Big Ben turns 150
Britain's oldest foundry marks the day it made Big Ben 150 years ago
One of Britain's last bell foundries marked the 150th anniversary Thursday of its biggest creation - the massive bell whose bongs sound the hour at the Houses of Parliament in London.
It was made by (1) the Whitechapel Bell Foundry, which also made Philadelphia's Liberty Bell and the Bell of Hope, given to New York by (1) Londoners on the first anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
The 15-ton Big Ben was cast on April 10, 1858, at the foundry in east London, although it was another year before it first rang out.
Big Ben has given its name to one of London's most famous landmarks - Parliament's 19th-century neo-Gothic clock tower, designed by (1) Charles Barry.
The tower is popularly known (1) as Big Ben, although the name actually refers only to the Great Bell inside.
"We are going to (2) toast Big Ben's health at the end of the working day," said Mike Backhouse, the foundry's works manager. "Whether we'll sing (2) 'Happy Birthday,'I don't know."
The Whitechapel foundry was marking the anniversary by casting a number of nine-centimetre replicas of the bell. They will be sold (1) for about 100 pounds or about $200 apiece.
Founded in 1570 and officially Britain's oldest manufacturing company, Whitechapel is one of only two remaining bell foundries in the country.
Backhouse said Big Ben remains the largest bell ever made (3) at the foundry, and would have presented a "massive challenge" to 19th-century bell-makers.
"The technical challenge would have been making the mould for the bell strong enough that it wouldn't have been broken or distorted by 13 1/2 tons of molten bell metal," Backhouse said.
The bell cracked soon after it was installed - as an earlier version had during testing. Officials simply fitted a smaller hammer and turned the bell so the hammer wouldn't strike the crack.
The bell, crack and all, remains in use, and has become a symbol of reassuring reliability. During the Second World War, Big Ben's resonant bongs became a sign of resistance to Nazi bombs.
Parliamentary officials plan to mark the 150th anniversary of Big Ben's first bong with a ceremony next year.
The bell has been silenced briefly by (1) weather, mechanical failure and accident, and for four periods of maintenance - in 1934, 1956, 1990 and for six weeks last year.
Bookmaker William Hill is offering odds on the bell failing to chime in its anniversary year. The odds are 100/1 of Big Ben being silenced by (1) bird interference, 150/1 on it being stopped by (1) ice or snow, and 1000/1 on one of the clock's hands falling off.
Source: CFRB Newstalk
Grammar
(1) Passive Voice in varios forms.
(2) Future forms: will v be going to
(3) Superlative + ever
- That was one of the worst films I have ever seen.
- It was the most difficult exam that I've ever done.
- She's the craziest person I have ever met.
Comments
I am on holiday in my village. Good luck in Madrid. I will go back at the end of August.
I like London. It is a big city. It´s the City par excellence. I would like to live in London sometimes, for instance, in January every year. English people were a pleasant surprise for me. Perhaps, when I went to London, there were not English people in London. It is possible that all they went on holiday. I remember that the English were very hospitable. The best memory for me was a bobby whom my daughter, 13, asked for one street and we were talking about 15 minutes, because he was very likeable and he laughed constantly. I believe that the English were very pleasant.
I like the Palace of Westminster which is very beautiful. The Big Ben is good but it is not especial anything. The most thing impressed me was The British Museum that has a lot of old treasures of the human being such as goods of Greek civilization, Egypt or Babylonia which they are World Heritage Site. English people show goods that they confiscated previously, but this is another question. Thanks to English People (sorry Graham) we can see these goods, because another way, they will be destroyed.
See you.
I am sure you are as happy in your village as I am when I go home to Inverness. Madrid is a great city in many ways but it is suffocating at times. It's a relief when it empties out in August.
I'll be off next week to Germany/France - most of the time I'll be staying in small towns or villages.
I'll be back in Madrid on 31st August if you want to meet up.
I've gone off London. I used to enjoy stopping off there but now I give it a miss.
However, there is no denying that it is an impressive city.
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I like London. It is a big city. It´s the City par excellence. I would like to live in London for part of the year, for instance, in January every year. English people were a pleasant surprise for me. Perhaps, when I went to London, there were no English people in London. It is possible that they had all gone on holiday. I remember that the English were very hospitable. The best memory for me was a bobby whom my daughter, 13, asked for directions and we ended up talking for about 15 minutes, because he was very likeable and he laughed constantly. I believe that the English were very pleasant.
I like the Palace of Westminster which is very beautiful. Big Ben is good but it is nothing special. What impressed me most was The British Museum that has a lot of old treasures of the human race such as Greek civilization, Egypt or Babylonia which are all World Heritage Sites. The English dispaly items that they had previously confiscated, but this is another question. Thanks to the English (sorry Graham) we can see these treasures; they would have been destroyed otherwise.