CarlSZimmerman wrote:Excellent photos and descriptions! The arrangement of the original bellows action is reminiscent of what I found in the tower at Lincoln, Nebraska, in 1965. The bellows themselves were long gone (Ron Barnes had ripped out the whole mechanism many years earlier), but the remains of the cabinetry and the frame for the bellows rack were there above the baton keyboard. If Terry were to open the two large doors above the piano-style keyboard, I'd expect to find the bellows space painted flat black on the inside.
Thanks for the nice comments, Carl. Yes, indeed, matt black inside. I'll attach an image. It shows me compressing one of the bellows, as if it had been sucked dry by the vacuum from the keyboard. That would normally have pulled down that square block just below the forked piece I'm pushing, and that would have pulled the clapper up to the bell. The blocks have all fallen down as the transmission system was removed from just above the umbrellas upwards.

Given what's in the tower, it would certainly be possible to drop in an cheap baton keyboard and re-use as much as possible of the existing equipment. But bells, tower and situation of this high quality deserve much better treatment than that. I'd even go farther than John's suggestion. If Bathurst decides to add basses, that will apparently require rehanging all existing bells on a new frame. Then you might as well add the bass B-flat and E-flat, putting the carillon in concert pitch from B-flat and adding trebles as needed to reach 4+ octaves to C. Yes, it would be expensive, but consider the enormous value of what's already in place, donated by citizens of a prior generation.
Yes, I'm very conscious of the debt we owe to the generation that built the tower and bought the existing stuff. A feat more remarkable when we remember that these were the depression years, and many that had returned from war were just wanting to forget all that. Very humbling.
In terms of funding, there appears to be enough to get the instrument up and running, but not enough to do what we would all like to do given unlimited funds. My feeling is that we should get it up and running in a fairly minimalist way, to break once and for all through the barrier that has dogged the installation from the start. Then I'm sure it will take on a life of its own. But when I say minimalist, I don't want to cut off desirable future options. EG, buying a three octave clavier (to suit the existing bells) would seem like a very short-sighted policy, hence this discussion.
In that context, allowing for a future Bb bell would seem to require just a slightly wider clavier and may be cheap future-shock insurance. I'll certainly take it on board and look forward to further discussions. Actually capitalising on the extra clavier range would be sobering - we'd need a Bb, C, Eb and F (and maybe a C#) to fill in the bass end. Anyone bought a big bell lately and can report on the price?
One could always realise a synthetic extension to the range with MIDI (and some
really big speakers!). Anyone know of such an installation? Perhaps in a travelling instrument?
As a strategy, it might backfire. If it worked really well, nobody would be moved to raise the extra money for real bells. If it worked poorly, nobody would be moved to raise the extra money for real bells. Hmmmm.
Terry