Iowa State University Alumni Association| online edition | spring 1999

 

 


SPRING 1999
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Cover Story:
>>The Bells of Iowa State

Feature:
Driving Dr. Carver

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THE BELLS OF IOWA STATE
CELEBRATING A CENTURY: 1899-1999

100 years ago: The beginning

The 10 long-awaited bells had arrived. Although university officials cared deeply about the fact that the bells were the first-ever scientifically tuned bells in North America and were certain that their delivery from England to Iowa was historic, two facts were the most salient: The bells were really big. And it was really cold out.

An unnamed expert had promised to oversee the bells’ installation, but when the beautiful but mammoth hunks of copper (the largest bell weighed 3,000 pounds) arrived, the “expert” developed a sudden case of cold feet and disappeared.

The weather had plunged to 10 below zero, and heavily bundled campus workmen helped horses pull the bells to central campus. Supervising the process was the manager of Iowa State’s machine shop, who performed the role with maximum drama. He invited the entire faculty to witness the raising of the largest bell, and rode the bell halfway up the tower for a photo op.

When the final bell had been installed, one of the workers, a student named D.C. Thomas, picked out a simple rendition of Home Sweet Home. Professor Edgar Stanton heard the melody, admitted that he couldn’t tell one tune from another – it sounded good to him – and asked Thomas to be the official “chimer.”

There was no immediate dedication of the bells. The winter of 1899 was one of blizzards, extreme cold, and a severe typhoid epidemic.

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