[Bell Historians] Trebles on higher numbers

[Richard Offen]

--- In bellhistorians at yahoogroups.com, Carl S Zimmerman 
<csz_stl at s...> wrote:
> At 10:21 +0200 2004/08/10, David Bryant wrote:
> >I understand that the treble at the Bullring is measurably quieter
> >than the 2nd because it is thicker and therefore there isn't as 
much
> >clapper throw.
> 
> I'm surprised that no one has reacted to this point yet. There is 
no 
> *direct* connection between thickness and clapper throw. Two bells 
> of the same pitch but different thickness will have different 
> external profiles but the same internal profiles, because it is 
> internal diameter which controls pitch. (Why else would tuning be 
> done on the inside rather than the outside?) Therefore those two 
> bells will have the *same* internal space available for clapper 
> throw. (The thicker bell may well have a larger diameter at the 
lip, 
> but it won't have a larger diameter at the sound bow--the point of 
> impact of the clapper.)
> 

Tuning is surely carried out on the internal surface because of 
inscriptions and stuff on the external surface. The pitch is 
affected just as much by turning the outer profile as inner - a point 
proved in the tuning of handbells. As far as I am aware, bells 
are "thickened up" by altering the internal profile not the outer.

R