Facts about Big Ben

Some facts about Big Ben, the celebrated London clock that celebrates its 150th anniversary Sunday.

THE BELL: Strictly speaking, the name “Big Ben” applies only to the bell, although nearly everyone uses the name to describe the clock tower that houses it. The origins of the name are obscure. Some say the inspiration was Ben Caunt, a 19th century heavyweight boxer; others point to another bulky Briton, Sir Benjamin Hall, the first Commissioner of Works whose name was inscribed on the bell.

THE CLOCK: Edmund Beckett Denison’s design for the “King of Clocks” was revolutionary. Many at the time thought that keeping a large outdoor clock accurate to within a second was impossible, but Denison’s innovations included a device to help insulate the pendulum from the force of the elements pushing against the clock hands.

THE CHIMES: The world-famous chimes, supposedly based on four notes from Handel’s “Messiah,” have been incorporated into musical compositions and BBC global newscasts. The Antiquarian Horological Society’s Chris McKay estimates that more than two-thirds of English-made quarter clocks — the kind that ring every 15 minutes — adopted the chimes after Big Ben went into service.

THE CLOCK TOWER: It once doubled as a parliamentary prison. In the 19th century, Parliament’s Serjeant-at-Arms could detain obstreperous members in a cell about a third of the way up the tower, usually for a day. Big Ben’s last inmate was Charles Bradlaugh, a militantly atheist lawmaker who refused to take an oath on the Bible in 1880.

Sources: “Big Ben and the Clock Tower,” by John Ross; “Big Ben and the Great Westminster Clock,” a House of Commons publication; “Big Ben: The Clock and the Tower,” by Peter MacDonald.