Steel bells

[Bill Hibbert]

We've discussed German steel bells before, but those who are interested 
in bell acoustics might enjoy the following video: 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fnyiy7meg9g
There are several similar videos. This bell at Kevelaer was cast in the 
1950s by Bochumer. It is almost exactly true-harmonic and I think a 
lovely piece of work. Things of interest to note from the video include:
* the bell seems to have been painted or treated on the outside to stop 
it rusting - though a photo of the Bochumer steel bells at Dortmund 
shows they are rusty on the inside
* note the counterweight above the bell.

Wikipedia tells me that Bochumer etopped casting bells in the 60s. If 
this is typical of their output then it's a pity.

There are now a lot of videos of bells and bellringing on youtube, 
especially of continental installations. There is much of interest to 
study, and tuning figures extracted for known bells are accurate due to 
the frequency stability of video cameras.

Regards,

Bill H