Great American Historic Bells
Whether cast of bronze or iron alloys, every bell is a treasure. Boston Massachusetts, Troy and West Troy (Watervliet) New York, Pittsburgh Pennsylvania, Cincinnati Ohio, Milwaukee Wisconsin and St. Louis Missouri have all been home to historic American bell foundries. Names such as Hanks, Meneely, Revere, Jones, Niles, Campbell, Vanduzen, Buckeye, Fulton, McShane and Stuckstede can be found inscribed on church bells all across the country.

Some of the better sounding bells were made in West Troy (Watervliet) by Andrew Meneely and his sons Edwin and George, who machine-tuned bells after casting. Andrew's other son, Clinton, produced bells on the East side of the river in Troy by adjusting his bell patterns to achieve some semblance of true tones out of the casting.

Problems with Historic Bells
Bells installed before the 1920s often were not balanced properly. In some cases, the tower structure cannot withstand the harmful vibrations caused by older swinging bells.

Older yokes, side arms, and bearings may also have suffered from metal fatigue and crystallization. If a bell does not hang straight, it is probably loose in its yoke. A bell that has loosened from its yoke should never be swung. The vibrations set up by a loose bell can destroy the tower structure or even cause the bell to fall, resulting in serious injury or death. If you are ringing historic bells, please read the maintenance checklist in an article found on restorationtrades.com.

Clapper springs on older bells are particularly likely to fail. These parts keep the clapper off of the bell as the bell swings in the mounts. If the clapper is allowed to remain in contact with the bell, the sound is muted, or multiple strikes occur on each swing. Or, the springs may be intact, but the old leather padding that reduces extraneous clapper noise has worn. Contact us for information regarding replacement springs and/or neoprene replacement pads.

Chime Master Systems can provide steel wheels to replace wooden wheels. This is especially important if the bells are to be rung with a swinging drive motor. If the stands and yoke are in need of replacement, it is likely that the bells will have to be removed from the tower for refurbishment and remounting.

Problems with Newer Bells
Sometimes the bells do not ring because of defective ringing equipment. Much of the equipment in use implements timing motors, cams and micro-switches to time the strike pulse. If these switches go out of adjustment or short, the coils in the strikers quickly overheat and burn out. Our bell controllers feature fail-safe timing circuits, eliminating the possibility of burning out strikers. We can easily customize our controllers to work with all brands of existing strikers.

Older swinging equipment used cable drives that require continual tensioning, or chain drives with more cams and switches to go out of adjustment. Chime Master Smart Bell motors feature non-contact optical encoder with digital controls and solid-state switching for long-life operation.

Economical Remedies
Often it is not physically or economically feasible to remove your bells from the tower for a complete renovation. If so, immobilize the bell, and install a Chime Master bell controller and electric striking mechanism to ring the bell. You retain the advantage of being able to ultimately refurbish the swinging mechanism, and enjoy the benefits of bell ringing, while as you raise the additional funding.