BIG BEN

Big Ben is one of the most famous landmarks in Great Britain. It is located at Bridge Street SW1, Westminster. It is commonly called Big Ben; however, this name actually refers to the clocks hour bell, the largest of the clocks five bells. The real name of this tower, the tower of Parliament, is The Clock Tower. The tower was constructed between 1843 and 1858 as the clock tower of the Palace of Westminster, which is now known as The Houses of Parliament. Its total height is 316 feet (96 m.) , the height of the belfry is 200 feet (60 m.) and there are 290 steps to the clockroom and 340 steps to the belfry. The clock tower looks spectacular at night when the four clock faces are illuminated. A special light above the clock faces is also illuminated, letting the public know when parliament is in session. In the beginning, there were two bells as the clock tower's hour bell. A first, 16 ton weighing bell was cast by John Warner and Sons in 1856. Since the Clock Tower was not yet completed, the bell was hung temporarily in the Palace Yard. The bell soon cracked so it was recast in 1858 in the Whitechapel Bell Foundry as a 13.5 ton bell. Unfortunately soon after this bell was placed in the belfry in July 1859, it cracked as well. This time, instead of yet again recasting the bell, the crack was repaired and a lighter hammer was used to prevent any more cracks. Nowadays, there is one hour bell named Big Ben. It weighs 13.5 tons, it has a maximum diameter of 9 feet and its tone is E. Furthermore, there are 4 quarter bells that weigh 1, 1,25 , 1,6 and 3,5 tons respectively and their tone is F. As long as the clock is concerned, it has 4 dials, each of them having a diameter of 23 feet (7 m.). Each dial contains 312 panes of glass and 28 bulbs are used to light each dial from behind. The hour hand is 9ft or 2.7m long and the minute hand measures 14ft (4.25m) long. The numbers are approximately 60cm long. Its machine weighs 5 tons. There are 3 trains that make a flatbed movement and a twosecond pendulum. The chiming and striking trains have been wound by motor since 1912 but the previous hand winding took two men and 5 hours per train. The going train is still wound by hand which takes less than 30 minutes. The pendulum has a length of 14 feet. The mechanism, designed by Edmund Beckett Denison, has a remarkable accuracy. The clock's rate is adjusted by simply adding small pennies on the shoulder of the pendulum. It is said that, even after a bomb

destroyed the Commons chamber during the Second World War, the clock tower survived and Big Ben continued to strike the hours. There are two different theories about the name ig Ben : 1) it was named after Sir Benjamin Hall, the first commissioner of works, a large man who was known affectionately in the house as "Big Ben" and 2) it was named after a heavyweight boxing champion at that time, Benjamin Caunt, also known as "Big Ben". The clock inside the tower was the world's largest when it was installed in the middle of the 19th century and is still the largest in Great-Britain.

http://www.parliament.uk/visiting/visiting-and-tours/ukvisitors/bigben/ http://www.aviewoncities.com/london/bigben.htm http://www.visitlondon.com/attractions/culture/big-ben

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