BIG BEN

Radio Record, Volume I, Issue 36, 23 March 1928, Page 2

BIG BEN

| | INTERESTING FACTS. YT. P. Sewell (Christchurch) writes :- I would like to correct what might /give a false impression of "Big Ben." In your Jastissue a paragraph, culled from a Sydney. paper, suggests that "Big Ben" was at Teast ten seconds wroug. ‘She enclosed card, which I think worth copying in ‘‘Radio Ref cord," will probably explain the apparent difference in time. ‘Ihe time is correct on the first stroke of the hour; that is, the chimes do not count, and I shonld think it would take sixteen seconds for the hour chimes. On Westminster Bridge stands an old man with a powerful telescope, and for Id. you are allowed three minutes’ view ef Big Ben’s" face, and the enclosed ecard giyen in. I like your paper very much, and was agreeably surpriscd when I returned to New Zealand to ‘ find a new radio paper on the market. of such a high standard. "BIG BEN." _ The great Westminsier chock, striking on "Big Ben" in the clock tower of the Houses of Parliament, was made 1 and fixed in the clovk tower in the year 1858 by I*. Dent, the predecessor of E. Dent and Company, Ltd., 61 Strand and 4 Royal Kxchange, Tendon, and has been in their charge ever since. It is the largest striking, most powerful, and most accurate public clock in the world, the first blow on "Big Ren" at each hour denoting correct lime, The four dials are cach 23 feet in diameter, the centres being 180 feet from the ground. ‘The figures are 2 feet lung, and the minute spaces 1 foot square. The minute hands are 14 feet long and weigh about 2ewt. cach; they are made of copper, and travel a distance equal to 100 miles each year, The hour hands are Y) feet Jung and weigh much more. The pendulum is 13 feet long, beating 2 seconds; the bob of the pendulum weighs 4dewt. The weights of the clock weigh nearIy 2k tons. There are 374 steps up to the clock room. Winding: This is now effected by eleetric motor, "Rig Ben," the bell on which the clock strikes the hours, weighs 134 tons, and the hammer weighs dewt. The four quarter bells weigh nearly 8 tons, viz., 3 tons Isewt,, 1 ton Mewt., L ton Gewt., and 1 ton lewt, respee-_ tively,

Twice a day it telegraphs-its time automatically to Greenwich Observatory, which enables its performance to be checked. | | «The clock is now lighted by electricity, the twenty-eight lights being | 10,000 candle-power. ; | Above the clock are the emblems of the Three Kingdoms and the Principality of Wales. The chimes of "Big Ben" are set to the following lines :-- "All through this hour, Lord, be my enide, And by Thy power no foot shall slide." Under the clock: Domine Salvam Fac Reginan Nostram Victoriam Primam. Laus Deo. (O Lord, make safe our Queen Victoria the First. Praise be to God.)