This 316ft clock-tower was completed between 1858-59.Big Ben is named, probably, after Sir Benjamin Hall, the First Commissioner of Works.

Big Ben was first broadcast on New Year's Eve in 1923. The light above the clock is lit while the Commons is sitting. Big Ben weighs over 13 tons.

The clock mechanism, alone, weights about 5 tons. The figures on the clock face are about 2 feet long, the minute spaces are 1 ft. square; and the copper minute hands are14 ft. Long.

Whitechapel Bell Foundry - Makers of Big Ben and the Liberty Bell. Also hand bells, tower bells, clock bells, carillons, and turret bells

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