Mark wrote:

For an explanation of the pitch of the note played by "Big Ben", please
see
http://www.hibberts.co.uk/stri ke.htm

For your convenience, an extract of the pertinent information follows:

"Big Ben has a nominal [pitch] of about 335Hz (it is doubletted) which
in
musical notation is E + 27 cents. Actually, the dominant note we hear
with
this bell is a secondary strike of about 440Hz, i.e. an A, based on a
partial above the octave nominal with a frequency of 883Hz"

Mark.
Auckland
New Zealand.
---------------------------------
As a long time guitarist I found the link fascinating.
I attended a Christmas service with hand bells, and
thought they sounded "odd". Odd as in I noticed
the bells didn't sound like "pure" notes. I now understand,
to some degree at least, why.

I also found it interesting that Rayleigh also made breakthroughs
in understanding how light "waves:, and thus radio, behaves.

Terry