[Bell Historians] Warners and Harmonic Tuning

[Andrew Aspland]

The eight at Haddington have tuned up remarkably well - I only noticed one
bell (second I think) which was not quite right.

The sanctus bell at St Wilfrid's Harrogate is Warner 1914 and is fairly
close to true harmonic. The figures from Bill's bit of Software (excellent
bit of software) are:
Hum	-2434.1 (-2400)
Prime	-1173 (-1200)
Tierce	-890.5 (-900)
Quint	-552.1 (-500)
Nominal	E -17
Super Quint	690.6 (700)
Octave Nominal 1234.1 (1200)
It is not marvellously close but it is heading in the right direction. It
is also very well cast and very strong toned and I have the pleasure(?) of
hearing it every day.

Which brings me on to another issue - that of casting bells "old style" to
match. Invariably the ones I have heard do not match - I know that
sometimes the bells are not the right shape to match but when attempts have
been made to get the profile the same as the old bells they still don't
match.

I have a little theory that it is to do with quality of casting. If you
have an old bell with a fair amount of porosity and a new bell of similar
profile but well cast then they don't sound the same - the new bell is much
stronger toned and if the upper partials in it are discordant then it can
sound quite unpleasant whereas the old bell lacks the strength of tone and
the upper partials don't sing out.

Anyone any evidence to support this?

Andrew