I Can’t Sleep - Big Ben | Calm Bedtime Reading for Sleep

Episode Date: December 1, 2024

Relax with this calm bedtime reading about Big Ben, created to ease insomnia and bring gentle rest. In this soothing episode, Benjamin explores the history of London’s iconic clock tower, its architecture, the famous bell that gives it its name, and its enduring role as a symbol of timekeeping and tradition. His steady, reassuring narration turns historic and architectural details into peaceful storytelling, helping you release stress and quiet your thoughts. There is no whispering or hypnosis, only calm, fact-filled narration designed to guide you into sleep. Press play and let the story of Big Ben carry you into slumber. Want More? Request a Topic: https://www.icantsleeppodcast.com/request-a-topic Ad-Free Episodes: https://icantsleep.supportingcast.fm/ Shop Sleep-Friendly Products: https://www.icantsleeppodcast.com/sponsors Join the Discussion on Discord: https://discord.gg/myhGhVUhn7 This content is derived from the Wikipedia article on Big Ben, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) license. Read the full article: Wikipedia – Big Ben. Happy sleeping! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to a Glassbox media podcast. What if I told you that most of the modern day self-help advice you've been hearing could actually make you worse? The key to a better life isn't about feel-good gimmicks that sound catchy. The Mentally Stronger Podcast gives you access to a licensed therapist who shares science-backed tools that will actually change your life. Hi, I'm Amy Morin, psychotherapist, mental strength trainer, and international best-selling author. In each episode, we cover research-back strategies, like how to stop relying on willpower and start creating habits for lasting change. And the five mental strength-building exercises you can do from your couch. I also speak to world-class experts like Dr. Nicole Kane, who shares how to permanently heal anxiety by addressing the root cause.

With over 200 episodes in our catalog, this podcast is for you if you're ready to crush self-doubt, conquer challenges, become stronger than ever with therapist-approved strategies that can change your life. Listen to Mentally Stronger with Therapist Amy Morin, wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to the I Can't Sleep Podcast, where I read random articles from across the web to bore you to sleep with my soothing voice. I'm your host, Benjamin Boster. Today's episode is from a Wikipedia article titled Big Ben Clock Tower in London, England. Big Ben is the nickname for the great bell of the great clock of Westminster, and by extension for the clock tower itself, which stands at the north end of the palace of Westminster in London, England.

Originally known simply as the Clock Tower, it was renamed Elizabeth Tower in 2012 to mark the diamond jubilee of Elizabeth II. The clock is a striking clock with five bells. The tower was designed by Sir Charles Berry and Augustus Pugin in a perpendicular Gothic revival style and was completed in 1859. It is elaborately decorated with stone carvings and features symbols related to the four nations of the United Kingdom and the Anglo-Welish Tudor dynasty. A Latin description celebrates Queen Victoria, in whose reign the palace was built. The tower stands 316 feet tall, and the climb from ground level to the belfry is 334 steps.

Its base is square, measuring 40 feet on each side. The dials of the clock are 22.5 feet in diameter. The clock uses its original mechanism and was the largest and most accurate four-face striking and chart. timing clock in the world upon its completion. It was designed by Edmund Beckett Denison and George Erie, the astronomer Royal, and constructed by Edward John Dent and Frederick Dent. It is known for its reliability and can be adjusted by adding or removing pre-decimal pennies from the pendulum. The Great Bell was cast by the Whitechapel Bell Foundry and weighs 13.5 long tons. Its nickname may be derived from Sir Benjamin Hall, who oversaw its installation, or heavyweight boxing champion Benjamin Kant.

There are four quarter bells which chime on the quarter hours. Big Ben is a British cultural icon. It is one of the most prominent symbols of the United Kingdom and parliamentary democracy, and it is often used in the establishing shot of films set in London. The Clock Tower has been part of a Grade 1 listed building since 1970 and a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1987. The Clock and Tower were renovated between 2017 and 2021, during which the bells remained silent with few exceptions.

