A bell tent

Tent

A tent is a shelter consisting of sheets of fabric or other material draped over or attached to a frame of poles or attached to a supporting rope. While smaller tents may be free-standing or attached to the ground, large tents are usually anchored using guy ropes tied to stakes or tent pegs...

is a human shelter for inhabiting

Dwelling

Dwelling, as well as being a term for a house, or for living somewhere, or for lingering somewhere, is a philosophical concept which was developed by Martin Heidegger. Dwelling is about making yourself at home where the home itself is a building that is a house...

, traveling or leisure. The design is a simple structure, supported by a single central pole, covered with a cotton canvas

Canvas

Canvas is an extremely heavy-duty plain-woven fabric used for making sails, tents, marquees, backpacks, and other items for which sturdiness is required. It is also popularly used by artists as a painting surface, typically stretched across a wooden frame...

. The stability of the tent is reinforced with tension by guy ropes

Guy-wire

A guy-wire or guy-rope, also known as simply a guy, is a tensioned cable designed to add stability to structures . One end of the cable is attached to the structure, and the other is anchored to the ground at a distance from the structure's base...

 connected around the top of the walls and being held down by pegs around the circumference to the ground. It has a circular floor plan of some 10ft and larger.

The multiple sizes of bell tents can be suited to their use or preference and most have a specious interior, with room to sleep a number of people.

History

Indigenous people from around the world have used canvas as a natural breathable material, with suitable properties for use in the elements. Canvas is durable and versatile. Today's modern canvas can be waterproof, mildew resistant

Rot-proof

Rot-proof or rot resistant is a condition of preservation or protection, by a process or treatment of materials used in industrial manufacturing or production to prevent biodegradation and chemical decomposition. Decomposition is a factor in which organic matter breaks down overtime...

, and flame retardant

Flame retardant

Flame retardants are chemicals used in thermoplastics, thermosets, textiles and coatings that inhibit or resist the spread of fire. These can be separated into several different classes of chemicals:...

.

A predecessor to the bell tent, the sibley tent

Sibley tent

The Sibley tent was invented by the American military officer Henry Hopkins Sibley and patented in 1856. Of conical design, it stands about twelve feet high and eighteen feet in diameter. It can comfortably house about a dozen men....

 was invented by Henry Hopkins Sibley

Henry Hopkins Sibley

Henry Hopkins Sibley was a brigadier general during the American Civil War, leading the Confederate States Army in the New Mexico Territory. His attempt to gain control of trails to California was defeated at the Battle of Glorieta Pass...

, who had studied the Native American

Indigenous peoples of the Americas

The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...

 tipi

Tipi

A tipi is a Lakota name for a conical tent traditionally made of animal skins and wooden poles used by the nomadic tribes and sedentary tribal dwellers of the Great Plains...

 during the expeditions he carried out in the American Old West

American Old West

The American Old West, or the Wild West, comprises the history, geography, people, lore, and cultural expression of life in the Western United States, most often referring to the latter half of the 19th century, between the American Civil War and the end of the century...

, he patented his tent design in 1858.

The bell tent is characteristically different to the sibley tent by its walls, raised larger entrance and guy ropes, without the a telescopic tripod or smoke hole, which were characteristics of the tipi.

See also

• Bender tent
  Bender tent
  A bender tent is a simple shelter. A bender is made using flexible branches or withies, such as those of hazel or willow. These are lodged in the ground, then bent and woven together to form a strong dome-shape. The dome is then covered using any tarpaulin available...
  
  
• Lavvu
  Lavvu
  Lavvu is a temporary dwelling used by the Sami people of northern Scandinavia. It has a design similar to a Native American tipi but is less vertical and more stable in high winds. It enables the indigenous cultures of the treeless plains of northern Scandinavia and the high arctic of Eurasia to...
  
  
• List of human habitation forms
• Tipi
  Tipi
  A tipi is a Lakota name for a conical tent traditionally made of animal skins and wooden poles used by the nomadic tribes and sedentary tribal dwellers of the Great Plains...
  
  
• Wigwam
  Wigwam
  A wigwam or wickiup is a domed room dwelling used by certain Native American tribes. The term wickiup is generally used to label these kinds of dwellings in American Southwest and West. Wigwam is usually applied to these structures in the American Northeast...
  
  
• Yaranga
  Yaranga
  A Yaranga is a tent-like traditional mobile home of some nomadic Northern indigenous peoples of Russia, such as Chukchi and Siberian Yupik.A Yaranga is a cone-shaped or rounded reindeer-hide tent. It is built of a light wooden frame covered with reindeer skins or canvas sewn together.The word...
  
  
• Yurt
  Yurt
  A yurt is a portable, bent wood-framed dwelling structure traditionally used by Turkic nomads in the steppes of Central Asia. The structure comprises a crown or compression wheel usually steam bent, supported by roof ribs which are bent down at the end where they meet the lattice wall...