Originally the nickname of the bell in the clock tower of the Houses of Parliament, London, UK, and now by association the clock and its tower. The bell, 2·7 m/9 ft in diameter and weighing 13 tonnes, was cast in 1858.
The Clock Tower is a turret clock structure at the north-eastern end of the Houses of Parliament building in Westminster, London. It is colloquially and popularly known as Big Ben, however this name actually belongs to the clock's main bell.
Structure
The tower was raised as a part of Charles Barry's design of a new palace, after the old Palace of Westminster was destroyed by fire on the night of October 16, 1834.
The first 61 metres (200 feet) of the structure is the clock tower, consisting of brickwork with stone cladding; The tower is founded on a 15 by 15 metres (49 by 49 feet) raft, made of 3 metres (9 feet) thick concrete, at a depth of 7 metres (23 feet) below ground level. The four clock faces are 55 metres (180 feet) above ground.
Due to ground conditions present since construction, the tower leans slightly to the north-west, by roughly 220 millimetres (8.66 inches).
Clock faces
The Clock Faces were once large enough to allow the Clock Tower to be the largest four-faced clock in the world, but has since been outdone by the Allen-Bradley Clock Tower in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The builders of the Allen-Bradley Clock Tower did not add chimes to the clock, so Big Ben still holds the title of the "World's largest four-faced chiming clock". The clock mechanism itself was completed by 1854, but the tower was not fully constructed until four years later in 1858.
The clock faces and dials were designed by Augustus Pugin. The clock faces are set in an iron framework 7 metres (21 feet) in diameter supporting 576 pieces of opal glass, rather like a stained glass window. At the base of each clock face in gilt letters is the Latin inscription 'DOMINE SALVAM FAC REGINAM NOSTRAM VICTORIAM PRIMAM' meaning 'Lord save our Queen Victoria I'. Since the tower was not yet finished, the bell was mounted in New Palace Yard but the bell cracked under the striking hammer, and its metal was recast as the 12.5 tonne (13.8 ton) bell which is in use today. The new bell was mounted in the tower in 1908 alongside four quarter-hour bells.
The clock became operational on September 7, 1859.
During World War II, the Palace of Westminster was hit by German bombing, destroying the House of Commons and causing damage to the tower's western clockface.
The main bell
Big Ben, officially known as the Great Bell of Westminster, is the largest bell in the tower and part of the Great Clock of Westminster. With the bell recast it was installed into the clock tower, but once again a crack formed.
The exact origin of the name 'Big Ben' has remained a popular mystery, leading to speculation that suggests the bell was named after heavyweight boxer Benjamin Caunt who was popular at the time, however an alternate theory that has been supported cites the origin of the name as belonging to Sir Benjamin Hall who was the Parliamentary Commissioner of Works.
The BBC first broadcast the chimes on 31 December 1923 - there is a microphone in the turret connected to Broadcasting House.
Other bells
Along with the main bell, the belfry houses four quarter bells which play the Westminster Quarters, derived from Handel's Messiah, on the quarter hours.
Similar turret clocks
A 6 metre (20 foot) metal replica of the clock tower, known as Little Ben, complete with working clock, stands on a traffic island close to Victoria Station. Several turret clocks around the world are inspired by the look of the Great Clock, including the clock tower of the Gare de Lyon in Paris and the Peace Tower of the Parliament of Canada in Ottawa.
A clock tower similar to Big Ben is the Chamberlain Tower of the University of Birmingham, England.
Baby Big Ben is the Welsh version of Big Ben at the Pierhead in Cardiff. Its mechanism is almost identical to the one which powers the Big Ben clock in London.
Reliability
The clock is famous for its reliability. As the clock mechanism, created to Denison's specification by clockmaker Edward John Dent, was completed before the tower itself was finished, Denison had time to experiment. This escapement provides the best separation between pendulum and clock mechanism. Together with an enclosed, wind-proof box sunk beneath the clockroom, the Great Clock's pendulum is well isolated from external factors like snow, ice and pigeons on the clock hands, and keeps remarkably accurate time.
The idiom of putting a penny on, with the meaning of slowing down, sprung from the method of fine-tuning the clock's pendulum by adding or subtracting penny coins.
Despite heavy bombing the clock ran accurately throughout the Blitz.
The clock had its first and only major breakdown in 1976.
It stopped on 30 April 1997, the day before the general election, and again three weeks later.
On Friday, 27 May 2005 the clock stopped ticking for 90 minutes from 10.07pm, possibly due to hot weather (temperatures in London had reached an unseasonal 31.8ºC/90ºF).
On 29 October 2005, the mechanism was stopped for approximately 33 hours so that the clock and its chimes could be worked on.
In 2005, a terrorist manual was found in the home of Abu Hamza al-Masri, marking Big Ben, The Statue of Liberty and the Eiffel Tower as terrorist targets.
Big Ben's "Quarter Bells" were taken out of commission for four weeks starting at 0700 hrs GMT on 5 June 2006 , as a bearing holding one of the quarter bells was damaged from many years of wear and needed to be removed for repairs.
Culture
Big Ben is a focus of New Year celebrations in the United Kingdom, with radio and TV stations tuning to its chimes to welcome the start of the year.
For many years ITN's "News at Ten" began with an opening sequence which featured Big Ben with the chimes punctuating the announcement of the news headlines. The Big Ben chimes are still used today during the headlines and all ITV News bulletins use a graphic based on the Westminster clock face.
Big Ben can be used in the classroom to demonstrate the difference between the speed of light and the speed of sound. If a person visits London and stands at the bottom of the clock tower, they will hear the chimes of Big Ben approximately 1/6 of a second later than the bell being struck (assuming a bell height of 55 metres). round trip is 0.037105 seconds, compared to 0.1616 seconds for the natural sound to reach the ground)
An image of the clock tower was also used as the logo for London Films.
Cultural references
A cultural cliché
The clock has become a visual symbol for the United Kingdom and London, particularly in the visual media.
The sound of the clock chiming has also been used this way in audio media, but as the Westminster Quarters are heard from many other clocks and other devices, the unique nature of this particular sound has been considerably diluted. Trading Card Game, the design of the Clock Tower Prison card is based on the tower.
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