Page:Great Neapolitan Earthquake of 1857.djvu/431

Rh estimates it at 7 cantari = 1225 lbs., which agrees with my calculations from volume.

The appearance of the church and tower is shown in Photog. No. 207 (Coll. Roy. Soc.), as seen from the N. W. Nothing can be inferred from the fall of this bell as to the direction of the wave-path (which we have already got from other data), inasmuch as it was obvious that a line drawn from the centre of the tower to the centre of gravity of the bell, at its place upon the ground at $$g$$, would be far from representing truly the plane in which its trajectory of descent had been made. It had first descended to $$n$$, and coming in contact with the eave tiles, had then taken a new course, and been thrown directly outwards or westward from the wall, in its further descent.

It was also observable from the scratches, &c., on the bell, that the eastern pintle had given way first, so that the full force of the shock had not acted in projecting it. The shock acting at the centre of gravity $$s$$ (No. 2), and the resistance of the last held pintle $$p$$, had caused the bell to rotate slightly before falling, and given it along with its glancing off the eave tiles, a much more westerly direction of descent, than was due to the direction of wave-path alone. Both these extraneous forces also had reduced the horizontal distance to which it would have been thrown, had it freely pitched to the ground in its original path—both pintles being freed together.

Taking the vertical height of fall to be that from the centre of gravity of the bell as it hung, to the level of the eave tiles, and the breach therein as marking the horizontal distance thrown, and applying the equation—