Elizabeth Tower originally names the Clough of Cliffs' Tower, originally names the Clough, clock tower, and popularly known as Big Ben, was built as a part of Charles Berry's design for a new palace of Westminster, after the old palace was largely destroyed by fire on the 16th of October 1834. Although Barry was the chief architect of the Neo-Gothic Palace, he turned to Augustus Pugian for the design of the clock tower, which resembles earlier Pugian designs, including for Scarsbrick Hall in Lancashire. Construction of the tower began on the 28th of September 1843. The building contractors were Thomas Grissel and Morton Pito.

An inscribed trowel in the parliamentary archives records that Emily, sister of Pito's daughter-in-law, was given the honor of laying the first stone. It was Pugin's last designed before his descent into men. mental illness and death in 1852. M. Pugin himself wrote, at the time of Barry's last visit to him to collect the drawings. I never worked so hard in my life for Barry, for tomorrow, I render all my designs for finishing his bell tower, and it is beautiful. Completed in 1859 the tower is designed in Pugin's Gothic revival style and is 316 feet high, making it the third tallest clock tower in the UK. Its tiles are 180 feet above ground level. The tower's base is square,

resting on concrete foundations 12 feet thick. It was constructed using bricks clad on the exterior with sand-colored Anston limestone from South Yorkshire, topped by a spire covered in hundreds of cast-iron roof tiles. There is a spiral staircase with 200 and and 90 stone steps up to the clockroom, followed by 44 to reach the belfry, and an additional 59 to the top of the spire. Above the belfry and the Ayrton Light are 52 shields decorated with national emblems of the four countries of the UK. The red and white rose of England's Tudor dynasty, the thistle of Scotland, Shamrock of Northern Ireland, and League of Wales. They also feature the pomegranate of Catherine of Aragon, first wife of the Tudor King Henry VIII.

The Port Colus, symbolizing both houses of Parliament, and Fleur de Lee, a legacy from when English monarchs claimed to rule France. A ventilation shaft running from ground level up to the belfry, which measures 16 feet by 8 feet, was designed by David Boswell Reed, known as, the grandfather of air conditioning. It was intended to draw cool, fresh air into the palace of Westminster. In practice, this did not work, and the shaft was repurposed as the chimney until around 1914. The 2017-2020 conservation works included the addition of a lift or elevator that was installed in the shaft.

Its foundations rest on a layer of gravel, below which is London clay. Oh, into this soft ground, the tower leans slightly to the northwest by roughly 230 millimeters, over 55 meters height, giving an inclination of approximately 1 over 240. This includes a planned maximum of 22mm increased tild due to tunneling for the Jubilee Line extension. In the 1990s, thousands of tons of concrete were pumped into the ground underneath the tower to stabilize it during construction of the Westminster section of the Jubilee Line. It leans by about 500 millimeters at the finial.

Experts believe the tower's lean will not be a problem for another 4,000 to 10,000 years. A new feature was added in 1873 by Acton Smey Ayrton, then first commissioner of works in public buildings. The Ayrton light is a lantern sighted above the belfry and is lit whenever the House of Commons sits after dark. It can be seen from across London. Originally it shone towards Buckingham Palace so Queen Victoria could look out of a window

and see when the Commons were at work. Inside the tower is an oak-panelled prison room which can only be accessed from the House of Commons, not via the tower entrance. It was last used in 1880, when atheist Charles Bradlow, newly elected member of Parliament for Northampton, was imprisoned by the sergeant-at-arms after he protested against swearing a religious oaths of allegiance to Queen Victoria. Officially, the sergeant-arms can still make arrests, as they have had the authority to do so since 1415. The room, however, is currently occupied by the Petitions Committee,

which oversees petitions submitted to Parliament. Journalists during Queen Victoria's reign called it St. Stephen's Tower. As members of Parliament originally sat at St. Stephen's Hall, these journalists referred to anything related to the House of Commons as news from St. Stevens, a term that survives in Welsh-language political reporting as San Stefan. The palace does contain a feature called St. Stevens Tower, located above the public entrance. On the 2nd of June 2012, the House of Commons voted in support of a proposal to change the name from the Clock Tower to Elizabeth Tower in commemoration of Elizabeth II in her

diamond jubilee year, since the large West Tower known as Victoria Tower, have been renamed in tribute to Queen Victoria on the occasion of her diamond jubilee. On the 26th of June 2012, the House of Commons confirmed that the name change could go ahead. David Cameron and Prime Minister officially announced the change of name on the 12th of September 2012. The change was marked by a naming ceremony in which John Burkow, then Speaker of the House of Commons, unveiled a plaque attached to the tower on the adjoining speakers green. Augusta's pugin drew inspiration from the clockmaker Benjamin Lewis Wulumi when he designed the dials. Each is made of cast iron sections bolted together. The whole frame is 22.5 feet in diameter.

