London's Big Ben fell silent

BBC
11 Aug 2007

The world famous bongs* of London's Big Ben fell silent this morning so that routine maintenance can be carried out.

*bong Hide phonetics
noun [C]
a musical noise made especially by a large clock:
I heard the bong of the grandfather clock.

(from Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary)
The Great Clock will celebrate its 150th anniversary in 2009 and on 11 August 2007 the ‘bongs’ of Big Ben will be heard for the last time until September as maintenance work is carried out on the mechanism.


In pictures: The Great Westminster Clock

The Great Westminster Clock overlooks the Palace of Westminster in London. Built by Edward Dent, the clock has been fully operational since 1859 and the clock tower is often mistakenly named Big Ben, which is in fact the name of the clock’s hour bell.

The clock mechanism sits in a room underneath the bell and is maintained by a team of three men.

工人們用繩索滑到大笨鐘前為期(sic 其) 洗澡

倫敦著名的大笨鐘周六（11日）開始"沉默"一個多月，以便進行例行維修工作。

大笨鐘每隔五年就需要進行一次大修。

星期六早上8點響鐘報時後，大笨鐘便"封嘴"六個星期。

早上9點左右，遊客和市民便見到工人從大笨鐘的南面滑下，開始給它"洗澡"。

工人們將清理大笨鐘的每一面（一共有四面），這次的維修還包括更換鐘的軸承。

這將是1990年以來大笨鐘沉默時間最長的一次。

不過在維修期間，一組電子裝置依然會確保大鐘繼續運作。

大笨鐘將在2009年慶祝150年周年，上述維修工作是慶祝籌備計劃的最後一部分。

其實過去幾年來，大笨鐘也試過意外"失聲"幾次，肇事者包括飛鳥、天氣、粗心的工人和破損。

坐落在泰晤士河畔的大笨鐘毗鄰議會大樓，是倫敦的地標。

建於1859年的大笨鐘的正式名稱是"大鐘"（Great Clock），但因其13.5噸的大鐘而得名大笨鐘（Big Ben）。

民視：世界知名的地標、英國倫敦大笨鐘，難得在今天完全停擺。不過它並沒有故障，只是為了後年的鐘塔一百五十週年慶，進行保養工作。預計四到六個星 期，就會完成。聳立在倫敦市中心的西敏寺鐘塔，已經服務超過一個世紀。不過在十一號這天，大笨鐘卻沒有在整點響起。很快的，時針和分針回到十二點，工程師 拋下繩索，在離地六十公尺的高空中降落現在直徑七公尺的鐘面上。原來，這是每五年就得進行一次的例行性保養工作。專家必須將三百一十二片玻璃擦拭乾淨，同 時更換老舊零件，確保機件運作順利。為了迎接大笨鐘落成一百五十週年，今年的維修工作比以往耗時更久，需要四到六個星期。換句話說，倫敦本地人和觀光客得 等到九月，才會再次聽見熟悉的大笨鐘。

The pendulum is 3.9m long, weighs 300kg and beats every two seconds. Balanced on it are a number of pre-decimal pennies which help it keep time. Adding one penny would cause the clock to gain two-fifths of a second in 24 hours.

Big Ben is the name of the bell used to strike the hour and weighs 13.5 metric tons. The first blow indicates the correct time and is joined by four quarter bells that weigh between one and four tons.

The hammer which strikes the bell weighs 200kg. The first bell was cast in 1856 but a crack soon appeared and a new one was cast.

The four 7m-wide clock faces each contain 312 separate pieces of opal glass.

Each face is illuminated with 28 energy efficient light bulbs that have a life of around 66,000 hours.