AUSTRIA: Europe's second largest bell - hanging at Vienna's St.Stephens Cathedral - undergoes checks as part of the Probell project

Record ID: 187016

  • Title: AUSTRIA: Europe's second largest bell - hanging at Vienna's St.Stephens Cathedral - undergoes checks as part of the Probell project
  • Date: 3rd May 2007
  • Summary: EXTERIOR OF CATHEDRAL, FRONT VIEW WIDE OF VIENNA CENTRE FROM BALCONY OF CATHEDRAL TOWER THREE MEN PLACING MEASURING INSTRUMENTS ON PUMMERIN BELL CLOSE UP OF PUMMERIN BELL WITH INSCRIPTION IN LATIN MEN CHECKING RESONANCE OF PUMMERIN
  • Embargoed: 18th May 2007 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Austria
  • Country: Austria
  • Topics: Arts / Culture / Entertainment / Showbiz
  • Reuters ID: LVA5XE544YYAWZ659CWTC7ZELO5U
  • Story Text: Andreas Rupp carefully wraps the sensors strips for the electro cardiogram around the 21 tonne Pummerin in Vienna's famous St Stephens Cathedral.
    He explains: "We are measuring the strain the bell takes while it rings and assessing how much deformation the material will suffer from the blows (of the clapper). Deformation of the material is responsible for the formation of cracks. We measure for about 2 minutes while the bell rings and record the strains and the intensity with which the clapper hits and we record the resonance of the bell. This data serves to assess, in comparison with other bells, how much is this bell strained and how big is the risk that cracks on it will be formed and when."
    Europe's second largest bell, nicknamed Pummerin, is one of many famous bells across the continent undergoing a checks as part of the Probell project aimed at determining their life spans.
    Hamburg's Millennium Bell has already undergone a scientific examination and bells in London's St. Paul's Cathedral and Paris' Notre Dame Cathedral are lined up next.
    The project was triggered ten years ago by a debate amongst bell founders that centred on whether there was a need to change where the clapper hit the bell.
    Every single time a clapper hits the bell it causes a slight deformation and strains the material, mostly bronze or bronze alloys. Experts say the location and strength of the clappers hit as well as its material will have an impact.
    Dangers also lurk in modernisation:
    Explains Rupp: "Some bell experts think that lots of bells suffered damage during the past 100 years because of the steel clappers which had been introduced and the bells had started being moved by mechanical, computerised mechanism rather than human hands and soft staves."
    It would have taken some 10 people to chime the Pummerin in the old days, now it is just the flick of a switch. Yet having been in action for some 50 years only, the Pummerin, located in the dome's North Tower, might still have a long time to go.
    Its predecessor was cast in 1711 from cannonballs stemming from the unsuccessful Turkish siege of the city in 1683, but was destroyed during a bomb raid in the second World War.
    In 1952, the current bell was cast from remainders of the old one and new material.
    The Pummerin is a youngster among historic bells and has a long way explains Peter Grassmayr, bell founder in the 14th generation and the Austrian partner in the probell project.
    "These bells will outlive all of us, and the ones I make today will outlive us. It is a wonderful thing to know you are making something that will last", he says.
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