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Big Ben

Big Ben is the colloquial name of the Clock Tower of the Palace of Westminster in London, and an informal name for the Great Bell of Westminster, the largest bell in the tower and part of the Great Clock of Westminster. The clock tower is at the north-western end of the building, the home of the Houses of Parliament, and contains the famous striking clock and bell Big Ben is the most commonly used name for the Clock Tower but it is actually the bell that is called Big Ben. One theory says that the bell is named after Sir Benjamin Hall, the Chief Commissioner of Works. Another theory suggests that at the time anything which was heaviest of its kind was called "Big Ben" after the then-famous prizefighter Benjamin Caunt, making it a natural name for the bell. The tower is also sometimes referred to as St Stephen's Tower, though this name is not used by staff at the Palace of Westminster, including those who work within the tower itself. This name might originate from St Stephen's Hall, the western wing of the Palace of Westminster, which is the entrance used by visitors wishing to view the proceedings of the Houses of Parliament, and British subjects wishing to lobby their MP. 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 tower is designed in the Victorian Gothic style, and is 96.3 m (316 ft) high. The 61 m (200 ft) tower consists of brickwork with stone cladding; the remainder of the tower's height is accounted for by a framed spire of cast iron. The tower is founded on a 15 by 15 m (49 by 49 ft) raft, made of 3 m (9 ft) thick concrete, at a depth of 7 m (23 ft) below ground level. The tower has an estimated weight of 8,667 t. The four clock faces are 55 m (180 ft) above ground. Due to ground conditions present since construction, the tower leans slightly to the north-west, by roughly 220 mm. It also oscillates annually by a few millimetres east and west, due to thermal effects The clock in the tower was once the biggest in the world, able to strike the first blow for each hour with an accuracy of one second. The clock mechanism was completed by 1854, but the tower was not fully constructed until four years later. The face of the Great Clock of Westminster. A 5 foot 4 inch person (1.63 m) has been inserted into the picture at correct scale. The hour hand is 9 feet (2.7 m) long and the minute hand is 14 feet (4.3 m) long Enlarge. The face of the Great Clock of Westminster. A 5 foot 4 inch person (1.63 m) has been inserted into the picture at correct scale. The hour hand is 9 feet (2.7 m) long and the minute hand is 14 feet (4.3 m) long The clock faces and dials were designed by Augustus Pugin. It is an iron framework 23 feet in diameter supporting 312 pieces of opal glass, rather like a stained glass window. Some of the glass pieces may be removed for inspection of the hands. The surround of the dials is heavly gilded. At the base of each clock face in gilt letters is the Latin inscription 'DOMINE SALVAM FAC REGINAM NOSTRAM VICTORIAM PRIMAM' which means 'Lord save our Queen Victoria I'. The name Big Ben was first given to a 16-ton hour bell, cast in 1856. 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 13.8 ton bell which is in use today. The new bell was mounted in the tower in 1858 alongside four quarter-hour bells. On September 7, 1859, the clock became fully operational. Less than a month later, the hour bell developed a crack due to the strain of being struck repeatedly by the hammer (the same hammer which broke its predecessor). For two years, the largest of the quarter bells was used as a substitute. Then the hour bell was rotated so that the hammer no longer came into contact with the cracked surface, and the bell became operational again in 1862.