Message:23335 In: TODAY.WW
From: KF5JRVDate: Sun, 31 May 26 09:03:00 Z
Newsgroups: TODAY.WW
Subject: Today in History - May 31
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The famous tower clock known as Big Ben, located at the top of the 320-foot-high Elizabeth Tower, begins ticking over the House
s of Parliament in Westminster, London, for the first time on May 31, 1859. The great bell's strikes are first heard a few week
s later, on July 11.
After a fire destroyed much of the Palace of Westminster—the headquarters of the British Parliament—in October 1834, a stan
dout feature of the design for the new palace was a large clock atop a tower. The royal astronomer, Sir George Airy, wanted the
clock to have pinpoint accuracy, including twice-a-day checks with the Royal Greenwich Observatory. While many clockmakers dis
missed this goal as impossible, Airy counted on the help of Edmund Beckett Denison, a formidable barrister known for his expert
ise in horology, or the science of measuring time.
The name “Big Ben” originally just applied to the bell but later came to refer to the clock itself. Two main stories exist
about how Big Ben got its name. Many claim it was named after the famously long-winded Sir Benjamin Hall, the London commission
er of works at the time it was built. Another famous story argues that the bell was named for the popular heavyweight boxer Ben
jamin Caunt, because it was the largest of its kind.
Even after an incendiary bomb destroyed the chamber of the House of Commons during the Second World War, Elizabeth Tower surviv
ed, and Big Ben continued to function. Its famously accurate timekeeping is regulated by a stack of coins placed on the clock
s huge pendulum, ensuring a steady movement of the clock hands at all times. At night, all four of the clock’s faces, each o
ne 23 feet across, are illuminated. A light above Big Ben is also lit to let the public know when Parliament is in session.
73 de Scott KF5JRVPmail: KF5JRV@KF5JRV.#NWAR.AR.USA.NAEmail KF5JRV@gmail.com
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