Theme: Francis Drake, his life and deeds

Interesting facts about Big Ben
1. Big Ben isn’t actually the official name of the famous landmark.
That’s right – this famous London landmark isn’t officially named Big Ben. For hundreds of years, it used to be called, simply, the Clock Tower. But in 2012, the landmark was renamed the Elizabeth Tower to commemorate the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. So what people actually refer to when they say “Big Ben” is the bell inside the tower. Oddly enough, the bell’s real name isn’t “Big Ben” either; it’s called the Great Bell. So where did “Big Ben” come from? Well, it is a nickname given to the bell and it came from Sir Benjamin Hall’s name. He was the first commissioner of Public Works in London who was in charge of the construction of the Houses of Parliament, the building to which the tower is attached to. His name is inscribed upon the bell when it was casted in 1858, thus the nickname Big Ben.
2. Big Ben is big.
Here are a few other facts about Big Ben that will tickle your mind: The bell weighs 13.7 tons, which is about twice the weight of a T-Rex! Its diameter is at 8.9 feet, while the hammer inside the bell weighs 441 pounds. Meanwhile, there are four clocks on the tower, one on each side of it. Each clock has a diameter of 23 feet. The hour hand is 9.2 feet long while the minute hand is 14 feet long. The tower required more than 3,000 cubic feet of stone and almost 92,000 cubic feet of bricks to construct. The face of each clock is made of 312 sections of opal glass and requires cleaning every 5 years.
3. Big Ben wasn’t designed by a clockmaker.
Edward Dent, a clockmaker, created the initial design of the clockwork. But Edmund Beckett Denison changed Dent’s design so much that he became known as the chief designer. As you already know, he wasn’t a clockmaker. He was a lawyer who, interestingly, did not patent his design, so any clockmaker is free to use it.
4. Big Ben has pennies on the pendulum.
Each clock has a pendulum that swings back and forth to control the movement of the hands. If the clocks happen to run fast, an English penny is added to the pendulums. On the other hand, if the clocks happen to run slow, an English penny is taken away from the pendulum. This practice is where the British idiom “putting a penny on” came from.