making them the third largest in the UK. They each contain 324 pieces of opalescent glass. Originally the dials were backlit using gas lamps, at first only when Parliament was sitting, but they have routinely been illuminated from dusk until dawn since 1876. Electric bulbs were installed at the beginning of the 20th century. The ornate surrounds of the dials are gilded. At the base of each tile is a Latin inscription,

Domine salvum, for reginum nostrum victorium primam, which means, O Lord, keep safe our queen Victoria the first. Unlike Roman numeral clock dials that show the four position as four capital letter I's, the great clock faces depict four as I-V. The clock's gunmetal hour hands and copper minute hands are 8.75 feet and 14 feet long, respectively.

When completed, the dials and clock hands were Prussian blue, but were painted black in the 1930s to disguise the effects of air pollution. The original color scheme was reinstated during the 2017-2020 conservation work. Analysis of the paint layers found that no fewer than six different, different color schemes had been used over the past 160 years. The Victorian glass was also removed and replaced with faithful reproductions made in Germany by glassmaker's glassfabric Lamberts. The clock's movement is known for its reliability. The designers were the lawyer and amateur orologist Edmund Beckett Denison and George Erie,

the Astronomer Royal. Construction was entrusted to clockmaster Edward John Dent. After his death in 1853, his stepson Frederick Dent completed the work in 1854. As the tower was not completed until 1859, Denison had time to experiment before its installation in April that year. Instead of using a deadbeat escapement in Romantoir as originally designed, he invented a double three-legged gravity escapement, which provides the best separation between pendulum and clock mechanism, thus mitigating the effects of rain, wind, and snow on the dials.

Denison never patented his design, and it quickly became the standard on all new high-quality tower clocks. On top of the pendulum is a small stack of pre-decimal penny coins. These are to adjust the time of the clock. Adding a coin has the effect of minutely lifting the position of the pendulum center of mass, reducing the effective length of the pendulum rod, and hence increasing the rate at which the pendulum swings. Adding or removing a penny will change the clock speed by 0.4 seconds per day.

It keeps time to within a few seconds per week. It is hand-wound, taking about one and a half hours three times. a week. The keeper of the clock is responsible for looking after the movement in addition to overseeing every aspect of maintenance around the palace. A team of virologists are on call 24 hours a day to attend to the clock in the event of an emergency. Breakdowns and other incidents 19th century. Before 1878, the clock stopped for the first time in its history through a heavy fall of snow on the hands of a clock face. The 21st of August, 1877 to January 1878.

The clock was stopped for three weeks to allow the tower and mechanism to be cleaned and repaired. The old escape wheel was replaced. 20th century. February 1900. The heavy buildup of snow in a clock face impeded the progress of the hour hand, causing the clock to stop for about eight hours. 29th of December, 1927. Snow buildup on a clock face stopped the clock.

Winter 1928. Heavy snow stopped the clock for several hours. The 2nd of April, 1934. The clock stopped from 7.16 a.m. to 1.15 p.m. when it was repaired. 23rd of September, 1936. A painter painting the inside of the clock room, placed a ladder against a shaft driving the hands, stopping the clock from 847 a.m. to 10 a.m. The 3rd through the 4th of June 1941.

The clock stopped from 10.13 p.m. until 10.13 the following morning, after our workmen repairing air raid damage to the clock face left a hammer too close to the mechanism. 9th of December, 1944. The clock hands stopped due to mechanical failure. The broken part, a pendulum suspension spring, was replaced within a few hours. The 25th through the 26th of January, 1945. Extremely cold temperatures froze the rubber bushings on the quarter bell hammers, preventing the chimes sounding from 9 p.m. on the 25th to 9 p.m. the following evening.

