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Friday 29 October 2010

Big Ben (London)



On 16th October 1834, the Palace of Westminster was destroyed by a fire. A HUGE fire. Londoners came out to watch it, and legend has it, Charles Barry (whom we’ll meet in a moment) was passing by in a coach and stopped to watch for a while.
There were so many spectators, they actually hampered the firemen’s efforts to douse the flames.

When the flames were put out, there wasn’t much left. Only Westminster Hall. Parliament had nowhere to meet and they had to cancel their session.
In November 1835, 13 months later, they set up a committee to re-build and they held a competition for designs.

More than 400 designs were submitted by more than 90 architects.
In the end, the committee chose the design of Charles Barry, but here's a little secret: His original design did NOT include a clock tower! They asked him to revise it and to add a clock tower, of course with a clock inside!

Working with his trusty (but somewhat highly strung) assistant, Augustus Welby Pugin, Charles Barry added a clock tower to his design, along with four faces, and really big bells!

But Charles Barry, quite rightly, asserted that HE was an architect, not a clockmaker. So he asked Benjamin Lous Vuillamy, clockmaker to the Queen, to design a clock.
By this time, it was 1841, so you can’t blame Charlie for wanting to get on with his project. However….ALL the expert clockmakers across Britain were upset that he had asked Benjamin Louis Vuillamy to design the clock, without so much as an open competition.

One clockmaker, Edward Dent, wrote to George Airy, Astonomer Royal, asking him to recommend him for the job. Of course, George Airy did so, and, as a result, the committee decided that George Airy should write up a list of requirements for the Great Clock. They asked him to choose the design and the clockmaker to boot!
George Airy was really excited about his job, and he wrote up a list of requirements that had never been seen before. It was a long list, but the most important requirement was this:

 "The Great Clock should be so accurate that the first strike for each hour shall be accurate to within ONE second of time."

28 comments:

  1. It's so odd to think that a clock being accurate to the second used to be a big deal. With the advent of atomic clocks, the principles of which having been around some half a century or so, nobody questions whether the important clocks are on time or not.

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  2. Amazingly loud bell too, when you hear it from up close.. Didn't realise it was so accurate though. Not bad for a 200 year old giant clock.

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  3. great writing man, this is really interesting. I read it twice to memorize the information. Well done, great article and great picture.

    I have one question though... So Benjamin Louis Vuillamy was kicked off the project, or did he like design how the clock would look and George Airy figured out the schematics? And then where does Edward Dent come in?

    This reminds me of Daniel Burnham and the columbian world fair

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  4. They never mention things like this in school.... D:

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  5. The Big Ben is one of the places in London that tourist generally have to see. I haven't traveled to England yet though.

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  6. I've never seen it live, it would be sooo great to come and visit London to see its landmarks!

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  7. Epic picture man. Wish i could visit Big Ben one day.

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  8. I love the stories behind such important places, thanks for sharing them dude

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  9. great photo
    keep up the good work

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  10. london is one of my favorite cities

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  11. Remember remember the 5th of November.. Oh wait that was a lot earlier.

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  12. gorgeous photo. i recently visited the washington monument in washington DC. id love to visit london someday.

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  13. It is awesome to visit, I recommend!

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  14. I'm gonna have to go to London some time!

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