[Bell Historians] Taylor Clappers

[David Bryant]

> The tenor at Malvern Link (1899) has the conventional arrangement, but the
> bells installed in 1900 (now 3-9/10) have the stirrup top design.

Has the tenor clapper been replaced since 1899?

On the subject of Taylor clappers, in 1924 they patented two designs
(illustrated in Jennings' book on bell fittings) of counterbalanced clapper.
One has a counterweight shaped like a third of a cheese welded to the top of
the clapper, aimed at making large bells go up right. They were used at
York, Worcester and various other places, and work OK until the weld breaks
and the counterweight falls off, as tends to happen.

The other type had a long staple and short clapper. Bolted to the top of the
clapper shank at right-angles was a cross bar, and bolted to the upper face
of this were two counterweights, designed so that most of their weight was
above the pivot. These were designed to equalise the timing of the bell and
the clapper, but were not a success and the only ones I know of were in the
four trebles at York - they have now been altered to clappers of standard
design. If anyone knows of any more clappers like this I'd be interested to
hear of them.

David