With files from the Christ Church Cathedral Development and Stewardship Office
Christ Church Cathedral’s bell spire has been a long exercise in precision engineering. All pieces had to be pre-fabricated to fit exactly for the installations to proceed.
The first test was the installation of the spire, when 32 precisely positioned bolts embedded in the concrete cap of the elevator shaft had to align precisely with 32 bolt holes in the spire legs base. The tolerance was about 1/32nd of an inch, after allowing for the thickness of the primary rustproofing and paint coatings. It was pre–tested several times, but an ever so slight misalignment of the harnesses for the install lift on the 200 foot crane boom required some creative leveraging using a 2x4!
On August 19th, the bells were installed. For the largest bell to fit down the spire shaft, the wheel assembly had to be removed. The bell with its yokes, at its largest width measured 6” less than the space available, with a minimum clearance of 2.5” at one point. The bell had to be perfectly aligned and then carefully maneuvered past three choke points on its slow, controlled descent on the end of the 200 foot boom. Localized wind speeds above 15kph would have shut down the operation.
It took approximately six hours from 1-7 pm to load all the bells. The bells were tested on Monday, August 22 (much to the surprise of the folks in the downtown neighbourhood). The reason for the wait is that a representative of the Paccard Bell Foundry in Annecy, France where the bells were cast needed to be on site. All four bells worked very well and will not be rung again until later in September.
Installation of the 204 glass panels is underway as of this writing September 2. Coverage of this next step in the process will be available here on line at www.vancouver.anglican.ca and will also be included in the November issue of Topic.
The glass for each panel has been precisely cut and fabricated to give seamless continuity of all angled lines, accounting for the thickness of borders and frames. Each is numbered and its position noted (vertical and front-to-back alignment) for precise fitting with pre-engineered bolt and rivets holes in the frame, again with precise tolerances in the order of 1/32nd of an inch. As you can imagine, an immense amount of coordination has been required between the many trades.
Photos
- The arrival of the bells
- Clergy and server are ready to preside at the blessing and dedication
- The first ringing of the _C_ bell
- Lowering the 5000 lb _C_ bell into the spire
- Raising the largest bell 100 feet to the top of the spire
- The _A_ bell installed with Park Place, Christ Church Cathedral’s neighbouring building to the north visible in the background
- View from above at the _F_ and _C_ bellis in the spire
Many thanks to Martin Knowles of mkphotomedia for these fabulous shots and his ongoing outstanding coverage of the Raise the Roof, Ring the Bells, Feed the Hungry Campaign.