[Bell Historians] Re: Canon-retaining headstocks

[Richard Offen]

--- In bellhistorians at yahoogroups.com, David Bryant <david at b...> 
wrote:
> > If Chris and I are thinking of the same ones, they were of 
riveted 
> > plate steel and of a fairly similar shape to their current cast-
iron 
> > ones. 
> 
> There's one of those in the foundry museum - I wasn't sure whether 
this was what was meant.
> 
> > Taylors also hung some bells on a variation of their standard 
iron 
> > headstock. The picutre of Brockworth treble, in Church Bells of 
> > Gloucestershire (page 169),has always amazed me. Quite why the 
bell 
> > bolts don't bend when it's rung, I don't know!
> 
> York St John (ring of six) also have them, along with the ring of 
two at All Saints North Street, York. They used them quite a lot 
before the hoop type came into use.
> 
> The Whitechapel ones are similar. In some cases the bells are 
suspended by ironwork through their canons, but certainly some have 
long unsupported bolts. The tenor at St George Cplegate, Norwich, 
springs to mind.
> 
> David
> 
Yes, the early Whitechapel ones used the canons to suspend the bell 
from this type of headstock and then it was decided that it would be 
safer to use through bolts. There are a couple of hollow canons in 
the foundry display case (hollowness probably caused by gas bubbles 
rising to the head of the bell from the molten metal when the bell 
was cast), which probably explains the change of suspension method.

R