In Fig 51 is shown a brass lantern (open and closed) which is now the property of the Sunderland Public Libraries and Art Gallery Committee, a very interesting specimen of an eighteenth-century collapsible lantern of brass and horn. It measures 6-1/4 in. high and is 3-3/8 in. square. Such lanterns were very common in the eighteenth century, and indeed in still more recent times in country places where they were very necessary before country roads were improved and rural thoroughfares lighted. We must, however, fain pass over street-lighting for the lanterns which have been copied so many times in more recent days. _Apropos_ of lanterns of copper carried by the wary traveller and of the copper lightning conductor on the church steeple, an indispensable feature still, the following lines are quoted: "In the olden time, along the street, A glimmering lantern led the feet When on a midnight stroll; But now we catch, when night is night, A piece of lightning from the sky And stick it on a pole." [Illustration: FIG. 51.--OLD BRASS LANTERN. (_In the Sunderland Museum._)] X BELLS AND BELL-METAL CASTINGS CHAPTER X BELLS AND BELL-METAL CASTINGS The founders' secrets--Great bells of historic fame--The uses of bells--Old mortars. The metal of which bells are made differs only from that used for other copper wares in its alloy. The ancients, however, made many mysteries about the constituents of the metal by which they were able to produce such beautiful notes and musical sounds. The modern bellfounder uses about 75 parts of copper and 25 parts of tin, varying it sometimes by a mixture of zinc and lead, and in that he differs little from the bellfounder of old, except that the older craftsman made a secret of his alloy and sometimes added a small quantity of other metals. The theory is that a large percentage of copper gives a deep tone, whereas the greater addition of zinc and tin gives a sharper ring. The Founders' Secrets.