July 9, 2009. Copyright 2009, Graphic News. All rights reserved

Big Ben's small flaw
By Simon Morgan

LONDON, July 9, Graphic News:  The chimes that have become Britain's signature tune first rang out from the clock tower of the newly built Palace of Westminster 150 years ago this month, but the hourly "bongs" known the world over very nearly never sounded at all.
 
The old Houses of Parliament had been destroyed by fire in October 1834 and when the replacement was planned the architect, Charles Barry, was asked to include a tower with a chiming clock in his design. All three were completed in 1859; the four-faced clock started ticking on May 31 and the Great Bell -- better known as Big Ben -- chimed for the first time on July 11.
 
For several years, though, it looked as though the clock might never find its voice; the first attempt at casting a bell deemed suitable -- at 16 tonnes, the largest ever made in Britain -- ended in ignominy.
 
The ambitious task fell to John Warner & Sons, a company from Stockton-on-Tees in the northeast of England. Cast in August 1856, the bell travelled to the capital amid much ceremony, first by rail -- a load so wide that no other train could pass -- and then by ship. Finally, 16 white horses hauled it on a carriage from the Port of London to the Palace of Westminster.
 
The bell, recorded the Illustrated London News on September 13, 1856, was nine inches thick and made of "7 of tin to 22 of copper, melted twice over ... to secure a perfect alloy. The metal is nearly as hard as spring steel, and much harder than is usual in modern bells."
 
But not hard enough, as it turned out. On October 17, 1857, the bell cracked during testing in New Palace Yard.
 
Whitechapel Bell Foundry in East London -- Britain's oldest manufacturing company, established in 1570 and still in business today -- was given the job of recasting the bell, for which it charged £572. It was a week's work with an iron ball to smash the flawed bell to bits where it lay. The pieces were melted down and the new mould was filled on April 10, 1858. It took 20 days for the molten metal to cool and harden.
 
The new bell was about two tonnes lighter than the first but it was still a record-breaker and winching it up the shaft of the 96-metre tower in October 1858 took 30 hours. It was July 11, 1859, before the bell's perfect E-note first rang the hour, in concert with its four smaller companion bells that played the "Westminster Chimes", based on Handel's aria "I know that my redeemer liveth".
 
But not for long. To the horror of all concerned, within two months this bell had also cracked; it was to remain silent for four years.
 
Eventually, a make-do solution was found. The bell was partly rotated, a small square was cut to prevent the crack spreading and a new, lighter hammer was fitted. The crack remains in Big Ben to this day, "giving it its distinctive but less-than-perfect tone", according to the Whitechapel Foundry.
 
Imperfect or not, Big Ben and its four companions became the voice of a nation and more. Though silenced occasionally over the years by accidents, maintenance and the weather (heavy snow on the 4.3 metre minute-hand caused it to ring in the new year ten minutes late in 1962), Big Ben sounded unfailingly throughout the Second World War and the dark days of the Blitz. Since 1967 it has announced the headlines on BBC radio at home and, through the World Service, to millions abroad.
 
Why is it called Big Ben? Take your pick from two possibilities: the name of Sir Benjamin Hall, the commissioner for works, is inscribed on the bell; but in the mid-19th century anything oversized earned the name "Big Ben", in salute to Ben Caunt, then a famous bare-knuckle boxer.
 
Either way, while Caunt and Hall are forgotten, a century and a half later the sound of Big Ben, housed in Britain's most famous landmark, rings a bell throughout the world.
/ENDS