Specifications
Weight:	73,381 lb (33,285 kg)
Diameter:	12 feet (3.7 m)
Material:	80% copper, 20% tin
Yoke:	16,512 pounds (7,490 kg)
Clapper:	6,878 pounds (3,120 kg)
Location:	Newport Newport, Kentucky Newport is a city in Campbell County, Kentucky, United States, at the confluence of the Ohio and Licking rivers. The population was 15,273 at the 2010 census. Historically, it was one of four county seats of Campbell County. Newport is part of the Greater Cincinnati, Ohio Metro Area which... , Kentucky Kentucky The Commonwealth of Kentucky is a state located in the East Central United States of America. As classified by the United States Census Bureau, Kentucky is a Southern state, more specifically in the East South Central region. Kentucky is one of four U.S. states constituted as a commonwealth... , United States United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
Casting Date:	December 11, 1998
Musical note Note In music, the term note has two primary meanings:#A sign used in musical notation to represent the relative duration and pitch of a sound;#A pitched sound itself.... :	A

The Newport, Kentucky

Newport, Kentucky

Newport is a city in Campbell County, Kentucky, United States, at the confluence of the Ohio and Licking rivers. The population was 15,273 at the 2010 census. Historically, it was one of four county seats of Campbell County. Newport is part of the Greater Cincinnati, Ohio Metro Area which...

 World Peace Bell is one of more than twenty Peace Bell

Bell (instrument)

A bell is a simple sound-making device. The bell is a percussion instrument and an idiophone. Its form is usually a hollow, cup-shaped object, which resonates upon being struck...

s around the World

World

World is a common name for the whole of human civilization, specifically human experience, history, or the human condition in general, worldwide, i.e. anywhere on Earth....

. It weighs 33,285 kg (73,381 lb) and is 3.7 m (12 feet) wide. From 2000 until 2006, it was the largest swinging bell in the World. It was dedicated on December 31, 1999, and was first swung as the year 2000 opened.

The plan in 1997 was to cast the bell near Newport in an on-site foundry. The bell would have hung in a 1400 feet (426.7 m) Millennium Monument tower, to open on New Year's Eve 1999, with a large carillon

Carillon

A carillon is a musical instrument that is typically housed in a free-standing bell tower, or the belfry of a church or other municipal building. The instrument consists of at least 23 cast bronze, cup-shaped bells, which are played serially to play a melody, or sounded together to play a chord...

 having this bell as the largest. At first the bell was called "The Millennium Bell". Later the plans were reduced to a smaller tower for the bell, with a museum.

The Verdin Company managed the project on the U.S. side on behalf of the Millennium Monument Company http://www.idc-medici.org/Pages_GB/Deriv1_bas_Paccard.html. The bell itself was cast in the premises of a ship propeller foundry at Nantes

Nantes

Nantes is a city in western France, located on the Loire River, from the Atlantic coast. The city is the 6th largest in France, while its metropolitan area ranks 8th with over 800,000 inhabitants....

 France, under the strict supervision of staff from French Bellfounders Fonderie Paccard

Fonderie Paccard

Fonderie Paccard is a French foundry founded in 1796, which has cast more than 120,000 bells located throughout the world. The foundry has been continuously operated for seven generations by the Paccard family. The largest bell cast by Paccard is the World Peace Bell....

 of Annecy. The Mastermind behind this bell is veteran bellfounder Pierre Paccard who realized this mammoth feat together with his sons Philippe and Cyril Paccard under the close collaboration of their Master Founder Miguel Lopez. The finished bell was eventually sent by ship to New Orleans.

The bell was carried up the Mississippi

Mississippi River

The Mississippi River is the largest river system in North America. Flowing entirely in the United States, this river rises in western Minnesota and meanders slowly southwards for to the Mississippi River Delta at the Gulf of Mexico. With its many tributaries, the Mississippi's watershed drains...

 and Ohio River

Ohio River

The Ohio River is the largest tributary, by volume, of the Mississippi River. At the confluence, the Ohio is even bigger than the Mississippi and, thus, is hydrologically the main stream of the whole river system, including the Allegheny River further upstream...

s on a barge in summer 1999. Stops were made along the rivers for special celebrations, before its arrival at Newport, Kentucky. The arrival coincided with Tall Stacks

Tall Stacks

Tall Stacks, formally known as the Tall Stacks Music, Arts, and Heritage Festival, is a festival held every three or four years in the Cincinnati, Ohio area, which celebrates the city's heritage of the riverboat. The sixth edition was held on October 4 through October 8, 2006...

 Festival 1999, held along the Cincinnati-Covington-Newport section of the Ohio River. This event was named the nation's Top Tourism Event by the American Bus Association (ABA) in 1999.

The bell was swung for ringing on January 1, 2000 at midnight; struck 12 times and was heard for distances of about 25 miles (40.2 km). The bell is swung on special occasions as well as daily at five minutes before noon. The time difference in the daily ring is to avoid interference with the nearby courthouse bells, which ring exactly at noon.

The striker, which chimes the bell on the hour, is of cast iron and was produced at Cast-Fab Technologies, Inc. in Cincinnati, Ohio. A special iron was used to prevent the striker from damaging the bell when it strikes the outside rim of the bell (see right side of photo). The striker allows the bell to be chimed without swinging it.

The bell tower, the bridge between the museum and bell and most of the other components of the Millennium Monument were produced at local companies to the Newport area.

External links

• Youtube video of the peacebell in action