This page explains the mathematical techniques I use to manipulate bell sounds for various purposes. Sound file examples demonstrate sharpening or flattening bells, adjusting individual partials, and the effect of thin and thick bells. […]
Canon Simpson in his first paper On Bell Tones discusses the bells at Lower Beeding. His conclusions about the way continental founders tuned their bells proves not to be correct […]
Read More… from Simpson, Van Aerschodt, Lower Beeding and Kilburn
This article investigates the changes in design of Gillett and Johnston bells from the 1870s to the 1950s, by looking at tierce tuning. […]
Read More… from A history of Gillett and Johnston in bell sounds
A detailed description of Cyril Johnston’s tuning forks, including investigation of errors in their frequencies. […]
Details of two historic van Aerschodt carillons, one at Eaton Hall, Cheshire and the other at Holy Trinity, Philadelphia, USA […]
Research published in Germany in 1972, recently drawn to my attention by Heino Strobel, shows that the technology used by Naylor Vickers to cast steel bells was invented by Bochumer Verein in Germany and licensed from them, leading to an extensive collaboration between the two companies. […]
Read More… from Ewald Riepe, Naylor-Vickers and Bochumer Verein
This paper by André Lehr is one of the two key papers investigating the modes of vibration of bells. This 1986 paper gives the practical bellfounder’s view of modes of vibration, and includes analysis of a number of bells including some specially cast for the investigation. […]
Finding ways to relate the weight, size (generally mouth diameter) and nominal frequency of bells is useful, because it allows values to be estimated what data is not available. Some work on this was done by André Lehr, as reported in his 1986 paper. Other models have been developed and refined since by bellfounders and […]
Analysis of recordings of three Gillett & Johnson carillons from the 1920s and 1930s, and comparison against the original tuning book figures from the Gillett & Johnston archive, suggests that there is a surprising variation of up to a fifth of a semitone in the frequencies of the tuning forks used to measure and tune the partial frequencies. […]
Read More… from Anomalies in the tuning of Gillett & Johnston bells
Gillett and Johnston, formerly Gillett and Bland, were bellfounders in Croydon, Surrey from the late 19th century to the early 1950s. For the first half of the 20th century they were one of the premier founders of carillons and change-ringing bells. Cyril Johnston, son of the original partner Arthur Johnston, joined the company in 1902 […]