The Big Ben

The history of the Big Ben! The Big Ben is the famous clock of London, it can be seen from a big distance. The Clock is also known for his reliability, it was build with much precise by engineers around the United Kingdom. Big Ben is actually the nickname of a single bell, not the clock itself, the tower in which it is installed. The building is the Palace of Westminster, mainly known as the Houses of Parliament. The clock tower of the Palace of Westminster houses the clock, it is officially known as the Great Clock of Westminster. It has four faces, one very large bell, and four smaller bells. The largest bell, which chimes on the hour and which, is not visible from the outside of the tower, is the Great Bell of Westminster. It was cast in 1856 and is one of Britain’s largest bells, at 3m high. According to most people, Big Ben was named after Sir Benjamin Hall, who was the Commissioner of Works when the bell was constructed. Sir Benjamin was a big and large man, and so the nickname was appropriate to the size of the bell. Others say the clock was named after champion boxer Benjamin Caunt. The Great Clock of Westminster is one of the largest mechanical clocks in the world and also one of the most accurate. Its original specification stipulated that the first ring of the clock each hour should be within one second of the correct time. The leading clock designers of the day considered that an unreachable goal, because the hands and other exposed parts were subject to the action of wind, moisture, temperature changes, birds, and other variables that could easily throw off its accuracy by more than a second. However, after winning a design competition, Edmund Beckett Denison was hired to design the clock, which did in fact obtain the specified accuracy. When minor adjustments need to be made to regulate the clock’s speed, pennies are placed on the clock’s pendulum to alter its weight slightly.



Some links:
Big Ben at AboutBritain.com
Big Ben at Wikipedia