The scientists touted the Russian Tsar Bell as "the largest confirmed bell ever cast at over 200 tons."
"But… before it was ever struck, this Goliath of bells broke. Its parts have been on display in the Kremlin ever since. Our team of UC Berkeley, Stanford, and U Michigan researchers made the Tsar Bell ring for the very first time," they said.
By creating a computational model of the Tsar Bell, the researchers were able reveal for the first time what this enormous bell would have sounded like using "Finite Element Analysis (FEA) and other simulations."
The Tsar Bell on a large pedestal in the Kremlin, Moscow. This is the largest bell in the World(202tons & 6,6metres) pic.twitter.com/bOcA3PZKsZ
— MariaMatilde (@MariucciaPoli) 23 мая 2014 г.
Currently, the bell is the world's largest, weighing almost 202,000 kilograms with a height of 6.14 meters and diameter of 6.6 meters as well as thickness of up to 61 centimeters.
Tsar bell in Moscow Kremlin biggest bell in the world none has heard ringing. pic.twitter.com/LAlRsuMqlr
— virendra kumar sinha (@virendr41314834) 30 августа 2015 г.
The bell was completed in 1735, but seriously damaged in May 1737, when a major fire broke out at the Moscow Kremlin. The fire spread to the temporary wooden support structure for the bell, and guards threw cold water on it, causing eleven cracks, and a huge 10,000-kilogram slab to break off.
