April 10th: Birth of Big Ben

On this date in 1858 Big Ben, the bell in the world's most famous clock, was cast in Whitechapel, London. Here are ten things you may not know about Big Ben, the clock and the tower:

1. "Big Ben" is often used as a nickname for the clock tower of the houses of Parliament in London. "Big Ben" is actually the bell which chimes the hour, officially known as the Great Bell.
2. The tower is called the Elizabeth Tower and was so named for the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II in 2012. Before this, is was simply known as "The Clock Tower." Incidentally, the other tower of the Houses of Parliament, the west tower, was named "Victoria Tower" in honour of Victoria's Diamond Jubilee.
3. Big Ben weighs 13 tons, is 7 feet six inches (2.29m) tall and 9 feet (2.74m) across. At the time, it was the largest bell in Britain, but the record was beaten in 1881 when the 16 ton "Big Paul" was installed in St Paul's Cathedral.
4. It was named after Sir Benjamin Hall, the Commissioner of Works. His name is inscribed on it.
5. The current bell is not the original. The original bell, cast in 1856, cracked so badly during its testing phase that they had to make a new one. The new one suffered some damage, too, because, it was discovered, the clock's designers had installed a hammer that was too heavy. It wasn't fatal in this case, but the bell did have to be taken out of commission for three years and repaired, by cutting out the metal around the crack, and turning the bell so that the hammer (which had also been replaced) would strike it in a different place. Since then, it chimes with a slightly different tone. It is still in use today and still cracked. (US readers - your Liberty Bell isn't the only famous cracked bell!)
6. To anyone reading this in Italy - we also have a leaning tower. Since the Jubilee Line Extension was built in the 1990s, the clock tower tilts by 9mm each year and is now detectable by the naked eye.
7. The clock's pendulum is 13 feet long (4m), weighs 660lb (300kg) and swings every two seconds. In order to keep its famously regular time, the pendulum is inside a windproof box, and to regulate the speed, the high-tech solution of a pile of old penny pieces rests on the pendulum. To speed up or slow down the clock by 0.4 seconds a day, they simply add or remove a penny.
8. In the clock room, there is a plaque inscribed with the words: "All through this hour/Lord be my guide/And by Thy power/No foot shall slide," based on Psalm 37. These are the lyrics to the chime. (Although anyone who was a Brownie in the 1960s may remember singing "Oh Lord our God/Thy children call/Grant us thy peace/And bless us all.")
9. In 1962 the New Year was rung in 10 minutes late because of snow and ice on the clock's hands. On another occasion, in 1949, a flock of starlings perched on the hands and made the clock four and a half minutes slow.
10. The bells have been silenced three times other than when they needed to be repaired. In 1916, to prevent attacks by Zeppelins in World War I; for Winston Churchill's funeral in 1965; and for Margaret Thatcher's funeral in 2013. Extra chimes are also possible - in 2012, Big Ben chimed 30 times to celebrate the opening of the Olympic Games.