[Bell Historians] Re: G&J Simpson rings

[Richard Offen]

> In 1921 JT & Co strongly advised against using this wood frame to 
hold the
> ten bells they hoped to install. G&J got the job and kept the old 
frame, the
> results being particularly unsatisfactory.
> 
> The towel was thrown in after Maidstone were recast and installed 
in a new
> frame. An advantage was that the Rochester G&J fittings were the 
Taylor-type
> box-section headstocks, which with the wheels and clappers were re-
used. New
> gudgeons and bearings, Hastings stays & radius slides, and rollers.
> Rochester's tower is huge, and the 1959/60 Taylor frame matches it!
> 

Why was it an advantage that the fittings were of the "Taylor" type? 

Surely when you're designing a new frame in a tower that size it 
doesn't matter a stuff what the fittings are like as you can design 
the frame around them. It wouldn't have made any difference if the 
headstocks had been Gillett's web pattern, the new bearings meant 
that the fixing hole centres would have exaclty fitted a Taylor frame 
side, making the whole thing a piece of cake!

R