The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-08-10
GREAT CLOCKS OF
THE OLD WORLD
London's Big Ben Is the Largest and
Perhaps the Most Famous.

numberless population feel that some
thing is missing from their daily life,
says the Buffalo Commercial Last
clock stopped. too. Big Ben took its
first holiday in five years. Big Ben
was disgracefully dirty, and stood in
need of a tubing, or something more
rigorous and eff1cacious.
The task of cleaning Big Ben is not
one to be lightly undertaken, for it in
wolves the disintegration of three dis
! tlnct series of mechanism and engages
| four workmen for more than fort
| night. The quarters striking works
are the most elaborate because of the
many wheels, cams and levers control
! ing the four bells that make up the
Chime. The hour strike is simplicity
/ itself in comparison. but the weight of
| the great drum around which is wound
the wire cable sustaining the weight
/ of one and half tons had to be lifted
/ by means of ropes and double pulleys.
/ Even then 1t was raised barely six
inches to eight inches from its perma-
nent resting place. The working parts.
which correspond to the ordinary works
/ of clock. look the most simple of the
mechanism, but here is the nicely
| which gives to Big Ben the reputation
day people so largely depend upon.
Yet even upon this there is a check,
| for a Geographic needle connected
with the royal observatory at Green
| witch fiutters at every hour, or is ex-
pected to.
The pendulum, swinging on a great
shaft with a full stroke of two Sec
| onds. is over thirteen feet long. with
bob of four hundredweight on the
end. 1t is suspended from a piece of
spring steel, 1-32 of an inch in thick
ness. In taking apart the quarter
strike a full week was consumed;
meanwhile the Ginning quarters
which everybody knows are tuned to
the first four notes of the fifth bar of
the introduction of HandePs Il Know
That My Redeemeth Liveth," did not
announce the quarters
Work upon the hour striking parts
was then begun, and when the clock
was stopped there was still the labor
of days remaining on this section of
the task. Barriers had to be placed
across the we'll to catch the half ton
weight that drives the working part.
otherwise it would have dropped to the
bottom Of the well shaft a fall of 1T5
feet.
Every component part was cleaned,
inspected and returned to it's place.
but the closest scrutiny failed to bring
to light a single case for repair. One
shaft chat upon which the great
drum turns). which sustains the
weight of one and a half tons and
drives the striking mechanism of Big
Ben, shows no marked wear, and the
gun metal bearings on which it works
appear quite unWOrn, yet that axle
has made in the last fifty years 300. 900
revolutions in the striking. and as
many more in the winding Evidently
they used good metal in 1854
All the parts of the mechanism of
Big Ben are made of cast iron. Now
adays steel would be used. 1t is the
largest. most powerful and most accu-
rate clock in the world 1t takes two
men five hours, three times each week,
TO wind 1t up and there are 374 steps
which they have to mount to reach the
clock room. The great hour bell weighs
thirteen and a half tons and the ham
mer which strikes IL weighs four hun
dredweight. The aggregate weight of
the four quarter bells is nearly eight
tons. and they weigh. respectively, in
ascending scale, three tons eighteen
hundredweight. one ton six hundred
weight and one ton one hundredweight.
Twice a day it's time is telegraphed
automatically to Greenwich, and il is
in the royal observatory there that it
is checked.
An interesting clock has been re-
Gently installed in the bell tower of the
st. Gervals basilica at Avranches.
France. The clock was constructed by
Mr.. Bourdin at Mayet (Sarthe). and is
said to be the largest in France.
1t comprises five works. namely. a
regulating works and four striking
works. The former. which is provided
with remontOir escap ement, regu-
lates and disengages the striking
works. By means of hollow steel rods.
124 feet i'm total length. and six gear
trains. it actuates seven dials namely
four external dials four feet six inches
in diameter. and three internal diaIs of
smaller dimension. The regulating
works at the same time operate a large
bronze wheel upward of three feet four
inches in diameter, carrying ninety
six pines, each of which corresponds
TO quarter of an hour and by the aid
or which the various ringing effects
are produced automatically. These
ringing effects are obtained by means
Of four clockworks, one for the quar-
ters, and the remaining two for the
several chimes which are the follow
ing: The quartette ringing works will
play the hymn ''Inviolata," the first
five notes with the second. and eleven
with the third quarter, while with the
fourth quarter, before the hour is rung,
the whole phrase, 'InviOlata, integra
ct casta es, Maria" is heard.
At noon and at o'clock i'm the
evening the 'Inviolata' is automatic
ally replaced by some tune varying
according to the season.
The hours are rung by means of a
hammer 220 pounds in weight on a bell
weighing 14,22S pounds. the working
weight of this clockwork being only
sixty-six pounds. Another twenty-five
bells, representing a chromatical scale
varying from seventy-two pounds TO
1915 pounds in weight. has been oper-
ating the chimes. The most remark
able feature of the latter is that the
number Of tunes is increased at will.
the cylinders on which the cams of the
hammers are located being readily ex-
changed like those of a phonoeraph.
provided the tunes in question fit into
the series of notes represented by the
twenty-three bells
The diais of the clock are of ordinary
dimensions, only the power and auto
matte operation of the ringing mech
anisms, as well as the weight of the
hours hammer. being remarkable. The
aggregate weight of the whole clock
work is 4,409 pounds, its length being
1916 feet itS breadth & foot opd -.