New Bells for Notre Dame Cathedral

The bells of Notre Dame will soon have a new ring. The cathedral has commissioned nine new bells to replace four 19th-century bells that have gone out of tune. The two largest new bells are being made at a foundry in northwestern France.

Published

6 months ago

Categories

Arts & Society

Places

France, Paris

Tags

notre dame

Transcript

SCRIPT: Stéphan and his colleagues have been at work feeding wood into this oven since four in the morning. Their task: making Gabriel and Benoît-Joseph, two new bells destined for Notre-Dame Cathedral. The new bells will replace four bells given by Napolean that have gone out of tune. The casting process is complicated. It takes 7 cubic metres of wood and over a ton of coal to get the oven hot enough. SOUNDBITE 1, Stéphane Mouton, Head of production for Gabriel and Benoît-Joseph bells "The metal needs to be really well melted down so we can treat it and put in the tin. When we open the door you'll see. The oven gets to be about 1,080 degrees Celsius." Stéphan and his colleagues add tin, bronze and copper to the oven and mix them by hand. They've placed moulds in the ground - made with a concoction of wax, soil, goat's hair and horse manure. Then comes the critical moment. The crew releases 5 tons of molten metal into the two moulds. SOUNDBITE 2 - Paul Bergamo, Foundry director (French, 20 sec): "The metal enters from below. The bronze is very dense - it's so dense a brick can float on the melted bronze. So all the impurities, all the pieces of coal and wood that we use for heating, they are going to rise to the top. So we'll have a very pure metal below." A pure metal meant to stand the test of time -and bring back the sound of the Cathedral's original 17th century bells. A sound not heard since the French Revolution. SHOTLIST : VILLEDIEU LES POELES, FRANCE, 19 NOV 2012 SOURCE: AFPTV -VAR of foundry in Villedieu-les-Poeles PARIS, file image of Notre-Dame -VAR of foundry in Villedieu-les-Poeles SOUNDBITE 1 -VAR of foundry in Villedieu-les-Poeles, workers putting tin in oven -VAR of bell moulds in ground SOUNDBITE 2 -VAR of bell's being blessed -Denis bell -bell being polished