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Rendons à César ce qui est à César
The goal of the following few lines is to take you on a journey into the fabulous world of Heola and to try to convey some of the magic that drives us.
At Heola, we are keen to honor two brilliant inventors.
The steel system (in red) invented by William GAY in 1891
Patent US464863
The steel system in its tube (in blue) invented by William GAY in 1891
Patent US464863
The suspended pendulum system (in yellow) added by Karl Ewald in 1945
Patent US2442680
We can quite simply say that the inventor of the chime as we construct it at Heola is none other than William Gay.
Indeed, to build our chime, we relied on his work patented more than 130 years ago.
His goal was already to create a toy, an instrument giving the sound effect of a chime. To achieve this, he created a system of 8 rods fixed in a metal ring, all inserted into a resonance cylinder.
Here are some sketches from his 1891 patent:
We also wish to honor Karl Ewald who, by taking up William Gay's work, invented and adapted in 1945 the system of a clapper suspended by the upper end of the chime cylinder.
Here are some sketches from his 1945 patent:
Thus, the technical operation and design of our chime were born.
The adventure of innovation didn’t stop in 1945. Thirty years later, in 1975, Joel Schatz took pleasure in incorporating the chime, as we craft it today, into a musical toy called the Roly-Poly, which must have delighted countless children.
Patent US3921331
We often talk about meditation chimes for adults. Lawrence Doppelt, however, envisioned in 1976 a way to gently guide children into a peaceful meditation before sleep.
Patent US3988856
You may ask, what does Heola bring compared to the work of these inventors?
Using the technique and design developed by Messrs. Gay and Ewald, our work has been guided by a single objective: to bring a resonance and sound richness yet unmatched in the world of chimes.
The steps were organized around:
- Thorough research on steel resulting in the development of a special hardened steel for making our Heola chimes.
- An assembly technique to transmit vibrations from the rods to the beech tube through the steel ring without loss.
- We also took the challenge of making a resonance cylinder with beech wood layers transformed with artisanal woodworking techniques. The result is a perfect cylinder with continuous geometry. This perfect volume continuity, without extra thickness, transmits the vibrations born from the percussion of the resonator rods without harmonic distortion.
We are proud to have contributed our part to the development of this beautiful instrument by passionately adding our technological know-how.