The BBC broadcasts the Pips and the interval. 28th of January, 1947. The rubber bushings and the quarter-bill hammers again froze before the clock sounded midnight, muting the chimes. So the problem was resolved by the morning. 12th of August, 1949. The clock slowed by four and a half minutes after a flock of starlings perched on the minute-hand. 13th of January, 1955. The clock stopped at 3.24 a.m. due to drifts of snow.

forming on the north and east dials. Small electric heaters replaced just inside these two dials, and this measure has helped to reduce instances of freezing in recent years. 18th of July, 1955. The rope operating the striking hammer broke, silencing the clock from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. New Year's Eve, 1962. The clock slowed due to heavy snow and ice on the hands,

causing the pendulum to detach from the clockwork, as it is designed to do in such circumstances, to avoid serious damage elsewhere in the mechanism, the pendulum continuing to swing freely. Thus it chimed in the 1963 New Year, nine minutes late. 30th of January, 1965. The bells were silenced during the funeral of statesmen and former Prime Minister Winston Churchill,

9th of January, 1968. snow buildup on the clock faces blocked the hands from moving, stopping the clock from 628 a.m. to 10.10 a.m. 5th of August, 1976. The air brake speed regulator of the chiming mechanism broke from torsional fatigue after more than 100 years of use, causing the fully wound four-ton weight to spin the winding drum out of the movement, causing much damage. The clock was shut down for a total of 26 days over nine months. It was reactivated on the 9th of May, 1977. This was the longest break in operation since its construction.

During this time, BBC Radio 4 broadcasts the Pips instead. Although there were minor stoppages from 1977 to 2002, when maintenance of the clock was carried out by the old firm of clock makers, the waits, and reed. These were often repaired within the permitted two-hour downtime, and not recorded as stoppages. Before 1970, maintenance was carried out by the original firm of Dents, since 2002 by parliamentary staff. 11th of June, 1984. Two members of the environmental group Greenpeace scaled the clock tower and blocked the clock face for 11 hours. March 19, The problem of the rubber bushings on the quarter bell chimes freezing recurred, muffling the chimes.

30th of April, 1997. The clock stopped 24 hours before the general election and stopped again three weeks later. 21st century. 20th of March 2004. 20 years after their first scaling of the clock tower, Greenpeace activists blocked the clock face for seven hours. 27th of May 2005. The clock stopped at 10.07 p.m. possibly because of hot weather. Temperatures in London had reached an unseasonable 31.8 degrees Celsius or 89.2 degrees Fahrenheit.

It resumed, but stopped again at 10.20. 20 p.m. and remained still for about 90 minutes before resuming. 29th of October, 2005. The mechanism was stopped for about 33 hours to allow maintenance work on the clock and its chimes. It was the lengthiest maintenance shutdown in 22 years. 7 a.m. on the 5th of June 2006. The clock tower's quarter bells were taken out of commission for four weeks, as a bearing holding one of the quarter bells was worn and needed to be removed for repairs.

During this period, BBC Radio 4 broadcast recordings of British birdsong, followed by the Pips in place of the usual chimes. 11th of August 2007. Start of six-week stoppage for maintenance. The bearings in the clock's chimed train and the Great Bell Stryker were replaced for the first time since insulation. During the maintenance, the clock was driven by an electric motor. Once again, BBC Radio 4 broadcasts the Pibbs during this time.

The intention was that the clock should run accurately for a further 200 years before major maintenance is again required. In fact, the repairs sufficed for 10 years. 17th of April, 2013. The bells were silenced as a mark of profound dignity and deep respect during the funeral of former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. 25th of August, 2015. Maintenance crews discovered the clock to be running seven seconds fast. They removed coins from its pendulum to correct the error, which caused it to run slow for a period.

21st of August, 2017. Start of a four-year silencing of the chimes during maintenance and repair. repair work to the clock mechanism, and repairs and improvements to the clock tower building. During this time, dials, hands, and lights were removed for restoration, with at least one dial with its hands driven by an electric motor, left intact, functioning invisible at any given time. A lift was also installed during this renovation. 10th of May, 2023.

The clock dials all stopped at 1255 p.m. And Big Ben did not chime at 1 p.m. The hands restarted, but the clock was five minutes slow until rectified at 147 p.m. The main bell, officially known as the Great Bell, but better known as Big Ben, is the largest bell in the tower and part of the Great Clock of Westminster.

