What did the Liberty Bell sound like? Science is on the case.
摘要
美国宾夕法尼亚州立大学研究人员以自由钟复制品的数据为基础，对其声学特性进行建模，以探究这座带有著名裂缝的钟在鸣响时可能的声音。自由钟已约180年未被敲响。历史学家不确定裂缝出现的具体时间，只知在1817年至1846年间。1846年2月23日鸣钟后裂缝扩大，此后便再未被敲响。这并非该钟首次开裂，1752年它刚到费城测试时钟缘即出现裂缝，后经当地铸造工人两次重铸
The Liberty Bell, with its famous crack, hasn't been rung in 180 years, but that hasn't stopped scientists from pondering what the bell might have sounded like when tolling. In honor of the nation's 250th anniversary, researchers at Penn State University have modeled its acoustic properties, drawing on data collected from one of the bell's replicas. The work was first presented at a meeting of the Acoustical Society of America in Philadelphia earlier this year, followed by an article in Physics Today.
Historians aren't sure when exactly the Liberty Bell acquired its distinctive crack, just that it occurred sometime between 1817 and 1846. An 1846 account in the Public Ledger described the ringing of the bell on February 23 that year and mentioned that the bell had developed a crack, which someone had attempted to fix by filing the sides down. But it didn't work: The February 23 ringing extended the crack even more, so much so that "the old Independence Bell... now hangs in the great steeple irreparably cracked and forever dumb." Nobody has heard it ring since.
This wasn't the first time the bell had cracked; the rim cracked shortly after it arrived in Philadelphia in 1752, the very first time the clapper struck while testing the sound. It was recast by two local foundry workers, John Pass and John Stow, not once but twice, because the first recast produced a sound that one bystander likened to coal scuttles banging together.
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