Whistle mystery on the INDIANA

[Richard Weisenberger]

Very interesting. This make a minimum of three whistles seen on this boat!

To me these are two completely different whistles. I have enlarged them as much as I can. I think that Travis may have the explanation, the first whistle was just temporary while they waited to get the MINNIE BAY's whstle.

[Richard Weisenberger]

Thanks Jim. The photo on the right clearly shows the unscaled two bell chime that I have been talking about. I believe this shows it somewhat better.

The INDIANA came out with the whistle from the MINNIE BAY according to Ways Directory, but that whistle did not appear on the boat until just days before it came out. Originally the INDIANA was to have a very strange looking whistle indeed.........just take a look:
Photo 1.....the INDIANA being outfitted at the bank at Howards. She's so close to being finished there is smoke coming from the stack.
Photo 2.....we'll zero in on the whistle that was installed at that time. Strange looking affair, I've never seen one like it either before or since.

[Steve Huffman]

Richard,
I'm still not seeing the significant differences you apparently see in these photos...

[Frank X. Prudent]

If you can "blow up" the photos so that the pilot house and smokestacks are the same size in each photo, then maybe those inclined to get measurements of the various whistles can get some fairly accurate numbers. Just a thought.

[Richard Weisenberger]

2 bell unscaled chime in question

I believe I have just made an attachment of the photo in question. It shows an unscaled 2 bell chime. It should now be apparent to everyone that the whistle on the left side of the manifold is significantly longer than the whistle on the right side, but not much different in diameter. That would make the longer, skinnier whistle on the left side of the manifold of smaller scale than the whistle on the right side and much more prone to overblowing before the shorter, fatter whistle on the right could even fully blow.

During quilling such a whistle would start out with the longer, skinnier whistle sounding the lower note and the shorter fatter whistle sounding the higher note. As the valve is opened further a point would be reached where the longer, skinnier whistle would overblow to its 3rd harmonic (in musical terms that's an octave and a fifth) and actually become the higher pitch whistle of the two all while the shorter, fatter whistle continues to blow louder and somewhat higher in pitch.

This is an unstable condition and not a very pretty combination, as the chord drastically changes as the whistle is blown. You want the notes of a chime whistle to track and maintain the chord relationship as the pitches rise during quilling. There is no way this whistle could do that! That would not be a problem with scaled chimes.

All pictures showing 3 bell chimes are more or less scaled, as the diameters of the individual whistles increase with the length.

[Steve Huffman]

I believe I have just made an attachment of the photo in question. It shows an unscaled 2 bell chime. It should now be apparent to everyone that the whistle on the left side of the manifold is significantly longer than the whistle on the right side, but not much different in diameter.

Just to make sure we are on the same page.. You're saying the photo you posted has only 2 whistles on the manifold? This is definitely NOT what I see in that photo.

I see the same 3 whistles -- due to the camera's angle, the smallest whistle is directly in front of the largest whistle on the goofy elbow extension. The effect of the smallest whistle being directly in front of, and inline with, the largest whistle makes the largest whistle look significantly longer, but it's not. It's a trick of the camera angle. At least, that is what I'm seeing...

If I have missed your point, please feel free to explain again..

[inactive user 01]

3 whistles

I'll try and put these images side by side. I think Steve is exactly right and what I've been saying all along is that there are three whistles in both these images and the only difference from this set up and the later pictures of the Minnie Bay whistle in place is the goofy extension on the big whistle.

[Richard Weisenberger]

On closer inspection you may be right about it being three whistles Steve. I've been seeing it as two whistles all along on this picture, not accounting for that goofy elbow extension which I did not notice earlier. Something like this sure throws you a curve. I'm used to seeing whistle manifolds arranged as a trident with the largest whistle always in the center, just as it appears to be in the other photos. This photo seems to show something completely different. I agree that we definitely need a larger, clearer picture to fully evaluate it.

Could be. Maybe the slightest difference in length of the largest whistle can be seen by comparing these photos, but even that could be subject to photo aberations. It still looks like the same 3 whistles and manifold to me, with the center whistle on a goofy elbow extension.

The notion of boatyards using temporary "house whistles" during fitting-out makes perfect sense to me, but is that really what we are seeing in this case?

I could be wrong, but how can we be 100% certain about this, unless better photos of these differences come along? I'll gladly stand corrected, but I'm not sure I see significant differences between the 3 whistles, in these photos. (?)