[Bell Historians] Unusual clock chimes

[Frank King]

Dear Mark,

> My basic plan is a cd of bells in the UK which tell
> the time.  This will range from Big Ben to...

Ah.  If you are going to have Big Ben, then your CD
should surely include the original Cambridge Quarters
which, any decade now, will be working again on their
Phelps bells sounding much as they did in 1793.  They
have been out of action most of this year while some
other project has been in progress :-)

A historical point which might be noted on the sleeve
of your CD is a practical reason why we usually divide
the 24-hour day into two lots of 12.

[Another reason is that before we had equal-hours the
system was to divide daylight hours and night-time
hours separately into 12-hour periods.  In winter,
daylight hours would be short and night-time hours
long.  This so-called unequal-hours scheme was used in
Europe until the advent of striking clocks in 13C.]

If you have an hour bell that strikes all the
hours from 1 to 24 that means 300 dongs a day.

If you settle for 1 to 12 that is just 78 dongs
or 156 dongs in 24 hours.  This reduces the effort
involved in winding up clock weights to a little
more than half of what it would otherwise be.

It is common in Italy to see old clocks that have
six-hour dials and which strike just 1 to 6 and
hence need only 4x21=84 dongs a day.

Curiously, it is also common in Italy to find
(modern) 12-hour clocks that strike the relevant
hour after chiming each quarter so, say, at
half past 10 you get the half-hour chime and
then 10 dongs.  This means 4x156=624 dongs in
a day and I cannot believe that hand-wound
versions of such clocks have ever been made!

Frank H. King
Keeper of the University Clock
Cambridge, U.K.