[Bell Historians] Taylor's 1895

[Richard Offen]

--- In bellhistorians at yahoogroups.com, "David Bryant" <david at b...> 
wrote:
> > [They became a standard Taylors' fitting until the advent of ball
> bearings,
> > in and after 1913. I don't recall having seen any (Heywood 
lubricators
> that
> > is) pre-dating 1896. Taylors were still using them in the 1950s 
if asked
> > (e.g. St Leonard Bridgnorth). C D]
> 
> Why were they supplying plain bearings in 1950?
> 
> David

Because customers insisted on them - Cecil Pipe was very insistent 
that the newly augmented ten at Grundisburgh be hung on plain 
bearings and I suspect this was the case with the Bridgnorth band.

I'm not sure that I blame them either. Bells on well engineered, 
well maintained plain bearings go superbly well and, often, are not 
subject to the 'suck and blow' that you sometimes get with ball 
bearings. 

One only has to ring at places like Wrotham (Kent) to discover how 
well a ring of bells can go on such bearings - they are still on the 
original 1911 bearings, which were renovated by G & J (the clock firm 
were still doing some bell work in those days) in 1976, and are as 
well behaved and good mannered peal of bells as you could wish to 
ring on!

Richard