Big Ben

The name Big Ben ( English abbreviation for, great Benjamin ' ) refers to the heaviest weight of 13.5 t of the five bells of the famous clock tower at the Palace of Westminster in London. The bell of Big Ben applies popularly known as The Voice of Britain ( The Voice UK).

Also on the clock or the clock tower, the name Big Ben is often transmitted. However, since September 2012, the tower is officially called Elizabeth Tower. The renaming of the former Clock Tower was made to commemorate the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II and was approved by the British Parliament.

Bell

The Great Bell is the second bell in the tower, as the first at the dress rehearsal in 1857 was broken. In the first experiment, the cast of the Whitechapel Bell Foundry in London in 1856 bell weighed instead of the intended 14 all of 17 tons. Because of this miscalculation and a much too heavy percussion hammer she suffered the first test, a seven-foot long crack. It was decided to melt the bell again and pour the material a new. This in turn was poured on 10 April 1858 by the Whitechapel Bell Foundry and installed in October of the same year in the tower. After the movement was set in motion on May 31, 1859, the bell from the clock tower rang for the first time on 11 July 1859. Yet even the new bell was initially granted no luck and so the bell was given in September 1859 again a tear. The bell was then rotated so that the impact hammer could no longer meet the plan. Next the weight of the hammer was drastically reduced.

The origin of the name Big Ben is not clearly established. There are two main theories:

  • According to Sir Benjamin Hall, the First Commissioner of Works at the time of installation of the bell
  • After Ben Caunt, a heavyweight boxer who had his last fight in 1857.

Elizabeth Tower

Today is commonly referred also the whole tower as Big Ben although this term is incorrect. Officially the tower was until September 2012 as The Clock Tower ( engl: Clock Tower ) denotes. Often erroneously the name St. Stephen 's Tower will be used. In September 2012, the tower was renamed in honor of the 60th Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II in Elizabeth Tower.

The tower has a height of 96.3 meters, the first 61 meters of brick made ​​with a limestone facade and the tip made ​​of cast iron. Charles Barry, the architect of the Palace of Westminster, Augustus Pugin commissioned with the design of the tower. In the tower is a prison housed, it was intended for members of the two chambers of Parliament. The prison was used most recently in 1880, when Charles Bradlaugh did not want to make the religious oath.

The clock tower is one of the most famous landmarks in London.

Clock Tower

The movement was developed in 1848 by Sir George Airy and Edmund Denison and produced by watchmaker Edward John Dent. The diameter of the four clock faces is seven meters. The minute hand has a length of 4.3 meters, which measure 2.74 meters hour hand. This makes it the second largest clock in Britain. Under each of the four clock faces is the Latin inscription, " Domine fac salvam reginam nostram Victoriam first intention " (' God save our Queen Victoria the First ').

In order for the clock to work properly, four mechanics in use, the Keeper of the work around the clock Great Clock ( Keeper of the Great Clock ). Three times per week, an electric motor is turned on, winding the Clock. The clock has a pendulum of length 3.9 meters with a total weight of 299 kg, and an oscillation period of two seconds. The fine tuning is traditionally done using Penny coins that are placed on the pendulum, so as to change the center of gravity and thus the oscillation period.

During World War II, the BBC stopped the hourly live coverage of the bell sound on the radio and replaced it the same by a recording. They wanted to prevent the antiwar meteorological information obtained from the sound and echo of Big Ben.

In August 1945, there was an error when repeatedly settled a large flock of starlings on the hands of the clock and their progress slowed. On New Year's night in 1962, freezing temperatures blocked the mechanics, so that the new year was ushered in only ten minutes late. On 1 May 2004 trailed the quarter- hourly chimes. Although the bell tower on the hour was still with his characteristic deep sound at the time, but usually every quarter of an hour sounding chimes fell for about a week out. Reason for the failure was a torn, extremely heavy counterweight.

On 27 May 2005, the movement stopped from initially unexplained reasons, for about 90 minutes. In the 146 years since its construction, this was only a total of four times occurred. A majority of the British media gave the unusually high temperatures of 31 ° C to blame. According to the BBC, however, a defective gear shall bear the actual debt. In the course of time change in 2005 Big Ben October 29, was posted on Saturday, 2005, stopped at 8:00 local time clock, to perform maintenance. On Sunday 16 clock Greenwich Mean Time (17 clock CET) has started the movement again.

As of 11 August 2007 silent carillon for seven weeks since the tower for the 150 - year celebration was renovated. The clock continued to run, but the familiar tune not sounded. The BBC, which traditionally begins the 18- clock messages with the live sound of Big Ben, transferred, instead, the Greenwich time signal. On October 1, from 12 clock noon everything was back in its time - order. Worldwide, the live sound on BBC World Service can be heard.

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