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It took a full year from the time the proud Pennsylvania colonists ordered their new bell to the time it arrived from the foundry in London, England, and was hung in the steeple of the State House. How dismayed they all were when on its very first ringing in 1752, a crack appeared in the brim and ruined the melodious tones!

Two Philadelphia foundrymen (metal workers), John Stow and John Pass, recast the bell. Though the bell was mended, the metal workers had added too much copper and the bell’s tones were terrible to hear. Stow and Pass were criticized so severely that they offered to recast the bell again. This time they added tin to the metal mixtures and once again the bell was mounted in the steeple. The townspeople came to accept the improved, but not particularly beautiful ring.

The new official town bell became known as the “State House Bell.” It called people to Assembly and town meetings, served as a fire alarm, celebrated the end of wars, and tolled the deaths of great men.

By the summer of 1777, the Revolutionary War was at the doorstep of Philadelphia. The citizens feared that the invading British army would seize their bell and melt it into musket balls. It was decided that the bell should be protected. Guarded by 200 cavalrymen, the bell was taken to Allentown in a caravan of 700 wagons and hidden in the basement of the Zion Reformed Church. After the British were ordered to evacuate Philadelphia in 1778, the bell was returned to the city.

Now in its rightful place, the bell rang out the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown and the defeat of the British in America. On April 16, 1783, it proclaimed the treaty of peace that recognized American independence from Britain. The bell was now hailed as the “Bell of the Revolution” and “Old Independence.”

The bell sang the admission of each new state and tolled the death of each of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. It was joyfully rung on each and every July 4th until the day it cracked again!

On July 8, 1835, 83 years since the first mishap, the bell cracked again as it began to toll the death of John Marshall, Chief Justice of the United States.

The bell was not rung again until 1846 for a George Washington birthday celebration. In preparation for the event and in an attempt to improve the sound, the sides of the crack were drilled apart. The experiment failed and when the bell was rung again it sounded worse than ever and the crack spread in a zigzag from the rim up into the inscription. Large bolts were inserted at the top and bottom of the crack to hold the bell’s sides in place.

While no one knows exactly why the bell cracked each time, it is guessed that the original bell was not well cast. Then, each of the two times Stow and Pass melted the bell to fix it they inadvertently made it brittle and weak.

The Liberty Bell, as the bell has been called since the abolitionists coined the name, is still used for patriotic causes. A rubber mallet was used to carefully sound the bell during the Normandy invasion in World War II. The mallet struck the bell one time for each letter in the words “independence” and “liberty” and the bell tones were broadcast by radio to America and to American troops overseas.

As a gesture of gratitude for America’s help in World War II, the original foundry in London offered to repair the Liberty Bell without charge. The reply, though appreciative, stated that the bell and its crack would both remain as a symbol of freedom to Americans.