Kingweston, and aluminium bells

[oakcroft13]

What struck me about the picture of the Kingweston bell was the way 
it was mounted on the headstock. With such a flat crown, I could 
imagine the headstock damping any vibrations in the crown. Bob Perrin 
has published a paper on the effect on bell timbre of crown damping 
and large bosses on the top of the bell. If anyone is interested, I 
could dig out the reference (I have a copy he sent me the other day).

On the subject of aluminium bells, I visited the Paccard foundry in 
Annecy a couple of years ago. They had a complete range of aluminium 
bells (dozens, all different sizes) on racking down the side of the 
moulding shop. My French is not brilliant, my knowledge of French 
bell-fouding terms non-existent, but I finally discovered that they 
no longer strickle bells but use the aluminium 'false bells' to 
construct both cope and core. Inscriptions are made of wax and stuck 
on the 'false bell' before the cope is formed around it.

Bill H