Big Ben

Big Ben is one of the most famous buildings in London. When you tell people you have been in London one of the first remarks you get is: 'Oh, did you see Big Ben?'.

A lot of people think that the clock tower is Big Ben, however, it is not the tower but the bell in the clock that is called Big Ben. The clock tower itself is called the Great Clock of Westminster.

In 1844 Parliament decided that the new buildings of the Houses of Parliament should include a clock tower. The specifications for the clock were extremely high for that time. The first strike of the bell should be correct to one second to the hour and it took until 1851 to develop a mechanism that was that accurate.

The bell was made according to certain requirements regarding weight, shape and metal. However, it cracked and was beyond repair. Because of this, a new bell had to be made. This time the Whitechapel Bell Foundry undertook the castings.

A couple of months after the clock went into service the bell cracked again. This apparently had to do with the hammer. According to experts it was to heavy. This time it took 3 years to repair. The hammer was replaced with a lighter one and the bell was turned a bit.

In 1976 the clock broke down once more. This time a shaft which was connected to a fly fan broke because of metal fatigue. Because of this the chiming mechanism started to rotate at a to high speed which resulted in a total destruction of the chiming mechanism. Several other parts of the clock were damaged by flying debris. This almost caused the clock to be destroyed completely. It took almost a year to repair the clock.

An interesting point of fact, is that Parliament discussed an appropriate name for the clock tower for quite a while. Sir Benjamin Hall, a large and portely man who was also known as Big Ben, gave a long speech about the clock. At the end of his speech somebody in Parliament said: 'Why not call him Big Ben and be done with it?'.

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