It sounds an e-natural. The original bell was a 16-ton hour bell, cast on 6th of August, 1856, in Stockton on T's by John Warner and Sons. It is thought that the bell was originally to be called Victoria, or Royal Victoria, in honor of Queen Victoria, but that an MP suggested the bell's current nickname of Big Ben during a parliamentary debate. The comment is not recorded and answered. Since the tower was not yet finished, the bell was mounted in New Palace Yard,

but during testing it cracked beyond repair and a replacement had to be made. The bell was recast on the 10th of April 1858 at the Whitechapel Bell Foundry as a 13.5-ton bell. The second bell was transported from the foundry to the tower on a trolley, drawn by 16 horses, with crowds cheering its progress. It was then pulled 200 feet up to the clock tower's bell free, a feat that took 18 hours. It is 7 feet 6 inches tall and 9 feet in diameter. This new bell first chimed on the 11th of July 1859.

In September, it too cracked under the hammer. According to the foundries manager, George Mears, The orologist Denison had used to hammer more than twice the maximum weight specified. For three years Big Ben was taken out of commission, and the hours were struck on the lowest of the quarter bells until it was repaired. To make the repair, a square piece of metal was chipped out from the rim around the crack, and the bell given an eighth of a turn, so the new hammer struck in a different place. Big Ben has chined with a slightly different tone ever since

and is still in use today with the crack unrepaired. Big Ben was the largest bell in the British Isles until Great Paul, a 16.75 ton bell currently hung in St. Paul's Cathedral, was cast in 1881. In August 2007, the bell's striker was replaced for the first time since installation. The origin of the nickname Big Ben is the subject of some debate. The nickname was applied first to the Great Bell. It may have been named after Sir Benjamin Hall,

who oversaw the installation of the Great Bell, or after English heavyweight boxing champion Ben Kant. Now Big Ben is often used by extension to refer to the clock, the tower, and the bell collectively, although the nickname is not universally accepted as referring to the clock and tower. Some authors of works about the tower, clock, and bell sidestep the issue by using the words Big Ben first in the title, then going on to clarify that the subject of the book is the clock and tower as well as the bell. Along with the great bell, the belfry houses four quarter bells,

which play the Westminster quarters on the quarter hours. The four quarter bells sound G-sharp, F-sharp, E, and B. They were cast by John Warner and sons at their Crescent foundry in 1857, G-sharp, F-sharp, and B, and 1858 for E. The foundry was in Jew and Crescent in what is now known as the Barbican in the City of London. The bells are sounded by hammers pulled by cables coming from the link room,

a low-ceiling space between the clock room and the belfry, where they are triggered by cables coming from the chime train. The quarter bells play a once-repeated 20-node sequence of rounds and four changes in the key of E-major. 1 to 4 at quarter past, 5 to 12 at half-past, 13 to 20 and 1 to 4 at quarter 2, and 5 to 20 on the hour, which sounds 25 seconds before the main bell tolls the hour. Because the low bell, B, is struck twice in quick succession, there's not enough time to pull a hammer back, and it is supplied with two wrench hammers on opposite sides of the bell.

The tune is that of the Cambridge Chimes, first used. for chimes of Great St. Mary's Church, Cambridge, and supposedly a variation, attributed to William Crotch based on violin phrases from the air, I know that my Redeemer liveth and handles Messiah. The notional words of the chime, again derived from Great St. Mary's, and in turn an allusion to Psalm 37, 23 through 24, are, All through this hour, Lord be my guide, and by thy power, no foot shall slide.

They are written on a plaque on the wall of the clock room. One of the requirements for the clock was that the first stroke of the hour bell should be correct to within one second per day. The tolerance is with reference to Greenwich Mean Time, BST and Summer. So at 12 o'clock, for example, it is the first of the 12-hour bell strikes that signifies the hour, the New Year on New Year's Eve at midnight. The time signaled by the last of the six Pips, UTC, may be fractionally different. On the 13th of November 2022, Remembrance Sunday, the chimes of Big Ben return to regular service

for the first time since August 2017, preceding the hour bell being sounded at 11 a.m. local time. The first hour strike marking the beginning of two minutes of silence. That concludes this episode of the I Can't Sleep podcast.