[Bell Historians] Baton Clavier

[Carl S Zimmerman]

At 15:19 +0000 05/12/19, George Dawson wrote:
>I'm sure CSZ will tell you that it is typical of American manufactured
>chimes!
>GAD

George is right! ;-) But Over Here we call them pumphandle 
chimestands, not baton claviers (a term reserved for the type of 
keyboard that is typical of carillons, whether English-made or 
otherwise).

In fact, the chimestand pictured was manufactured by 
Meneely/Watervliet for the 11-bell chime installed in Hopedale, 
Mass., in 1910. You can find my page about it at 
http://www.gcna.org/data/MAHOPEDL.HTM, and on that page is a link to 
an full article about the church which contains the chime. That page 
leads to another with much more information about the bells, 
including a slightly distorted (and much smaller) version of the 
photo which started this thread.

Thanks, Richard!

CSZ

P.S. The church article refers to "ropes", but as you can see from 
the large version of the photo, the connections from the chimestand 
to the bells are wooden rods. The round "faucet handles" at the 
level of the music rack are to adjust the length of each connection; 
that's primitive by modern standards, but quite effective.

One unusual aspect of this chime is that the swinging tenor is 
situated within the main frame, as you can see. This arrangement was 
used because the tower is very broad but low; normally a swinging 
tenor is placed on top of the chime frame.