Short Stuff: Liberty Bell | STUFF YOU SHOULD KNOW

[Music]. hey and welcome to the short stuff I'm. Josh and Chuck's here too and so it's. Jerry sitting in for Dave which makes. this short stuff yeah I've been singing. wean all day because of this one oh yeah. are we talking about mollusks. no uh from the song Freedom of 76 when. they sing about the Liberty Bell I don't. know that one Liberty Bell cracked in. half is the line so it's that's been on.

a loop in my head okay I'll bet a b a. bacon steak a perfect match you know. it's been on a loop in my head um either. The Final. Countdown or that one you were whistling. the other day that drove. mean Vega you can a worm it with the. best of them yes you know I was thinking. about we the other day I was like I need. to find something new to like get into. and I was like you know we's got a.

pretty extensive collection and we cool. and I never really got into them not. because I don't like them I just never. got into them so maybe I'll go see if I. can get into we a little bit well I can. send you the the book on how to do that. the order of operation oh okay please do. yeah please do I'll need to send you a. canister of nitrous too though that's. fine I'm not sure if you can do that. through the mail please do uh so we're. talking Liberty Bell that's right and. the reason why we're talking Liberty.

Bell is because well there's no good. reason but let's talk about the Liberty. Bell anyway because it's actually pretty. interesting the Liberty Bell we think of. today as the Liberty Bell is a. fraud yeah let's let's go back in time a. little bit uh to 1751 let's hop in the. old Wayback machine this is oh boy Dusty. as can be don't get too close to that. spider yeah this is very dusty but it. still fires up look at that the flux. capacitor is fluxing nice and off we go.

to 1751 to the state house uh of. Philadelphia the Pennsylvania state. house where they have just brought in uh. the bell and even though it's not named. the Liberty Bell at this point that. would come along we as we see much later. uh it's it's a bell and it was used. although it had very a lot of causes and. purposes Through The Years sure at first. it was just a bell like we ring it when. uh when someone important dies or we.

need to call the the government together. like the reasons you ring a town Bell. someone won at bingo yeah ring that Bell. they called it initially the State House. Bell which is on the nose but. appropriate because it was originally. commissioned by the Pennsylvania. provincial assembly to be the bell in. the Pennsylvania state house in. Philadelphia they didn't even call that. Independence Hall it was the. Pennsylvania state house in Philadelphia. everything was very business-like. bureaucratically named and it told you. what it did and what it was and that's.

how they liked it that's right uh the. Bell itself was cast by Lester and Pac. uh company out of London with the words. Proclaim Liberty throughout all the land. unto all the inhabitants thereof uh. which is apparently referenced uh. reference to Leviticus in the old Bible. duh uh and it was about three feet high. circumference of 12 ft weighed about. 2100 lb 2100 lb and uh like I said it.

was just a bell and here's the thing. about the Liberty Bell on that crack is. no one really agrees on exactly how that. happened no but some historians think. that it cracked the first time it was. used in 1752 after it was installed like. the first time yeah and Lester and P. were like I don't know what you're. talking about right actually it's pretty. cool they made good on a replacement so. the the Pennsylvania provincial assembly. said um pack Lester fellas we we need a.

replacement bell and we're not going to. pay for it okay and they said that's. fine we'll send you another Bell um and. the Pennsylvania provincial assembly was. like well do you I mean you want the. cracked one back do you want us to send. a picture of it or something they're. like you just keep it do whatever you. want with it make belt buckles out of it. Munitions hat buckles if you're still. into the pilgrim thing shoe buckles shoe. buckles all the any kind of buckle you. want to make you go ahead and use that. belt and they said you know what we're. going to actually use this belt to make. a replacement Bell while we wait for the.

real replacement bell and this is where. it gets confusing unnecessarily and I. say we take a break just let all that. sink in all right let's do. [Music]. it Stu you. [Music]. should.

[Music]. [Music]. all right so if I am understanding this. correctly MH you now have two Bells. technically three eventually but one. doesn't exist any longer but it does. because it's now been melted into the. second Bell okay but you also have the. replacement bell right yeah right and.

they were both apparently in the. Pennsylvania state house they were both. used but who knows what happened to this. to the replacement bell that um pack and. Lester sent oh okay so that's the one. that that wasn't officially hung or. hanged I'm not sure what you would say. there I would say hung but then you. would correct me okay so it was the the. one that they fix melted down and fixed. the and redid the original that is the. official one then that's what what we. call the Liberty Bell yes okay all right.

but they didn't call it the Liberty Bell. back then again they called it the State. House Bell and then they were like which. one they're like the original one. they're like I thought that one was. melted down they're like yes this is the. one that we melted down from the. original yeah it went on a lot every. time somebody asked about it so they're. Belling this thing up they're using it. as you would use a Bell in. 1777 uh when the British were. encroaching uh They removed the Bell CU. they didn't want it uh captured and. melted down into into bullets basically.

