Wheel development (was: origin of sally)

[Carl S Zimmerman]

John Harrison wrote:

>  > was originally used not for the bell rope itself but for the little cord
>  >or 'fillet' around the rim of the wheel that trapped the rope and
>  >produced a handstroke, before the introduction of the garter/fillet hole.
>
>Surely the fillet was never used with a wheel, but with a 3/4 wheel.  With
>a full wheel, the garter hole would seem to be an essential feature.

Where can I find the best exposition of the English development from 
quarter wheel to full wheel in bell hanging?

In America, there seem to have been two parallel developments.

Firstly, those who studied or were trained in bellfounding in England 
brought the English full-wheel pattern to their work in the late 18th 
and early 19th c., using it with good-sized bells for churches in New 
England.  Those who copied imported English bells generally did the 
same thing.

Secondly, the brass-founders who got into making smallish bronze 
bells hung them for ringing with a lever - no wheel at all.  (The 
iron-founders who made small cast steel bells did the same thing.) 
One of these founders made the leap from a lever to a 1-piece cast 
iron half-wheel, and then improvised a full wheel by fastening two 
half-wheels to a single hub; but that didn't last long.

Eventually, all of the foundries converged on the idea of a 
mass-producible symmetric wheel, with four to six spokes, depending 
on size.  Some used one-piece cast iron wheels, with spokes of 
varying shapes.  Others used wooden wheels with cast-iron hubs and 
straight wooden spokes.

As far as I know, no one on this continent ever made a wooden partial wheel.

Carl