The moulding is done as follows:  In the pit where the casting is to be done there is constructed a core of bricks and a clay shell, separated from each other by a thickness of earth, called false bell.  This occupies provisionally the place of the metal, and will be destroyed at the moment of the casting.

Now let us give a brief description of “La Savoyarde.”  Its total weight is 25,000 kilogrammes, divided as follows:  16,500 kilogrammes of bronze, 800 kilogrammes for the clapper, and the rest for the suspension gear.

Its height is 3.06 meters and its width at the base is 3.03.  It is therefore as high as it is wide, and, as may be seen from our engraving, two men can easily seat themselves in its interior.  In weight, it exceeds the bell of Notre Dame, of Paris, which weighs 17,170 kilogrammes, that of the Cathedral of Sens, which weighs 16,230, and that of the Amiens bell, which weighs 11,000.  But it cannot be compared to the famous bell given by Eudes Rigauit, Archbishop of Rouen, to the cathedral of that city, and which was so big and heavy that it was necessary to give a copious supply of stimulants to those who rang it, in order “to encourage” them.

[Illustration:  The great bell of the basilica of the sacred heart.]

“La Savoyarde” will appear small also if we compare it with some celebrated bells, that of the Kremlin of Moscow, for example, which weighs 201,216 kilogrammes.  One detail in conclusion:  “La Savoyarde” sounds in counter C. This had been desired and foreseen.  The number of vibrations, that is to say, the timbre of a bell, is in inverse ratio of its diameter or of the cubic root of its weight, so that in calculating the diameters and in designing “La Savoyarde” the timbre was calculated at the same time.—­L’Illustration.

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[From the sugar beet.]

NEW SUGAR ITEMS.

France.

Water that has been used to wash frozen beets contains a small percentage of sugar.  As the washing period, in such cases, is longer than with normal beets, the sugar in beet cells has time to pass through the outer walls by osmosis.  The sugar loss is said to be 0.66 per cent. (?) of the weight of beets washed.

Well conducted experiments show that in small but well ventilated silos, beets lose considerable weight, but very little sugar.  On the other hand, in large silos with poor ventilation, the sugar loss frequently represents four to six per cent.  When fermentation commences, the mass of roots is almost ruined.

Sodic nitrate, if used upon soil late in the season, may overcome a difficulty that has been recently noticed.  Beet fields located near swamps that are dry a portion of the year have suffered from a malady that turns leaves from green to yellow, even before harvesting period; such beets have lost a considerable amount of sugar.