Bearings

For hundreds of years, bells swung on a simple stub axle, set into a metal groove in the frame. Quite a lot of bells still are. They can work quite well but they need constant care, attention and lots of oil.
(There’s still an oil can in our bell chamber, dating from those days.)

In the early 20th century, bellhangers worked on a variation of ball bearings. Ball bearings didn’t work because the tiny points of contact couldn’t take the strain. They came up with the roller bearing. The balls were replaced with steel cylinders, greatly increasing the load-bearing capacity of the unit.
We don’t know if the Kildwick bells were originally installed with roller bearings.
1914 is the earliest possible date for such an installation.  We’ve enquired from Taylor’s who installed the bells.  They should know!

The current bearings will certainly have been refurbished or replaced during the major restoration of 1987. The bearings are hermetically “sealed for life” but the grease packed inside will have deteriorated.  We are in discussion as to whether our bearings should be washed out, cleaned and re-greased or it new bearings would be wiser.

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An interesting fact:
In the First World War, British tanks far out-performed their German equivalents because they could use the roller bearings developed by the English bell hangers.