melted to form a part of the composition of gift-bells . . . The company have recently sent chimes to churches in Boston, Worcester, Salem, Mass., Darien, Conn., Albany, Geneva, Chautauqua, Mamaroneck, N.Y., Montgomery, Ala., Gambier, Ohio, Chicago, Ill., St. Louis, Mo. and other cities. Two bells were sent to the west coast of Africa, twelve to missioner schools in the interior of that country, four to Constantinople, three to Shang-Hai, China, and several to England, Bulgaria, Persia and India. Many of the bells sent to foreign lands bear inscriptions in the language of their inhabitants.

It really makes me want to know if any Troy-made bells still ring in Constantinople. Oh wait, it’s Istanbul, not Constantinople. If you’ve a bell in Constantinople, it’ll be ringing in Istanbul.