| Jusat curious: who is Franklin, what is his/her/its tower, and
| what is rolling away the dew and why should we do it?
I described the history of Franklin's Tower a couple of years ago. Since
then, some new facts have come to light (particularly the role of Simon
Legree). Here's my current understanding:
As you probably know, Robert Hunter has a great of love of American History.
The song is about events during the American revolution. 'Franklin' refers
to Benjamin Franklin. The 'Bell' in the tower is the Liberty Bell.
Casting large metal objects is a complicated process. Casting bells is
additonally complicated by the fact that bells must be able to withstand
the stress of ringing, and they must produce a good tone. The Liberty Bell
was not only very large, but it needed to ring loudly and clearly enough
to be heard around the world. This was pushing the limits of 18th century
technology.
As you probably know, Benjamin Franklin was not only a philosopher and statesman,
he was an inventor. He was involved in the design of the Liberty Bell in the
following way:
Franklin postulated that a process which he called "dewing" could be used to
improve the production process of large bells. Dewing basically involves
exposing the freshly cast bell to large quantities of steam while the bell is
still hot. The steam causes a rapid cooling, producing droplet of 'dew' on
the bell. After the dew is formed, the bell is rolled between large cotton
sheets. He described this process as "rolling away the dew".
Unfortunately, Franklin's contempories had a very hard time understanding his
technology. He showed them sample bells, asking him to simply look at the
results without trying to understand the process. This was when he uttered
the now famous quote, "if you get confused, listen to the music play."
In the end, Franklin couldn't convince the foundry to use his dewing process.
Instead they used an alternate process developed by a Frenchman named Simon
Legree (who eventually turned out to be a British agent). Simon's process
involved planting small ice crystals (seeds) into the metal while the bell
was being cast.
As we all know, the Liberty Bell didn't last very long. I believe it had one
good ring, but you can't really tell because it was so long ago.
Apparently the one time it was rung was during a storm. After ringing, the
famous crack developed in the side of the bell and the wind blew through the
crack. They tried ringing the bell again, but the only sound was of the
wind blowing through the crack.
Benjamin Franklin was understandably disgusted. When asked later about the
incident, his only comment was "They planted ice, so they harvested wind."
Other parts of the song refer to other events in the American Revolution, and
specifically to Benjamin Franklin's part in it. In particular, "wildflower seeds"
refer to the rustic colonials, and "mother's face" refers to the British Empire.I'd go into more detail, but I don't have the lyrics in front of me, and I don'twant to spreading any innacurate information.
