The J. C. Deagan Company of Chicago, Illinois, started building
tubular bell carillons in the mid 1920's.  At that time, Deagan was
the largest manufacturer of mallet instruments in the world, occupying
a large factory on Berteau Avenue just off the Ravenswood El, if
memory serves.

Deagan was a pioneer in the adoption of standard pitch of 440 Hz.
The factory produced thousands of marimbas, vibra-harps, xylophones
(including large numbers that went into coin operated pianos and
theater instruments.), cathedral chimes for orchestras and band, dinner
chimes, door bells...  In short, just about anything that made a sound
when struck.  The Deagan Una-Fon was a rather raucous instrument, not
unlike giant tuned vibrating doorbells.

Mr. Deagan developed the tubular bell carillon because he reasoned
that a regular cast bell only vibrates around the lip of the bell,
whereas a tubular bell vibrates throughout its entire length.  Yes,
there are other vibrating nodes, but you get Deagan's idea.

The direct current actions were engineered at this time and operated
at 48 volts D.C.  The first installations did not have dampers on each
chime tube; the dampers were a later addition.  Westminster chiming
devices and electric players followed and Deagan installed their
carillons throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico
and South Africa.

I first became involved with the Deagan company in 1974 when I
advertised that if it played with a perforated paper roll, I could
repair it.  A call from St. Mark's Episcopal Church in San Antonio,
Texas, was my first Deagan repair job.  I was not prepared for the
complexity of the installation, but managed to muddle my way through
it.  I later found out that San Antonio had two other installations.
St. Mark's has been scrapped but the other two instruments are still
in place, but only one is in playing condition.

It was then that I sought out two of the remaining Deagan tubular bell
carillon technicians.  I also visited the factory in 1976 and met June
Albright Howard who recorded every roll produced by Deagan, starting
in 1940 up until the day she retired, in about 1985.

June was a marvelous musician and a fountain of knowledge.  She
personally tested every Deagan installation from 1940 on and played
the dedication program as well as trained the local organist.
She never played a dedication unless she checked the system out
completely -- and that included climbing the tower and inspecting the
work of the installers.  June was a rip, and our friendship lasted
until her untimely death in Hawaii where she moved, during her last
years, to avoid the Chicago winters.

The Deagan line of carillons included bell sets of 10 tones to 32
tones.  One installation in Houston, Texas, was of only five bells for
the Westminster strike.  It was located in the Neils Esperson Building.

"Tones" was Deagan terminology.  The designation "note" was never used
in Deagan literature.  Deagan continued to manufacture tubular bell
carillons until around 1949 when they followed the trend and went
electronic.  About 1976 the tubular bell portion of Deagan was sold to
I. T.  Verdin of Cincinnati.  Verdin wanted the music roll library that
Deagan had.  It was a sizable catalog, and many of the arrangements are
still in use today, albeit not in roll form!

The first Deagan bells were not harmonically tuned, which meant that
you could only play one note at a time.  All the keyboards had brass
plates warning the would-be musician of that fact.  Most of the single
tone systems still intact today probably would play again if the
20-ampere fuse on the relay board were replaced, for that is what fried
if you tried to lay down a chord of ten notes!

The relays were another Deagan invention.  As each note played, it
locked on the damper which stayed down until the next note was played.
The system was totally mechanical and is a marvel of engineering.

But play two notes at the same time, and blam! -- a blown fuse with
a resulting call to the local repairman.  Carbon contacts were used
until the later years, when a special metal was used, the name of which
I cannot remember.

When harmonically tuned bells were introduced around 1938 (and here
I am guessing about the date) you could play chords and there were
sustaining pedals on the consoles which pulled down all the dampers
on the system.

Talk about current draw!  The motor-generator sets would really whine
when all dampers sucked down.  The fuses on the bell racks were
routinely 60 amps, so there was ample opportunity for the production
of ozone!  Electric current was provided by a motor-generator set, and
motors of 10 horsepower or more were common for the larger systems.

The music rolls for the electric players were "recorded" (another
Deagan term) in the factory.  The music was played in almost real time,
with the punches vibrating faster than the eye could see.  The finished
roll was played back using an electronic set, dubbed by Deagan as the
"New World Carillon".

Since the rolls were read electrically, much the same as a Mills
Violano, they were perforated -- eh, recorded -- on tympan paper.
This tough, somewhat oily, paper is used in the printing business to
pad the tympan of a printing press, hence the name.  Each roll was
shipped on a spool that looked exactly like those used by Wurlitzer in
their automatic instruments.

