[Bell Historians] Did Harrison have a point

[Andrew Wilby]

<so why haven't lighter bells and
appropriate clappering been developed to produce a deep full tone with
slightly less volume?
Possibly a T shaped clapper swinging through about half the normal ark,
a composite structure with the impacting material at each end of the top
of the T.>

Urm.... handbells?

Andrew 





Bickerton, Roderic K (SELEX) (UK) wrote:
> Harrison bells are about half the weight of conventional bells of the
> same note, but the sound...
> We now have the technology to create bells of almost any combination of
> weight and note, and still achieve Simpson tuning, or an alternative
> pleasing harmonic structure.
> There are some basics of physics which will limit the power to something
> proportional to the weight, but halving power, just 3dB reduction far
> from being a dramatic reduction, is actually hardly noticeable.
> We ringers like deep toned bells and will work really hard on a big peal
> for the pleasure of hearing them, so why haven't lighter bells and
> appropriate clappering been developed to produce a deep full tone with
> slightly less volume?
> the Australian site http://www.ausbell.com/
> <http://www.ausbell.com/Federation%20Bells/FEDBELLS.html>  shows that
> computer generation of profiles for a particular result is now
> understood, although the use of the technology here is extreme.
> Clappering has not been addressed. A light deep toned bell is likely to
> need to be struck with a low velocity and fairly high mass clapper to
> produce dominance from its lower partials, and would need reliving from
> a fairly high mass clapper resting on and over damping it, but some
> damping is needed.
> Possibly a T shaped clapper swinging through about half the normal ark,
> a composite structure with the impacting material at each end of the top
> of the T.
>  
>
>
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