[Bell Historians] Major third bells

[Susan & Christopher Dalton]

> I was looking at the tuning of the old tenor at Kidderminster for some
> other purposes and happened to notice that it had a major tierce:
> 821.5 cents below the nominal or 378.5 cents above the strike -
> sharper than the tierce of the major third bell in Taylor's museum.
> The bell, of course, was Mears 1857 and I assume had no trace of a
> bulge in the waist. (Mind you, the rest of the partials were pretty
> chaotic!) Accident or design?
>
As a sweeping generalisation, major-third tierces only become
interesting/remarkable when the nominal, hum (and preferably fundamental
also) are in unison, i.e. in 'true-harmonic' bells.

And they can certainly be achieved without bulging midriffs.  But are they
desirable?

C D