Big Ben

Big Ben is a common name of the Great Bell located inside the clock tower at the north end of the Palace of Westminster in London. Usually, people wrongly call the whole structure of clock and tower – „Big Ben”. The tower was officially named The Elizabeth Tower to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee of Elizabeth II in 2012. The so-called „Big Ben” (reffering to the whole infrastructure) was built in 1859 and it still is one of the most prominent symbols of United Kingdom and a great British cultural icon. Since August 2017 the tower has been undergoing a four-year renovation process and its bells have remained silent until the restoration will have been completed.

Story of Big Ben

Previously, Big Ben was called the Clock Tower. It was designed by Augustus Pugin as a part of a larger project of the Palace of Westminster, which was destroyed by fire in October 1834.

Big Ben is one of the most recognizable and famous tourist attractions. Even though the interior of the tower is not accessible for foreign visitors, British residents are able to arrange sightseeing through their Members of Parliament. The Great Clock of Westminster is famous for its reliability. This spectacular design was developed by Edmund Becket Denison and George Airy. The first one invented the mechanism of the double three-legged gravity escapement, which provides separation between pendulum and clock mechanism. On the top of the pendulum, there is a small amount of penny coins, which serves as an effective adjustment of clock accuracy. What’s worth mentioning is the fact that adding or removing a single penny can change the speed of the clock by 0.4 second per day. The only major malfunction of the clock happened in August 1976. The air brake speed regulator broke after more than 100 years of constant functioning. The clock was shut down and reactivated in May 1977.

Hopefully, we will hear the sound of the great Big Ben once again when the renovation process will have been finished.

 

The most interesting facts according to Connect Click:

• You can distinguish when the Parliament is in session by looking at the clock face. The Ayrton Light, a lantern-like structure above the face is illuminated during the sessions.
• At the base of each clock dial there is a Latin inscription in gilt letters: „DOMINE SALVAM FAC REGINAM NOSTRAM VICTORIAM PRIMAM” – which means: „Oh Lord, keep safe our Queen Victoria the First”.
• After completion, the clockmaker Ian Westworth called the Big Ben: „the prince of timekeepers: the biggest, most accurate four-faced striking and chiming clock in the world”.