We can tell if it's going slightly fast or slow."īig Ben is the name of the Great Bell at the top of the 96-metre-high Elizabeth Tower, but is often used to refer to the tower itself, which looms over the Houses of Parliament.Although most people know this iconic landmark as Big Ben, this is actually the name of the bell in the tower – which weighs a whopping 13.7 tonnes! There are a lot of theories about where this name came from one of them being that the bell was named after Sir Benjamin Hall, the Chief Commissioner of Works, who was affectionately known as ‘Big Ben’. "As it strikes the bell we'll stop the stopwatch. "We phone up the speaking clock and at five minutes to the hour, start a stopwatch, go up to the belfry, stand by the bell and the hammer. "We have been up there most days just getting it right," he said. Initial attempts by the team to correct the mechanism made the clock run slow.
You have to make a very gradual change by adding coins to speed the clock up or taking weight off to slow it back down again," said Mr Westworth. It's a little temperamental.Ĭlocksmiths regulate the mechanism by stacking heavy old one penny coins on the pendulum, or removing them.
You're talking about a 156-year-old clock it does have a little fit every now and then. "The error started building up and went slightly unnoticed over a weekend," clocksmith Ian Westworth told BBC radio. The Houses of Parliament's three dedicated clocksmiths have tried to rectify the problem, but are somewhat mystified as to why it has swung so far out of step. Over the past two weeks, the early bongs have been upsetting BBC domestic and world radio transmissions that broadcast the hour chimes live. The Great Clock that towers over the British parliament can be out by up to six seconds, with its keepers admitting the cherished national icon is "a little temperamental" at 156 years old. The 156-year-old clock has been speeding up Photo: AFP / Picture-Alliance
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