The E-Sylum:  Volume 10, Number 39, September 30, 2007, Article 25

COIN HELPS PUT THE BONG BACK IN BIG BEN

[While I was in London this summer I wondered why I hadn't heard
the sound of Big Ben and just assumed I'd not been standing close
enough at the right times.  But the bell has been silent while
undergoing maintenance.  And according to an article this week in
the Daily Mail, a coin will play a key part in getting the great
bell and its clock back on duty. -Editor]

"Big Ben - which is not the tower which dominates the Houses of
Parliament, but the great bell at its summit which strikes the hours
- has been silent all summer.

"For the first time in almost half a century, it was stopped and
its complicated mechanism stripped down for repairs and maintenance.
Now the work is almost done.

"Next Monday, Big Ben will ring out again over London and across
the world.

"The work has not been easy. The Great Clock's massive mechanism
is driven by pulleys and weights like the pendulum of a grandfather
clock, a fraction of its size.

"It is housed in a chamber 292 stone steps above ground level. And
before the renovation could begin, much of the mechanism - including
the three weights which are two-and-a-half-tonnes in total - had
to be lowered to the ground through the narrow shaft that runs down
the middle of the spiral staircase. Cracks have been welded, driving
shafts replaced and fly wheels adjusted.

"A couple of weeks ago everything was hauled back into position and
'the three specialist' engineers - more properly called horologists
- who are employed to work on Parliament clocks, big and small,
are making sure that nothing goes wrong on the day of Big Ben's return.

"The staircase inside the tower is being repainted. So climbing
up to meet the horologists was a sticky as well as an exhausting
experience. Fortunately there were places to rest on the way.

"The door to the room in which miscreant Members of Parliament
were once imprisoned was locked. But on one landing a showcase
displayed an Edward VII penny. Michael McCann - an ex-marine
engineer and Keeper of the Great Clock as well as Parliament's
maintenance manager - explained why.

"When the clock is found to be gaining or losing time, the weight
of the pendulum is fractionally adjusted by the addition or removal
of an old-fashioned penny piece.

"Asked if the time would soon come when Big Ben's reputation
for accuracy depended on metric currency, McCann reacted with
horror. A copper coin, representing one 240th of a pound sterling,
did the job in 1859 when the clock was set in motion. If it was
good enough for then, it is good enough for now.

"During the final stages of the renovation, the giant hands have
rotated round the Roman numerals under the power of an electric
motor. McCann and his clock engineers are counting off the hours
until the real clock is working again.

"It seemed that they had only one regret. The three horologists
maintain and service all the clocks in Parliament, and - with
the coming of the digital age - the Westminster collection is
not what it used to be.

"'There's a good one in the Members' entrance said Smith. 'And
another in the Royal Robing Room,' added Westwood. 'But that
belongs to the Queen.' Roberson could not disguise his longing.
'They have some wonderful clocks in Buckingham Palace.'

"Yet, high above the traffic on Westminster Bridge, the clock
enthusiasts had one indisputable consolation. On October 1,
Big Ben will chime again. And when they hear what has become
the sound of England, they will know that the bell tolls loud
and clear because of them."

To read the complete article, see: Full Story

  Wayne Homren, Editor

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