Glass Bell

This specially made borosilicate glass bell produces a soft yet thick tinkle sound with very little ring to it. In other words, no sustained note or prolonged resonance of the material is heard. The absence of a durational ring is due to the thickness of glass in the wall of the bell. In order to demonstrate the effect of materials on the acoustic performance of objects, this bell was made to be an exact copy of our brass bell. Because the dimensions had been copied, the walls of this bell were made thicker than one would engineer, if attempting to make a glass bell that produced a sustaining note. Not only do different materials produce different qualities of sounds, but also different amounts (volume and form) of differing materials affect the acoustic nature of the final bell.