How bells make their sound is a complex but interesting subject. The discussion here is restricted to bells of typical ‘western’ profile, rather than those of the east which have a very different shape. Western bells are usually hit by an iron clapper at a point on the inside, near the bottom, or by an […]
The basic principle of frequency calibration is simple. If a reference tone of known frequency is available, it can be recorded along with the bell sound. When the bell sound is later analysed, the frequency of the reference tone is checked at the same time. If there is a discrepancy, work out the ratio of […]
This page explains how to do tonal analysis of a bell or bells using Wavanal. Analysis of recordings is possible using any spectrum analysis package (including the spectrum analyser included in Audacity) but Wavanal has facilities specially optimised for investigating bell sounds. If starting with a recording of multiple bells, for example all the bells […]
The pages linked below give practical tips on recording bells for the purposes of tonal analysis (including taking recordings from Youtube, and how to do the tonal analysis with Wavanal. The detail given in previous version of these pages (written almost 20 years ago) on recording formats and recording devices has been completely re-written and […]
This page was originally written in October 2002, and has been substantially updated to only cover recording bells for tonal analysis, not recordings for general purposes. Also, audio technology has moved a long way since 2002! Andrew Wilby suggested I wrote the original paper. It included extracts from messages originally published on the Bell Historian’s chat […]
Bell weights, diameters and frequencies are obviously related; heavier bells sound a deeper note, and heavier bells are generally bigger in diameter. But are there any quantitative rules that allow, say, a bell’s weight to be estimated from its diameter and partial frequencies? Partial tones and bell diameters are generally easy to measure or are […]
The full reference for this paper is: Perrin R., Charnley T., DePont J., “Normal Modes of the Modern EnglishChurch Bell”, Journal of Sound and Vibration 90(1), pp29-49 (1983) It is reprinted in Rossing’s ‘Acoustics of Bells’. The work is certainly the most comprehensive investigation into the modes of vibration of a bell. Over a period […]
The bells at St John, Burslem are a peal of six cast by William Dobson of Downham Market, Norfolk in 1828. They are listed in Dove as Unringable: tower unsafe. As part of a project to investigate the tuning of Dobson bells, I visited Burslem on 23 October 2020. Phil Gay arranged the visit for […]
This article was originally published in The Ringing World of 2 October 2020, issue 5710, page 968. In Chris Pickford’s list of Great Bells (see below for link), the biggest bell cast by William Dobson is listed as 43cwt, originally at Dublin Post Office, and now in County Mayo, Ireland. As part of an investigation into the tuning […]
This paper was updated 26/12/2020 with an additional 66 bells by William Dobson, bringing the total number of bells analysed for the period 1750 to 1850 to around 1,050. For most of the additional Dobson bells, the tuning figures were provided by Chris Pickford from Taylors’ records. The plots comparing the hum and prime tuning […]