[Bell Historians] Using tuning forks.

[jimhedgcock <jameshedgcock@h...>]

Whether this 62cwt bell and the other eleven that go with it are good 
sounding, is a matter of opinion. Some people don't like them!

-- In bellhistorians at yahoogroups.com, DJ Bryant <djb122 at y...> wrote:
> Jim wrote:
> 
> > All the classic rings such as York Minster, Worcester Cathedral,
> Beverly, Truro, Chewton Mendip etc were all tuned with 
> > forks. The post war classics of St Nicolas, Liverpool, Bow,
> Cripplegate, Jewry were all tuned without the aid of band 
> > pass filters, computer pitching programmes etc. Something was 
lost
> with the introduction of electronic paraphernalia 
> > with regard to tuning, and at the end of the day it is the sound 
that
> greets the human ear which counts. My ear does 
> > not hear figures, or even needles pointing to figures on the 
indicator
> scale of some electronic machine. It was good to 
> > learn that tuning forks are back in use in the tuning of bells. I
> know that if I had sufficient funds to install a 
> > private ring of 12 with a tenor of 87cwt in Aflat I would insist 
that
> the ring was tuned solely with forks.
> 
> Does it really matter what measuring devices are used? After all, 
they
> are just that - measuring devices to determine the note. Surely it 
is
> not really important which method is used.
> 
> > The question has yet to be answered as to why it is not possible 
these
> days to cast a tenor requiring no tuning (a maiden 
> > bell) or very little tuning. Surely the science and measuring 
devices
> are available to achieve this or
> > has the art been lost? If a founder could cast a good sounding
> maiden
> > tenor of 62 cwt in the 1870's it ought to be possible today. It 
would
> certainly make economic sense.
> 
> Is the St Paul's tenor maiden then? Certainly, many of the 'classic'
> Taylor rings of the first half of the C20 were heavily tuned. York 
tenor
> lost 13 cwt in the process.
> 
> David