MH uh buckles or buckles they hit it. again uh later on in a church oh I'm. sorry they hid it in the church then in. Allentown and then in 1785 they raised. it again and it was really just a bell. until 1824 when uh Marquee de Lafayette. uh was the last general of the. Revolution that survived went on a tour. of the United States and America that's. when America was like Hey like let's. rename this place Independence call and.

let's let's call this thing uh well. actually it took another 11 years to. call it the Liberty Bell even yeah it. was some abolitionists who were like oh. you got a Liberty Bell huh you know who. the Liberty Bell isn't ring for enslaved. people so let's do away with slavery and. they actually used the the Liberty Bell. um and the new national pride around it. to really kind of point out just how. slavery is a terrible thing and we need. to do away with it yeah so here's where. it gets really interesting that first. Bell is damaged and cracked so they melt.

it down make this new one the newbell. cracks as well and uh they're not. exactly sure how this happened either. but they think it was in 1835 when it. was rung to Mark the death of uh John. Marshall Chief Justice of the United. States uh to mark his passing and other. people say you know no it was really the. 1840s during the Fourth of July when. things got really Rowdy uh or other. people said no it was on February 23rd. when we were were getting hammered uh.

celebrating George Washington's birthday. like people are just ringing the heck. out of this thing uh and no one's really. sure the National Park Service for their. um point of view just says you know it. just cracked after 90 years of use like. quit asking just be quiet just take the. pamplet and be quiet exactly but. apparently there's some researchers who. in 1975 were like actually it wasn't. just like hard use this Bell was Des to. crack and the reason why is because.

their um high TIN content it's like a. quarter tin almost um that you don't. want to use that in a bell that peels um. maybe a decorative Bell something you. find at like Kirklands or something that. you it's not meent to ring sure make. that out of tin but you're using like a. functional Workhorse Bell do not put 25%. tin in that thing no you've been telling. me that for years sure uh the well they. tried to fix uh in 1846 because.

Washington's birthday was rolling around. again and they're like listen you know. what we do here in Philly we get drunk. we ring this. Bell uh we act incredibly inhospitable. for our professional sports uh teams and. the teams that play them don't get us. started on Santa. Claus and they used something called. stop drilling which in which they. actually widen the crack the crack now. is 21 inches long and about uh an inch a.

couple of centimeters wide MH and they. would widen it so basically when it was. rung the the two sides would not touch. each other at all and create this awful. Buzz the bo yo yeah exactly so they. widened it so they it wouldn't touch but. another crack uh developed and they were. like we got to find a better way to. celebrate Washington's birthday we can't. ring this thing anymore they said forget. it forget it I'm done with this stupid. Bell that's what they said yeah so it. became a true symbol after that point um.

they just stopped ringing it and. apparently over the years people have. been like we got to fix that thing we. got to ring that thing again it's a big. deal and other people are like don't. even bother it's like better as a symbol. and in fact it proved it's worth pretty. quickly on as a symbol um during World. War I I guess it went on a wh Whistle. Stop tour of the United States on the. back of a train and um drummed up uh. enthusiasm and support for liberty bonds. um like they were called Liberty Bonds.

because the Liberty Bell was basically. the mascot of this Bond drive to raise. money for the us to fight World War I. and they ended up raising in today's. dollars billions of dollars from Liberty. Bonds thanks to that cute little bell. with the crack in it yeah pretty pretty. good earned its worth yeah they think a. a quarter of the United States saw the. Liberty Bell during that tour that's how. popular it was people just thronged to. see it yeah that's right pretty neat NE. pretty neat and but if anyone is.

emailing me right now oh yeah well the. Phillies own the Braves the past two. years that's exactly what I'm talking. about yeah get out of sports radio it's. toxic uh you got anything else uh I got. nothing else okay well uh since Chuck. said that short stuff's. out stuff you should know is a. production of iHeart radio for more. podcasts ihart radio visit the ihart. radio app Apple podcasts or wherever you.

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