[Bell Historians] Re: Clapper failure information request

[Richard Offen]

--- In bellhistorians at yahoogroups.com, "David Beacham" 
<david1.beacham at ...> wrote:
>
> Some while ago I mentioned, in regard to Worcester Cathedral, that 
whilst we 
> were waiting for E&S to manufacture a new SG tenor clapper, we had 
a 
> previously broken E&S SG clapper arc-welded locally and put back in 
the 
> bell. To our great surprise, it sounded great because it rebounded 
at least 
> two inches after impact, which it had not done before it broke. 
That clapper 
> survived the three or so weeks  that it was in use (including a QP) 
before 
> the new SG clapper arrived. We still have it, but it has not been 
refitted 
> since.
> 

It's all very interesting.   

I was watching our tenor clapper at Swan Bells on Saturday (very easy 
to do there!).   It is a fairly thick-stemmed, lightly 
counterbalanced clapper of SG iron, manufactured by Whitechapel in 
the late 1980s when the bells came out here.   The clapper rebounds 
about two inches on impact, which is probably why the bell sounds so 
good.

I shall not tempt providence by commenting on its durability, but 
suffice to say it gets far more use than most bells of its weight!

Richard