The McGaffin Carillon in University Circle

Consisting of forty-seven cast bronze bells, the carillon was made in Asten, The Netherlands by the Royal Eijsbouts Bell Foundry. The bells, made of metal in the proportion of eighty percent copper and twenty percent tin, are tuned to the equal tempered scale. Each bell produces a perfect Flemish bell tone consisting of a strike tone, a hum tone a full octave below, a minor third, a fifth and an octave above the strike tone. Besides being perfectly in tune within itself, each bell must be in tune with other bells of the carillon.

The clapper of each bell is connected by a stainless steel wire to the clavier in a room immediately below the bell deck. The weight of the carillonneur's strike on the batons of the clavier determines the loudness of the sounding bells. The actual bell weight of the carillon is around fifteen thousand pounds, with the bourdon bell weighing twenty eight hundred pounds and the smallest bell twenty-nine pounds.

Around the top of each bell is a frieze made up of figures of the four gospel writers with their medieval symbols. Also included is the inscription "Schulmerich-Eijsbouts me fecit for The Church of the Covenant, Cleveland, MCMLXVIII." (Schulmerich-Eijsbouts made me for The Church of the Covenant, 1968.) -- from the dedication program of 9 June 1968