The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1875-01-07
"BIG BENZ
The CIOck.TOwer and Bclfry of the
Palace of Westminster

The CIOck.TOwer and BeIfry of the
Palace of Westminster
As | pass over the bridge from the Sur
rev side, the great Palace of Westminster
looks like a prominent feature OF some
JliSsOlving view. It's lamps sparkle over
tine bright cleaning waters. its windows
glow with soft yellow light, while high
above the din and hustle OF the streets, the
face of the clock beams down with duh,
warm flush. Parliament is sitting, and
| the two great rival lights are on their trial
up in the lantern. One of them is just
now blazing out on the other side, and
| the summit of the tower, as seen behind,
| is streaming out brilliant cOruscadOns in
| to the silent darkness. Leaving the busy
| streets, | make my way to the foot of the
clock tower, enter by little grated door,
and commence cropping up little narrow
staircase. Every thing about this clock Is
| gigantic. The dials are 228 feet across,
and each of them consequently presents
| TO the world a surface of nearly 400 square
| feet. The figures on them are feet long,
and the minute space foot square. In
going once around the face, therefore.
each of the minute hands traverses dis
| tance of 60 feet, and in the course of year
passes over nearly 100 miles. Thus, since
/ the clock was started, about fourteen
/ wears ago. each of these points must have
| travelled little less than l 400 miles; not
| bad illustration of what may be done by
sticking TO business, even though the pro-
| gress may be all but imperceptble. Dur
| inc the same time The bells within
have given nearly 100000 strokes,
or have counted the populace of London,
one by one, nearly twice over. The hands
| themselves are copper tubes attached TO
| solid gun-metal ''stalks," and, together
with the ''cOunterpOises"-t weights
attached to the spindles inside for the pur-
pose of balancing-each Of them weighs
nearly two hundred weight. Notwith-
standing the ponderOus weight and the
enormous sweep of these hands, their
regularity is marvellous. Twice every day
| the clock reports its progress to the Royal
| Observatory at Greenwich by electricity.
| There its rate is checked by the galvanlc
motOr-clOck, which is every morning Fegu-
/ lated bV actual observation of the stars
during the night Any error in the move
mentS of the great hands at Westminster
/ is thus detected, and is telegraphed back.
| These errors are carefully registered, and,
according to the Astronomer Royal, the
clock does not vary second IN week.
! The winding. without the striking part OF
the mechanism, occupies twenty minutes.
/ Once more into the dark staircase, and |
am presently in the belfry, with the cold
stars shimmering through the open ma
SOnry, the tiny lamps twinkling up from
the world below, and the frettul wind
waiIing and rumbling round the dark,
silent monsters that never give mouth bat
all London knows it. That huge black
mass in the center is Big Ben, feet
in diameter, Il inches in thickness,
and between fifteen and sixteen tons
IN weight. The hammer that strikes
him has Il caSt-iron head weighing nearly
seven hundred weight. ana around the
suilen giant are his heralds, the chimes,
one of them weighing seventY-eight hun
dred weight. another thirty-threc and
half hundred weight, a third twcnty-SiX
hundred weight, and a fourth twenty-one
hundred weight, and sounding ID, +, h,
sharp, and G. sharp reSpectively-the great
ciHeftain himself booming out terrible
bad +. I'm striking the quarter, halt-hOur
and hour, the first stroke is usually with
i'm TWO seconds of Greenwich mean time.
Big Ben is expected TO begin operations
within one second of true time, and to
enable him to do this tn fourth quarter
begins twenty-secOnds before the hour.
This striking part goes only four days
without winding. The operation Is per-
formed twice week. and is nearly day :
work. The weights are about ton and 4
half. and the shaft in which they move up
and down is a hundred and seventy-iour
feet deep. The clock has a pendulum
Weighing upward of six hundred weight,
and measuring II feet D inches in length.
A weird and ghOstly place is the beliry,
with its dense impeneTable shadows, and
its Iii n. vague lights, the moaning and
sobbing OF the wind amid the bells, and the
deep, hOarSe tick, tick, tick, tick, OF
its pendulum. | step out on the
parabet, and shudder as ! gaze down
through the gloom and the drlttin =
smoke into the world | seem TO have
left. The hum of the busy multitude
comes up dulled and subdued by the dis
tance. Far as the eye can reach, myriads
of lamps dot out the streets and squares
with their sparkling fires, and through 1t
all the river rolls black and silent, with
here and there long trembling pendants OF
fire uuivering down from bridge and boat.
In now through the dim, mysterious
space Immediately over Big Ben. The
: spiral staircase leads to a slight gallery OF
landing about half way up. and from this
another coils around it into the very center
} of the airy void. Cautiously cropping my
: way-for | am quite alone-and at every
: step firmly clutching the thin iron rail-
T. which cannot see, | gain the center OF the
gloom, and then, just as am least think
ing of it. there is a sudden click and a
bang, which well-nigh startles me into the
= space below. 1t is the chimes gong 1or
: 10 O'Clock, and in another instant L am
: standing holding on to the staircase, amid
wild discOrdant uprOar. which, to a star
tIed stranger at least, is rather appalling
There is a pause now. The reverberatlOns
= rumble and roll around the walls for
time, ard then comes the mighty Ben
with thump viii h seems to shake the
/ building to its very foundations, anc
which makes my frail holding fairly rock
to and fro. He has done at last, and
continue my ascent, leaving him rum
bling and growing like wild beast
Leisure Hour.