G & J headstocks-Using Tuning Forks

[nigelsdtaylor <nigeltaylor@k...>]

Regarding the box-section headstocks used by G & J until around 1924: 
the patterns were made for bells up to 5'-0" diameter. Until the 
1930's, the largest bell hung with this pattern stock i think was 
Wolverhampton tenor (4'-8"). When the patterns for the coreless 
stocks were made, they were made over a period of 2-3 years, and 
initially, rather than mix the two types, they were only used when a 
ring of bells suited the sizing of the existing new patterns. The 
largest bell hung with the coreless type that I am aware of was Bow 
11th (4'-8 1/2") in 1933. For St. Mary's Nottingham (1935) and St. 
John's Croydon (1936), the tenor bells (both 4'-10") were hung with 
the box-section headstocks. I can only surmise that they did this to 
avoid the expense of making a new pattern that would be rarely used. 
I have heard that Cyril Johnston "poached" Taylor's pattern designer, 
hence the marked similarity between the Taylor and G & J box-section 
patterns.

There has been some chat recently on the subject of tuning forks. Jim 
Phillips seems to think that this is a lost art, and considers that 
rings tuned with forks are somehow superior. Forks are simply a 
measuring device as are band pass filters, stroboscopes, and computer 
pitching programmes. Providing the forks are well maintained and are 
accurate, it is possible to pitch partial tones to within 0.25-0.125 
of 1 Hz. This is more accurate than some of the computer programmes 
that default to 0.5 Hz. increments. I use forks routinely at 
Whitechapel, usually for tuning old bells. The main advantage of 
using the stroboscope is that a few strikes of a bell will give you 
all the partial tones, and the computer programmes require a bell to 
be sounded only once, whereas pitching a bell with forks will 
typically take at least two minutes, particularly if a bell has 
pronounced "beats". Like other pitching devices, forks can be used 
for any key, in any pitch standard and in any temperament.