Y'know those Christmas bell displays that have a little animated
teddy bear or Santa or something clanging each little bell?  They're
electronically programmed to play Christmas carols, though it would be
fun to try hacking the little CPU to see if less reverent tunes could
be produced.

Anyway, I was wondering if the bells used in these things, which
appear to just be stamped out of sheet steel and then brass-plated,
are subjected to any hand-tuning.  If they're not, it seems rather
remarkable that their pitch would be as close to correct as they seem
to be.  Or is stamping out a bell to an accurate pitch a fairly
well-known art?

How about those rods in toy pianos, too?  Are those tuned by hand?

Mark Kinsler
http://www.frognet.net/~kinsler

 [ The Western Electric Style 500 telephone set (the last of the
 [ rotary dial 'phones in America) had two saucer bells of differing
 [ pitch.  The stamped bells seemed to have no special hand-tuning,
 [ but they were remarkably well-matched, and all the telephone
 [ ringers sounded alike; just ask anyone who worked in a large
 [ office 30 years ago!  -- Robbie