Bell Notes

[Bill Hibbert <bill@h...>]

Mike Chester:

> A is now 440Hz, where as before it was
> slightly different, (help me here, Bill!).

Spot on, no help needed! Pitch standards have moved around 
considerably and A=440 was chosen as recently as 1939. There is much 
history I could provide here but it is not very important 
because . . . 

> the given note of a bell has always been
> approximate

Elphick's 'Craft of the Bellfounder' says (page 98): 'Even as late as 
the end of the 19th century some founders used to pick out the bell 
with the flattest note in the ring, file up a set of tuning forks to 
suit its nominal and tune the others to it'. Whitechapel have told me 
in the past that this was certainly their practice.

Bill H