Aluminium Bells

[Ben Willetts]

On 17 February, I wrote:
> as far as I know, it's only Malmark that casts aluminium handbells.

... and so I wrote to them, asking if they could briefly summarise the
differences in weight and size between aluminium and bell-metal. I received
no response.

> I have a photo somewhere of me (several years ago) holding two of
> the aluminium bass bells, if anyone is interested to see their size.

I cannot find the photo I was talking about, which I think was taken in
Albuquerque in 1996, but I did find a photo of me in Edmonton four years
previously, aged 14, holding what I assume is an aluminium 36C. Photo is
scanned and attached to this email.

>From the photo I estimate the bell's diameter to be about 21/22 inches.
Compare this with a (Whitechapel; Malmark don't give diameters on their
webpage) 29C of 11.4 inches and 32G of 13.8 inches. It seems likely that
the aluminium bell is larger than the bell-metal bell of the same note.

Notice (from the bell on the table) that the clapper strikes right on the
lip of the bell!

Ben