This church, with a 14th century tower and a nave of 1754, was burnt to the ground by vandals in 1977. The original peal of bells, a Dobson 6, were destroyed in the blaze. The church has been completely restored, and now has a unique peal of bells, comprising six steel bells originally hung at […]
This article, by John Wilton of the Liverpool Bell Restoration and Maintenance Group, was published in the Ringing World of February 24th, 1984 (no. 3800, pages 161 – 169). I am very grateful to John and the Ringing World for permission to reuse this article. It gives a striking account of what amateurs can achieve […]
In my article written last year on the acoustics of steel bells, I suggested that although it is often said that rust affects the tone of steel bells, in practice this seems not to be the case. I have observed that Bochumer steel bells of the 1950s and 1960s have true-harmonic partials when measured today, presumably little […]
This article was first published in The Ringing World, issue 5523, March 3 2017, page 196, and revised January 2023. In November 2015, I sang in a concert in the Gustav Adolphus Memorial Church in Nuremburg. During the concert, the 3.4 tonne steel tenor rang the curfew, a lovely and captivating sound. The experience inspired […]
Steel bells Bells are normally cast in an alloy of copper and tin. In the second half of the 19th century, almost 1,000 cast steel bells were produced by Naylor Vickers in Sheffield. These bells have a reputation for poor sound. But in Germany, Bochumer Verein cast huge quantities of steel bells, and from the […]
The science and history of bell sounds This is the text of a talk given to the Central Council of Church Bellringers on September 8th, 2019. Introduction This talk is a journey through 1000 years of bellfounding, with many examples of bell sounds that show how bells have changed over the millennium. I will demonstrate […]
This paper was originally published as “Auditive und objective Bestimmung der Schlagtonhöhe von Historischen Kirchenglocken” in Acustica 1984 Vol. 54 pp. 129-144. I translated it from the original German into English in autumn 2003. It is published here with the kind permission of Prof. Ernst Terhardt. One of the objectives of work described in the […]
This paper, published in translation in Rossing’s book Acoustics of Bells is of interest for a number of reasons. Most importantly, it explains the physical processes involved in bell tuning and in particular where on the inside of the bell the tuner removes metal to tune particular partials. This information is derived from actual measurements on bells. […]
Clinton Meneely was the proprietor of a bellfoundry in Troy, in New York state in the US. There was a second Meneely foundry run by a relative of Clinton’s close by in Watervliet, West Troy. I am grateful to David Cawley for the following information: “It’s significant that it was Clinton Meneely (Troy Bell Foundry […]
Coventry Cathedral has a fine peal of twelve bells (plus two semitones) cast by Gillett and Johnston in 1927 but not hung for ringing until 1986 because of structural problems with the tower. Coventry Cathedral was completely destroyed in an air raid on the night of 14/15 November 1940, apart from the tower, but the […]