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Big Ben is one of London's best-known
landmarks, and looks most spectacular at night
when the clock faces are illuminated. You
even know when parliament is in session, because
a light shines above the clock face. The four
dials of the clock are 23 feet square, the
minute hand is 14 feet long and the figures
are 2 feet high. Minutely regulated with a
stack of coins placed on the huge pendulum,
Big Ben is an excellent timekeeper, which
has rarely stopped. ... |
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The name Big Ben actually
refers not to the clock-tower itself , but to the thirteen
ton bell hung within. The bell was named after the first commissioner
of works, Sir Benjamin Hall. This bell came originally from
the old Palace of Westminster, it was given to the Dean of
St. Paul’s by William III. Before returning to Westminster
to hang in it's present home, it was refashioned in Whitechapel
in 1858. The BBC first broadcast the chimes on the 31st December
1923 - there is a microphone in the turret connected to Broadcasting
House.
During the second world
war in 1941, an incendiary bomb destroyed the Commons chamber
of the Houses of Parliament, but the clock tower remained
intact and Big Ben continued to keep time and strike away
the hours, its unique sound was broadcast to the nation and
around the world, a welcome reassurance of hope to all who
heard it.
There are even cells
within the clock tower where Members of Parliament can be
imprisoned for a breach of parliamentary privilege, though
this is rare; the last recorded case was in 1880.
The tower is not open
to the general public, but those with a "special interest"
may arrange a visit to the top of the Clock Tower through
their local (UK) MP.
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