bell metal

American  

noun

1. an alloy of about 80 percent copper and 20 percent tin, sometimes with small amounts of lead and zinc, having low damping qualities and used especially for bells.

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bell metal British  

noun

1. an alloy of copper and tin, with some zinc and lead, used in casting bells

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Etymology

Origin of bell metal

First recorded in 1535–45

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

bell metal

Varying proportions of copper and tin give gun metal, bell metal, babbitt metal and many another alloy, the greater the percentage of tin the harder being the resulting composition.

From Time Magazine Archive

In the harder kinds of brass, such as that termed gun metal, composition, or bell metal, the cuttings will fly off the tool in short angular grains, such as indicated in Fig.

From Modern Machine-Shop Practice, Volumes I and II by Rose, Joshua

A score of clocks in church-steeples, that tower thickly over the City of the Angels, had taken up the cue; and the air of the night vibrated melodiously under the music of bell metal.

From The Bandolero A Marriage among the Mountains by Reid, Mayne

It is used in some metallic alloys, as type metal and bell metal, and also for medical preparations, which are in general emetics or cathartics.

From Webster's Unabridged Dictionary by Webster, Noah

But he made them his own by smelting the rough ore into bell metal.

From Byron by Nichol, John