The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-07-14
GREAT CLOCKS or EUROPE.
Bsg TfmeDiece h L0ndeD's WSstn1n.
 steF Tower is Being ReDaarsA. nr&EAp

BsB T1meDeeoe n AOn0oD'0 Wo0en1ns
 ster Tower is Being RsDaaFsA.
 Boston Transcript.
 When Blk Ben falls dumb in his open garret of the Westminster clock tower the members of the two houses aE1 c numberlsss popui1stos fees that some thing is mis:ins from their daily iiss; life the clock stopped. too. Biz Ben took its first holiday in fve years. Big Ben was disgracefully dirty. and stood in need of a tubbing. or something more
 The task of cleaning Big Ben is not one to be lightly undertaken, for 1t in- wolves the dfstntagration of three dis four workmsn for more than . fort night. The quarter-striking works are the most elaborate. because of tho many wheels. cams. and levsre con the chime. The hour strike is sim plicity Itself in comparison. but the weight of the great drum around which is wound the wire cable sustaining the lifted by means of ropes and double pulleys Even then 1t was raised bare- lly six inches from its permanent rest ing place. The working parts. which mechanism. but here is the nicety which gives to Big Ben the reputation for reliability that London's workaday people so largely depend upon. Yet even upon this there Is e check, for . telegraphic needle connected with the Royal Observatory at Greenwich due- teIs at every hour. or Is expected to. shaft with a full stroke of two seconds. Is over thirteen feet long. with e bob of four hundredweight on the end. It .es Sses of an nes quarter strike a full week was con- stunned; meanwhile the chiming quar- to to the first four notes of the fifth Ssss of the introduction of Handers T Know that My Redeemer Liveth." did not announce the quarters. Work upon gun, and when the clock was stopped there was still the labor of days re- maining on thise section of the tack. Barriers had to be placed across the drives the working part, otherwise it would have dropped to the bottom of the well shaft. a fall of 175 feet.
 Every component part was cleaned, but the closest scrutiny failed to brins to light a single case for repair. One shaft Chat upon which the great drum one and one-half ton. and drives the striking mechanism of Big Ben. shows no marked wear. and the sun metal bearings on which it works appear uu WOTH ltl tudt uAlc nus Indue III kHa last fifty years s00.000 revolutions in the striking, and as many more In the winding. Evidently they used good metal in 1854.
 All parts of the mechanism of Bis Ben are made of cast iron. Nowadays steel would be used. It is the largest. most powerful and most accurate clock in the world. It takes two men hve hours three times each week to wind it up, and there are STA steps, which they have to amount to reach the clockroom The great hour bell weight thirteen and one-half tons and ths hammer which strikes it weighs foul hundredweight. The aggregate weight of the four quarter bells is nearly eight cons. and they weigh, respectively, fr ascending scale. two tons eighteen hundredweight, one ton thirteen hun. dredweight. one ton six hundredweightt one ton six hundredw eight. and op< ton one hundredweight. Twice a day it's time is telegraphed automatically to Greenwich, and 1t is in the Royal Observatory there that 1t is checked