Re: NNG: Cleaning a Brass Whistle

Chris is right, from pictures and video the whistle on No. 7 looks like a Lunkenheimer (that may have had the spud for the acorn cut off), and aside from (at worst) being not quite as clear as most, sounds like one.

Lunk chimes (at least the new style ones, dunno about the old baldies) are assembled with a dome lid that fits over the spud for the acorn nut, then mates to fine pitch threads machined on a step at the top of the outside wall of the bell. The top of the longest chamber doesn't open up into the entire sphere, but has a radius that matches that of the inside of the lid. I looked, but couldn't find a picture of one dissasembled. Powells, I believe, have one piece bell castings where the longest chamber opens up into the entire sphere of the top; there is no external lid that completes the "round" look.

The point is, acorn nuts on Lunks serve no real mechanical function other than (at best) helping to lock down the round dome lid that's already held in place by it's own set of threads. I've seen several Lunks that have had the spud for the acorn completely sawed off. Other than the different shaped openings and the seam where the lid meets the outside diameter of the bell, this makes a Lunk top look a lot like a Powell. The D&S use to have a Lunk top fitted to a D&RGW bowl that was missing the spud for the acorn.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/20/2014 03:55PM by flatcarwillie.