June Albright Howard maintained a record of every Deagan installation
so she would have the specifications and could record the rolls to suit
the installation.  I am fortunate to have a copy of those specs listing
every Deagan tubular bell carillon installation, ever.

Deagan only built ten 32-tone installations and one of 96 tones, with
the largest being 97 tones.  The 96- and 97-tone sets were simply three
32-tone sets stacked one on top the other.  The School of the Ozarks,
near Branson, MO, wanted to have the largest set ever made, so Deagan
added an extra note to make it 97 tones.  The 96-tone set is in the
Stephen Foster Memorial in White Springs, Florida.

Both of those large installations are playing, somewhat.  Each has
32 of the bells functioning at this time.  There are no new parts
available, so they rob parts from other parts of the system to keep
the remaining 32 bells operational.  I have been in contact with both
locations and have sent wiring diagrams and other technical information
to those who are trying to keep things going.

The 1932(?) Pageant of Progress Exposition in Chicago had a 16-tone
set.  Alas, its fate is unknown and the factory records do not show
what happened to it when the exposition closed.  Records do show that
the motor-generator set is now in St. Jerome's Church in 'The Windy
City'.

Deagan even installed a tubular bell carillon in a theater!  The
Mayfair Theater in Asbury Park, New Jersey, had a 10-tone set installed
in 1927!

Deagan did not wind their own coils for the various mechanisms.  They
contracted out the job, and the last time I checked, that firm was
still in business and had all the specs for Deagan coils.  Whether or
not they will wind them for you today is another matter.  The last
coils I had wound were in 1989 and the shop foreman, Nick, had been
there forever.  Nick is gone and I suspect most of his knowledge of
things Deagan went with him.

The first Westminster chiming devices used Seth Thomas clock movements
with double springs and special devices to set the times when the bells
would chime, at what time they shut off at night, and when the electric
player would "caress the neighborhood" with music.  All the components
were mounted on marble slabs, making them quite heavy; they were hinged
and would swing out of the cabinet for servicing.

Later Westminster devices were all electric and much easier to maintain.
You can see an example in the second link that I have listed below.

The largest installation in San Antonio, 25 tones, is in the Woodmen of
the World Chapel, now called Sunset Ridge Church of Christ.  The system
is functional, however the neighborhood has grown up around the gothic
gem of a chapel and the neighbors do not like to be 'caressed' with
bells ringing at all hours.  That chapel had an Austin Pipe Organ in it
with a Quadraplex player on it.  I first saw and heard the organ and
player in 1954.  The organ and the player were later sold and still
later were chain sawed up!  The player was no where to be found.

When I say the chapel is a gothic gem, it is indeed that.  All the
windows in the chapel are by Louis Comfort Tiffany studios.  The main
window, Autumn Landscape, has a mate in the Metropolitan Museum in New
York.  The church knows what it has and protects it.  The chapel is
only used for weddings, as the congregation has grown into another
modern sanctuary to the north.  Visitors are not permitted in the
chapel, however, if any MMDer comes this way, I have keys to the
building and tower and carte blanche to show the whole thing to
visiting firemen.  It is the last Deagan set that I maintain.

Those of you coming to Chicago for the MBSI convention will see and
maybe hear a 32-tone set in the home of Jasper Sanfilippo.  Those
bells were originally installed in St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church
in Chicago.  They were installed in May of 1947 and later removed to
Jasper's estate and, as I understand it, are playable from the theater
organ console.  Deagan supplied many pipe organ relay sets so their
carillons could be played from the organ console.

Through the years, I have helped churches around the country either
keep their systems going or getting them on the road to repairing an
existing system.  I have a web site devoted to the various maintenance
points.  You can get up close and personal with a Deagan Tubular Bell
Carillon by clicking on the link below.

Many systems have gone to the scrap pile, a number have succumbed to
the wrecking ball, and some were consumed by fire when the building
they were in burned to the ground, but there are still a number of them
out there, and there is renewed interest in keeping them playing.

As a bit of trivia, Chicago at one time had 14 Deagan tubular bell
carillons.  The organ in the Wannamaker Store (now Lord & Taylor) in
Philadelphia has a set of 37 bells struck pneumatically instead of
electrically, and the Philadelphia Quarter Masters Depot has or had a
6-bell set that played the "Star Spangled Banner".  That must have been
some arrangement!

Here is the maintenance link:

  http://www.edgaida.com/wdeagan1.html

and another:

  http://www.edgaida/com/chimes.html

Let your mouse do the walking!

Ed Gaida -- Now rain free 22 blocks north of the Alamo in
San Antonio, TX