[Bell Historians] Half-pull Ringing

[Bickerton, Roderic K (SELEX) (UK)]

An interesting thread.
I wonder if changing at one stroke only had application where full
wheels were not present.
getting a bell 3/4 up and controlling it on a leaver results in a hand
stroke but no back stroke.
Get it higher and the handstroke becomes less controllable as the rope
angle to lever angle exceeds 90 degrees, about 80% of the control lost
full up. There is a little back stroke control because the rope is wound
round the headstock.
A c18 headstock with strap gudgeons is fairly high and would provide
usable leverage. Earlier designs with drive in gudgeons half way up the
stock would be less helpful.

Lever ringing is not practical unless the pit is wide enough to allow
the rope to pass  the bell lip, because otherwise the rope is snatched
by the  passing bell lip.

If a section of wheel, just over a 1/4 is made from the end of the lever
and across the cord of the bell mouth, the problem is removed  and the
bell will go up, but now with a controllable back stroke, but a fairly
useless handstroke (as above).
If the wheel section is extended from the horisontal lever up to al
vertical leaver fixed to the headstock side, a controllable handstroke
is provided.
early 1/2 wheel installations usually have wheel side stays.
A rope catch or peg on the side of a wheel side stay would also provide
a handstroke.
Did the invention of a stay provide an easy fixing point for a wheel
extension, or did a fixing for a wheel extension give rise to the idea
of a stay?
 


	
Andrew
Looking through the Bell News there are several references to "half-pull
ringing".  I am assuming this is a reference to change ringing with
changes occuring at handstroke and backstroke.  Was the alternative call
changes or was there an era of whole-pull change ringing?  In Alan
Ellis's recent reproduction of Tinntinnalogia[?] there is a table of
times taken to ring the various extents.  The time given for a 720 is 1
hour and everything else pro rata.  This is double the times given in
recent RW Diaries.  Was this whole-pull change ringing or did they
really ring at half the present speed?
 

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