Big Ben Clock Tower

Big Ben's full name is the clock tower of the Palace of Westminster, a clock tower structure on the northeast side of the Houses of Parliament in Westminster, London. Although widely known as Big Ben, this name is actually the name of the heaviest bell (weighing 13.5T) of the five bells located inside the tower. In addition, the tower is often mistakenly called St. Stephen's Tower. On the day of the parade to celebrate the 60th year of Queen Elizabeth II's reign, the British Parliament announced that the Big Ben clock tower would be renamed Elizabeth Tower from June 4, 2012.

The clock tower was included as part of Charles Barry's design for a new castle, after Westminster Castle was destroyed by fire on the night of 16 October 1834. The tower was designed in a Gothic interior architectural style. one of humanity's pinnacle styles.

In the past, with a clock large enough to make the Big Ben clock tower famous as "The largest four-sided clock in the world". But that is a thing of the past, the record of this famous clock tower has been surpassed by another clock tower, the Allen-Bradley clock tower in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. But the final Allen-Bradley clock did not have any bells installed by the builder, so to this day, Big Ben is still called "the world's largest four-faced clock with bells". The mechanical system of Big Ben was completed in 1854 and the entire tower was completed 5 years later - in 1859.

The Big Ben clock and its dial structure were designed by Augustus Pugin. Each face of the clock is placed in a square block of stone with a side length of 7m, along with a total of 576 pieces of transparent glass, almost like the glass windows with engraved paintings in English churches. that point. Around the watch face are engraved borders to form a frame. The bottom edge of the frame on each watch face is engraved with the words: "DOMINE SALVAM FAC REGINAM NOSTRAM VICTORIAM PRIMAM" which means: "God please protect our Queen Victoria".

The structure has three distinct parts: the Elizabeth tower, the large bell, and the large clock. Big Ben – the original name for the clock's bell – was agreed as the name for all three parts. Elizabeth Tower – as it was named in 2012 – was designed by British architect Charles Charles Barry. With the tower standing towards the Houses of Parliament, the four clocks are designed to be both beautiful and precise. The pendulum is 13 feet long, weighs 660 pounds and is suspended from a 1/64 inch spring steel strip, with a cadence every two seconds.