[Bell Historians] Alfred Bowell

[Richard Offen]

--- In bellhistorians at yahoogroups.com, "Andrew Higson, Bellmaster" 
<andrew_higson at t...> wrote:
> Frindsbury were not as close to harmonic bells as Smarden sound to 
be. Whilst we got the tenor in line with some ease, the rest all 
ended up with hums about 30 - 50 cents sharp and fundamentals 
increasingly flat toward the treble end to the tune of about 200 
cents. The tierces were all a shade flat. Having retired the John 
Wilner 4th which had 10 holes in the head (but no centre hole) the 
peal sounded good in the tuning shop. I haven't had the benefit of 
hearing them in situ.
> 
> Andrew Higson

Thanks for that Andrew. It's interesting to know. 

Although I've never checked them properly, the treble at Smarden 
certainly sounds as if it may have a flat fundamental, but the 
others, from memory (God, it's now nearly 30 years since I last rang 
there!), were pretty good. I wonder if we can get a recording of 
them to Bill Hibbert to find out more?

I rang a good number of peals at Fridnsbury during the early 70s and 
remember them as being a good, clunky, percussive peal that were 
lacking in breath inside the tower. They were pretty unforgiving 
and the result was that we rang some very good peals on them. It 
will be interesting to see how they've changed.

I wonder in how many bells Bowell got close to true harmonic/Simpson, 
or whatever we like to call it now?

Richard