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Britain's Big Ben Scrubbed Clean
Men in red jumpsuits rappelled down the sides of the Britain's most famous clock tower Monday, finishing a good scrubbing.
The weeklong cleaning of Britain's Big Ben, the Great Clock of Westminster, commonly but inaccurately referred to as Big Ben, aims to remove years of grime from the 147-year-old timepiece, Parliament officials said.
Big Ben is the 30,272-pound bell that marks the passing of each hour. It is named after Sir Benjamin Hall, British Commissioner of Works at the time of the clock's construction.
The 315-foot tower that holds the clock and bell is known as St. Stephen's Tower.
The cleaning will not disrupt the clockworks nor Big Ben's hourly gong. Specialist glaziers are also making minor external repairs to the clock's glasswork.
The clock's four dials are 23 feet in diameter and its minute hand is 14 feet long. It was designed to be accurate within 1 1/2 seconds, and withstood the pounding of German bombs throughout World War II.
More mundane attackers have slowed or stopped the clock on occasion. In 1949, a flock of starlings perched on the minute hand, slowing it by 4 1/2 minutes. Snow caused the clock to ring in the new year 10 minutes late in 1962. Mechanical problems stopped it several times, including twice in 1997.
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