Muffles

[Edward W Martin]

--- In bellhistorians at yahoogroups.com, "jimhedgcock" <jameshedgcock at ...> wrote:
>
> Many years ago I spoke to Denis Randall (RIP) about fitting muffles for State Occasions at the principal City of London churches. He was steeplekeeper at Jewry at the time and may have also looked after St. Paul's. With some sadness he confessed that the days of rusty clappers and string had passed by and that those were the best days.
> When I have previousy tired of straps, buckles, jubilee clips etc. etc. I have used copious lengths of parcel tape. It is easy to remove with a sharp blade and I've never had any 'turn' even in peals.
> 

I was calling a peal of half-muffled Caters at Washington Cathedral after the Funeral Service for President Regan. The visiting dignitaries were slow to leave & must have heard all our really nice ringing, but after an hour or so, the muffle on the 9th slipped. I let the ringing run for about a minute, but it sounded not only bad but had become a real destraction, so I reluctantly called 'stand'
Afterwards I thought that using the trad. buckles, what we should have done was secure the straps to the flight by wrapping say duct tape around them

Eddie Martin