Big Ben's Silence Baffles Engineers

Associated Press ^ | May 28, 2005 | THOMAS WAGNER

[Brilliant]

LONDON - Big Ben, the landmark London clock renowned for its accuracy and chimes, stopped ticking for 90 minutes, an engineer said Saturday.

Officials do not know why the 147-year-old clock on the banks of the River Thames stopped at 10:07 p.m. Friday. It resumed keeping time, but stalled again at 10:20 p.m. and remained still for about 90 minutes before starting up again, a spokeswoman for the House of Commons said on condition of anonymity, citing government policy.

There has been speculation a recent spell of hot weather may have been to blame. Temperatures in London reached 90 Saturday, and forecasters called it England's hottest day in May since 1953.

Big Ben, which is operated by the Palace of Westminster, survived attacks by German Luftwaffe bombers during World War II, continuing to mark the time to within 1 1/2 seconds of Greenwich Mean Time.

However, the clock has experienced occasional problems.

In 1962, snow caused the clock to ring in the New Year 10 minutes late. In 1976, the clock stopped when a piece of its machinery broke. Big Ben also stopped on April 30, 1997, and once more three weeks later.

Big Ben is actually the clock's 13-ton bell, which was named after Sir Benjamin Hall, the British commissioner of works at the time the clock was built.

The official name for the Gothic tower holding Big Ben is St. Stephen's Tower. Standing 315 feet tall, it was completed in 1858 after an 1834 fire destroyed most of the Palace of Westminster.

[Brilliant]

Looks like the end of the world is at hand.

[MikefromOhio]

Temperatures in London reached 90 Saturday, and forecasters called it England's hottest day in May since 1953.

OUCH!! I bet the Brits were melting!!!

[QueenBee3]

I guess it's all relative. Here in LA it's 90 half of the year.

[knarf]

Boy, they'll use anything to push their Global Warming/God/religion, won't they?

[yarddog]

Wasn't big ben chiming in error used as a signal in one of the early James Bond movies?

[MikefromOhio]

yeah in Britain the Ocean is a great moderating influence...

I remember reading they had a couple 80 degree days there, but nothing long standing or anything like that...

I seriously doubt Britain has had more than a handful of near 100 degrees, and probably no 100 or higher degree days...

[Paleo Conservative]

Temperatures in London reached 90 Saturday, and forecasters called it England's hottest day in May since 1953.

Wow. I remember how hot it was in London during the summer of 1976 when England had its worst drought since the 1720s. The weather was very similar to what I am used to in South Texas.

[MikefromOhio]

yeah I am amazed we havent seen a lot of screaming whining moaning b!tching and complaining about what has been going on in Seattle this past week....

[tiredoflaundry]

[Brofholdonow]

I'm sorry. I thought this was a thread about the great thespian and political philosopher Ben Afflecked.

[Benrand]

I don't care, as long as he can get the ball to Hines and El, with a good running attack, the Steelers should do well.

[LdSentinal]

Thunderball.

[MikefromOhio]

heh heh heh....

[Erik Latranyi]

Wasn't big ben chiming in error used as a signal in one of the early James Bond movies?

Yes, I think Big Ben struck 13 times at midnight in Thunder Ball.

I am only doing this from memory, so I could be wrong on both accounts.

[righttackle44]

"Looks like the end of the world is at hand."

But now it should be delayed for a little over 90 minutes.

[demlosers]

First hot day of the year and here comes that man-made Global Warming BS will doom us.

[MikefromOhio]

hehe ping to #13

[isthisnickcool]

The changed the clocks operating system to Windows XP and someone set it to automatically update when there are new patches. It will be fine once Microsoft send them the next upgrade, or maybe the next on, or the next one, or the.....

[Normal4me]

They try winding it?

[yarddog]

Yes, I remember now, it was Thunderball.

Could be doing it again.