[Bell Historians] Tuning figures

[Richard Offen]

--- In bellhistorians at yahoogroups.com, "Andrew Higson" <andrew-
higson at ...> wrote:
>
> Quite by coincidence also by Warners 1915 I've just done a tonal on:
>  
> 7th - 191/451/472/ /781 - hum 38 cents flat, fundamental 249 cents 
sharp
> 8th - 172/387/425/ /698 - hum 25 cents flat, fundamental 179 cents 
sharp
>  
> Not easy listening.
>  
> Andrew 

I rest my case :-)

Sharp fundamentals seem to have been a Warner trade mark, even with 
the bells they cast prior to their attempts at harmonic tuning.   

The two tenors at Tenterden (Kent), which are Warner 1884, had 
horribly sharp fundamentals.   When the bells were tuned in 1961, 
Whitechapel got them as near to an octave as they dared without 
parting the crowns off.  

Following the recent Settle incident, members of this Group may 
remember the late Nick Davies reporting a conversation he had with 
Bill Hughes about Tenterden.   Bill had just done a tonal and profile 
analysis of the ring and was pondering on what he could do with the 
two tenors - breaking them up was not an option!   Although not to 
everyone's taste (I'm biased, I learnt to ring there!), the result of 
tuning is a ring with a rather pleasing, if somewhat melancholy, 
grandeur.

Richard