The air is stifling hot, with a heavy, metallic smell that sticks in the throat and stings the eyes. In his foundry, which has smoke-blackened walls, Alois Huguenin uses an enormous ladle to pour molten bronze at 1, degrees Celsius 2, degrees Fahrenheit into a metal frame.
For three generations, the century-old traditional foundry in La Chaux-de-Fonds in northwestern Switzerland β the cradle of the country's famous watchmaking industry β has been crafting the bells used at the Olympic Games. The bells are rung for a range of disciplines, including athletics, track cycling, mountain biking and boxing.
Almost half a century after his grandfather made the first bell for the Moscow Olympics in , Huguenin was preparing the bells for the upcoming Paris Games. Huguenin said he had already delivered 38 bells for Paris at the request of the Games' official timekeeper, Omega, which has its chronometric testing laboratory in Biel, around 30 kilometers It tells the athletes "they must give it their all to reach the finish line as quickly as possible," he told AFP.
Recalling that Omega has been timekeeping at the Olympics since , he acknowledged that the bells constitute "a very traditional element. Ten minutes after pouring the molten bronze β with the texture and bright orange-yellow color of volcanic lava β Huguenin can unmould the thick liquid, with a temperature at just degrees Celsius. With heavy blows of his hammer, he breaks the hard, black-sand mould in the frame as smoke billows out.
The bell that emerges is covered with a crust, revealing the work that remains to be done: deburring, sanding, filing and polishing. While not as obsessed with bells as some collectors can be, Huguenin says he is proud his creations are seen by billions. They are always emblazoned with colorful Olympic rings, stand about 20 centimeters 7. But each bell is nonetheless unique, Huguenin insisted, due to the use of traditional techniques, and recycling.
