BIG BEN JANGLED.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1014, 2 January 1911, Page 6

BIG BEN JANGLED.

. CRACKED AND OUT OF' TUNE, • Som<s years ago, travelling homewari from a journey round the world (writes Sir Henry Lucy in the "Westminster Gazette")! stayed a while at Bombay. I was awakened on the morning following my first night in the hotel by the thought that I was home again, within sight of the' Clock Tower at Westminster, and within sound of its bells. Through the still, sultry air floated the music of bells chiming the quarters, ' after brief pause booming the hour. Often had I heard it by day and night through the storm and sunshine of Parliamentary life. And here, as I speedily reaife--. Ed, thousands of miles nearer the rising suu, 'the familiar melody vibrated over roofs and streets of houses, which, as I -Wordsworth looked upon London. 1 frjjm Westminster , Bridge, - "seemed * i asleep." On inquiry I fonnd the bella." sounded from a clock-tower close by. A wealthy native,'"spending gome days in London, beard Big Ben's "reiterated voice, and bestowed upon his native city a peal of bells that brought the music to Bombay. '

During the current yeai "Big Ben hnq been in-disgrace. • It ha.s been insistedthat, If not absolutely cracked, he is out of tune. One k section say he is flat; an-r~ other complain that he rings sharp. Writing vwenty-one years' ago, Mr. Haweis said: "Big Ben is cracked, an:l his tone grows sensibly- worse every- year, I might say every month. Yet, consider- ■ ing.no. is BMn. thick, we can hardly bo surprised ..that the crack does not -go right through him." Whilst according to this authority Big Ben himself suffers from a flat third, -th* next, largest: * s afflicted by. a sharp third.,. In. brief, none of the bells <are in .tune.\ritli each other. "The intended intervals ar« indeed suggested, but it can scarcely bo maintained by aay.musician that tie dis--sonant clangour which is hea.rd a quarter before each hour is anything', "mora than a Tague approach to' the. intended sequence." ' This is a fearsome. indictment. i-,.

' Bi 5 Ben, first of his race; »ras''cast ia" the year 1857. Without form of baptism, ho derived from Sir Benjamin Hall - a I nam© familiar over' Ennlish-speaking is-'■ lands and continents. It was Sir Ben--3?. m ? n , (afterwaTds Lord Lanover) who: in- ■ ltiated the work of peopling tho • Clock Tower witli bells. He'obtained the collaboration of Lord Grirathorpe, at . that time known as Sir Edmund Becket Den* IS c*l\ Q V" Perhaps th« highest authority» of tue day on the .subject of bells. Ear entered upon the task with characteristic» .energy, not only designing the,biff bell,) •buc the great.clock face that stands four..: a e wind®; of heaven^ There were only- three English; bell-, founders.. -ifhose -works were big .enough, their experience wide enough, to grapplewith the gigantic undertaking of.casting. Big Ben. The tender of Messrs: WarnOT was accepted, albeit, whilst the usual ■ price of bell-metal .was seven guineas -a. hundredweight, they asked ten. From the.-outset , misfortune attended Big Ben. Being cast it came out two tons heavier than was intended, and-was, consequently! so 1 far .thicker that it required a clapper twice the estimated weight. After beingrung occasionally the over-weighted clapper cracked the bell, and then? remained - nothing.for it but -.to break it up and. recast it. ■ ■ ;

The second bell was still more unfortunate. It not only became cracked; but its metal>was described, by Dr. Percy as. "porous and un-homogeneous.": And thia bell is the. bell we-hear to-day. It .was' resolved to make the best o£ "a bad job. 'A lighter hammer was made, and by roadjusting the hang of the bell it struck; it on a part remote from tho crack, ahdn thus hid its infirmity from the untrained', ear of the man in the street. Lord Grimthorpo admitted that if the crack gradually. works right through the result will bo intolerable, "and then," he jubilantly, added, "perhaps -we may have at last : a' -. sound: great :beU of Westminster." Meanwhile tho inevitable is approaching. It is I the craclindeepenins (tnat is-account-able for tho dissonance that has'durins the past few months recalled perturbed -. attention, to Big . Ben.' As'for; the quarter bells; they rejoice .. in peculiarities - that date back to their birth. ■ Tested soon-after they were' Hun<» it was found that the first quarter .bell had its note flat of A; second quarter, flat of G i- third quaTter, flat of F; 'fbtarth quarter,' flat of C. What mora in the way of variety could the most'rapacious <ar desire? "The excited citizens of Mechlin or Antwerp Would," Mr. Haweia - cried aloud, "have -had these bells down after their first turidess attempt -to-play the quarter." In London we are . more patient. • ' . ' How much longer will the richest capital, in the world continue to suffer ■an excruciating -nuisance ? It is no'.'U6e tinkering with Big Ben .or his satellites. The only cure is to be found in the pro. cess,of recasting., The cost would not approach that of a new Dreadnought. It would, in. fact, not greatly exceed that of one of the new guns that are alleged to have given pauM to German naval enterprise. It was part; of the contract of the founder of the first Big Ben that if'the work, when competed. were l not found - satisfactory,'he would'recast tbe bell : at a charge of per hundredweight. Big Ben weighs 13* tons. Estimating at the full price of ten guineas a hundredweight, it will be seen that at a comparatively-trifling expenditure reproach might be removed, from Westminster. ' .