Big Ben
From ArticleWorld
Big Ben is the generic name of the Clock Tower of the Palace of Westminster which houses the bicameral British Parliament. Big Ben is used to refer loosely to the Clock Tower of the Palace of Westminster in London; however, it is actually the name given to the largest bell within the tower in the Great Clock of the Palace. Apart from being a hallmark of reliability in timekeeping, this most famous bell in the world is the popular face of London. Big Ben has given rise to many prototypes around the world and has been the centre of many fictional and non fictional terrorist attacks.
The Metamorphosis
The bell has gone through many phases since it was first heard in the year 1856. When first cast by John Warner and Sons, its original weight was around 16 tons while the weight of its striking hammer was around 300kgs. After the bell began cracking under its own weight as well as the weight of its heavy hammer, it was redesigned by White chapel Bell Foundry and reduced to its present weight of 13.8 tons with a hammer weighing about 200 kgs.
Apart from the Big Ben, the Clock Tower also houses four other bells known as the quarter bells. These bells strike the quarter hours, each hour, to the accompaniment of Westminster Quarters.
Time tested
The clock in the Tower, which is synonymous with the bell was designed by Lord Grimthorpe and created by Edward Dent in the year 1859. Since then it has been striking the correct hour and minute with a few exceptional aberrations when it has been overtaxed either by heavy snow or metal fatigue, or during a general overhaul.
From ringing in the New Year and the Remembrance Day to striking the time before local and international news bulletins, the life of London is intimately interwoven with Big Ben, and the skyline of the City cannot be imagined without the imposing Clock Tower.
Visual impact
There are innumerable examples of the Clock Tower as part of movie lore, some likely ones being:
- the film adaptation of the novel The Thirty-Nine Steps,
- the animated film Basil, the Great Mouse Detective, and
- the movie, Independence Day.