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Crotal bells, also known as rumble bells or a closed bell, in a shape derived from the sphere, is a hollow body completely closed except for one or more slits or perforations. Most crotals are made of metal- usually copper, bronze or brass also some are made of clay, or even wood. Usually they hold a pellet inside, which is made of metal, hard clay, or stone. The pellet serves to ring the crotal by striking against its inside surface when it is shaken. For this reason the crotal has remained small in size and light enough in weight to be easily carried by man or beast and shaken without fatigue by a motion of the body. In comparison with the open-mouth bell the crotal might be described as two cups joined together and not yet separated.

The crotal may be not only the first bell, but one of the first musical instruments made by man.

If man in his evolution first made us of natural objects around him for his needs and then reproduced these in amorphous materials, he first shook a dried seed-pod or marine shell with a stone inside to make a useful or pleasing sound, and then reproduced it in copper with a tiny stone inside. In doing so he would find that his copper reproduction made a louder and longer lasting sound than its natural model. Some of the crotals of primative peoples never departed in form from that of their model in nature. they are necessarily globular, but thier shape may vary from that of a long pod to a stubby acorn.

The crotal has continued to be used because its shape has three advantages over that of the open-mouth bell. First it can hold a loose pellet for striking, which is a very simple object to obtain and which obviates making a member on the inside of the bell to hold a clapper. Second, there is no rim to get damaged or cause damage by fall or misuse. third, wile it must be shaken to ring, it can be sounded held in any position. these advantages are combinded best in spherical form, which has therefore become the most popular.

The crotal is seldom a completely eclosed body. those that consist of two joined halves with the pellet inserted before they are joined. In some of these crotals the two halves are made to sound slightly different pitches. The usual crotal has either serveral narrow slots, petal fashion, a single wider slot, in some examples terminating at holes in the lower or upper half. There are seldom holes in both top and bottom.

There is also a border-line instrument which appears to be a crotal but is really and open-mouth bell with numerous prongs projecting below the rim and curving inward. this sort of bell may be hemispheric or flared at the rim. An examples is the famous bell of Santa Chiara in the Covent of San Damiana near Assisi Italy. The prongs reinforce the tone' in many examples they are also designed to prevent the clapper from falling out, should it become detached.

Description
They were orb shaped bells made of bronze with a slot cut down the side and a round iron ball placed inside, which made the bell ring when it moved. These bells were used to warn other horse drawn vehicle users (mostly on country roads) that another vehicle was approaching. They came in many sizes from a small 1 inch version to bells that were many inches across.

History
Bells are one of a very small number of artefacts that have been in virtually continuous production for over 4000 years. The earliest known examples were made in China before 2000 BC, and they were familiar everyday objects to the ancient Indians, Egyptians, Greeks and Romans. They have served a number of purposes, from ritual, magical and religious, to musical, signalling and warning. Apart from their functional role, bells have served as decorative devices throughout the ages, and continue to be popular as harness embellishments to the present day. Their longevity is reflected by the fact that the Guinness Book of Records lists the Whitechapel Bell Foundry as Britain's oldest manufacturing company, having been established in 1570, or possibly even earlier, and still producing bells today.

The earliest bells were cup-shaped and were struck externally with a separate striker, but it was not long before the attached internal clapper was invented, and the two types have co-existed ever since. The crotal bell was developed somewhat later. It differs from the preceding types in that its clapper is loose and contained within an enclosed chamber with perforations to allow transmission of the sound.

Although crotal bells were possibly first used in antiquity, surviving examples that can reliably be dated before the medieval period are rare. The earliest dateable examples identified while carrying out research for the present article are some of the 9th century AD, recovered from female graves in Gotland, Sweden. They were found on chains suspended from chatelaine-type brooches, and appear to be of similar construction to English crotal bells dateable to the 13th century.

It is worth mentioning that, depending on context, sleigh bells, jingle bells, pellet bells, hawk bells and rumbler bells are all terms used to describe bells of the crotal type. Technically they are regarded as rattles, rather than true bells

Usage
They were either hung on a small leather and iron harness bracket above the horse's collar on smaller vehicles. On larger vehicles, such as delivery wagons, they were driven into the wooden frame of the wagon.They were used on horse-drawn vehicles before motorised vehicles were common.