How to Make Them

This is one of the easiest musical instruments to make and the music produced by it is impressive in its tone and depth.

To make it saw off a board, 3/4 or 7/8 inch thick, about 12 inches wide and 22 inches long and screw a block 1 inch square to each corner for it to rest on. Get eight binding posts 108 of the size shown at A in Fig. 113; drill eight 1/8 inch holes in the board, 4 in a

A

B

Fig. 113. THE CATHEDRAL CHIMES

A. A full sized binding post.

B. The chimes on the sounding board.

row with the holes 5 inches apart and have the rows also 5 inches apart, and then screw a binding post into each hole.

Make eight spirals of No. 14 spring brass, steel or, better, phosphor-bronze109 wire; you can do this by

108 These can be bought of the Manhattan Electrical Supply Co., Park Place, New York City.

109 Get it of the U. T. Hungerford Brass and Copper Co., Hungerford Building, New York.

cutting off eight pieces of the wire each of which is 20 inches long. Draw a spiral on a sheet of paper as described in Chapter V so that the inside turn of wire is about 3/4 inch in diameter, the outside turn about 3 1/2 inches in diameter and each turn of wire will be separated from the other by a space of 1/4 inch as shown at B.

With your round nose pliers bend each length of wire like the pattern you drew on the paper. When you have made the spirals screw the inside end of each wire in the binding post and your cathedral chimes are done all except the tuning of them.

Let the first spiral of the upper left hand side give the fundamental tone and tune the others to it by cutting off the free ends of the wires until they are all tuned in unison. Make a couple of wood mallets and cover the ends with leather or rawhide.

How to Play the Cathedral Chimes

Strike the inside turn of wire up close to the end that is fastened to the binding post, and a tone will issue from the spiral that is long, deep and loud, for the wire with its free end forms a very perfect vibrating body.