2-979-104 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The New Houses of Parliament - the Great Clock at Westminster, 1857. Engraving 'from a photograph by Mr. Freeman De la Motte', showing the mechanism which powers the chimes of 'Big Ben', the bell in the Elizabeth Tower (formerly known as the Clock Tower, and also as St Stephen's Tower). 'The design was furnished Mr. Dent by Mr. Edmund Beckett Denison, Q.C., &c., who has devoted much of his valuable time to the study of clock and watch improvements...The clock has been going for upwards of four years in its present position. The wheels...are of cast iron, cast with the teeth...The escapement used by Mr. Denison is a remontoir, or gravity escapement, being more independent of the causes of vibration for the position this clock will occupy...The weight of the hour-bell is 14 or 15 tons; the hammer, 4 cwt.; the largest quarter-bell, 5 and a half tons...'. From "Illustrated London News", 1857.