Happy New Year to everyone.
When the Palace of Westminster was completed in the 1850s, it was regarded as an architectural wonder. It remains an iconic edifice. When one thinks of Parliament, one thinks of the Palace of Westminster. Perhaps the most photographed feature of the Palace is the Clock Tower, which houses the Great Bell – better known as Big Ben.
2009 constitutes the 150th anniversary year of Big Ben. The Great Clock started on 31 May 1859 and its chimes were heard for the first time on 11 July. There will be various events to commemorate the anniversary. For details, as well as for some fascinating information about Big Ben, click here.
For me, the fascination of the Clock Tower is not just Big Ben but the intricate dome of the tower. Lit up at night, one can appreciate the sheer beauty of the structure.
Happy New Year, Lord Norton!
It’s the timekeeping that fascinates me. I set my watch to the Radio 4 time signal on Tuesday. Yesterday at 6pm, they broadcast Big Ben and it was a second behind, as they had already made the adjustment for the leap second! When I heard it on TV at midnight, it was indeed still a second behind my watch.
Of course, all this is only possible to observe using analogue radio and TV. Once the Government have sold all the frequencies off and forced everyone to go digital, it will no longer be possible for anyone outside London to use Big Ben accurately to mark the start of the new year due to the delays in transmission.
Instead, we’ll all either need our own radio-controlled clocks, or to use a PC clock set through network time protocol (NTP). Is this progress or not? Just a thought for the New Year!
Jonathan: Happy New Year. I suspect you may find of particular interest the report in ‘The Times’ which explains how the Keeper of the Great Clock checks the accuracy of the clock: he ‘phones the speaking clock.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article5425798.ece
I am not sure what the Keeper did before the introduction of the speaking clock!
On your point about the move to digital, it will certainly be a great loss if people are no longer able to check their watches against the chimes of Big Ben. Being able to do so is for many part of their daily routine. Progress certainly has its downside.
(I haven’t bought any book on the subject yet, so the following is the result of stitching together a number of sources.)
One of the specifications for the construction of the Great Clock of Westminster was that it should be connected via telegraph line to the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, so that its accuracy could be checked against the latter’s precise time and recorded. The clock’s time was thus telegraphed twice a day to the Observatory; hourly signals were also sent from there to the Clock Tower, and the necessary adjustments to the pendulum were made. The clock’s remarkable accuracy was established from the very first year.
The telegraph line was destroyed in the Blitz, and its reconstruction was considered unnecessary. I don’t know since when the speaking clock has been used by the Keeper, but from what I read it was introduced before World War II, and therefore it was an available substitute of the Greenwich connection from the start.
I’m very proud of Big Ben. I have friends in the Clock Maintenance team. Great fun chaps, all of them.
Happy New Year!
The pendulum of Big Ben swings accurately because several old style pennies or denarii keep the timing correct. Its about the only thing left of our currency that has stood the test of time reliably.
The blog has a competitor. Any questions?
http://change.gov/page/content/openforquestions20081229/
Thanks to Barack Obama.
Thanks for the link, Lord Norton. After writing my last comment, it occurred to me that most people in London don’t hear Big Ben on time either, due to the time it takes sound to travel. Radio listeners are the only ones who can accurately set their watch by it – although those working in the Palace of Westminster aren’t too far behind!
Senex: The site set up by the President-elect appears to be the logical successor to the site identified by Matt in response to to the earlier post on ‘Blogging Ahead’. It is certainly something we should think of emulating. It would be nice to get as many readers!
Happy New Year belatedly!
It had occurred to me that you are aware that in 1855 or so people whose time was accurate within the difference of the duration of sound’s travel would have felt quite good about it generaly and a piddling vast majority still might. I wonder if it is possible to conjecture or prove that educated persons of intelligence, leisure and perhaps more than their share of the Teutonic genes in the English make-up might also have calculated the differential and allowed for it. I believe the interest might have been sufficient to allow for such a thing.
As a very wee lad living in London from either the wild colonies or the world’s greatest power depending on which set of incomplete truths one chooses to examine, I was very fascinated by Big Ben. Along with the “wild” pigeon I trained to eat from a bowl on my sill and named Fred and the cinema which showed only animated children’s films it was a wonder which made London seem a magical place. I actually did appreciate the monarchy and the museums even then but Big Ben lived in both the world of affective childhood delights and cognitive appreciation. As a rather quiet and shy child it seemed a delightful presence which never made the mistake of thinking it should hang around at the wrong times and never once made any commments that made me feel out of place. A sort of wise and extraordinarily reserved uncle to my four and five year old mind which had been removed from a world where family reunions were interrupted largely by family reunions and there were many older relatives whom I often saw and with whom I exchanged only slightly more words than I did with Big Ben.
During my last visit in London, just a month ago, the sight of the Clock Tower reminded me an atmosphere of both familiarity and greatness. I absolutely agree with Lord Norton about the intricate and refined beauty of the dome, that looks always shining of a severe and imposing light whatever the colour of the sky may be.