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64-752: 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

128-458: A deadbeat escapement and remontoire 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

192-418: A chimney, until around 1914. The 2017–2021 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 . Owing to this soft ground, the tower leans slightly to the north-west by roughly 230 mm (9.1 in) over 55 m height, giving an inclination of approximately 1 ⁄ 240 . This includes

256-538: A feature called St Stephen's Tower , located above the public entrance. On 2 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 had been renamed in tribute to Queen Victoria on the occasion of her Diamond Jubilee. On 26 June 2012,

320-458: 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 (4.9 m) by 8 feet (2.4 m), was designed by David Boswell Reid , 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

384-686: A new five-floor block. Two floors are occupied by the current chamber, which was used for the first time on 26 October 1950. The clock ran accurately and chimed throughout the Blitz . 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 (16.3- tonne ) hour bell, cast on 6 August 1856 in Stockton-on-Tees by John Warner & Sons . It

448-609: A planned maximum of 22 mm increased tilt due to tunnelling for the Jubilee line extension. In the 1990s, thousands of tons of concrete were pumped into the ground underneath the tower to stabilise it during construction of the Westminster section of the Jubilee line. It leans by about 500 mm (20 in) 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

512-554: A turn so the new hammer struck in a different place. Big Ben has chimed 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 (17 tonne) 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

576-509: 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 horologists are on call 24 hours a day to attend to the clock in the event of an emergency. On 10 May 1941, a German bombing raid damaged two of the clock's dials and sections of the tower's stepped roof and destroyed the House of Commons chamber. Architect Sir Giles Gilbert Scott designed

640-542: Is Kiveton Park and Kiveton Bridge , X5 (First South Yorkshire) provide a link between Anston and the railway station. South Anston is located at about 53°21′50″N 1°13′20″W  /  53.36389°N 1.22222°W  / 53.36389; -1.22222 , and is separated from North Anston by the Anston Brook, the A57 road and a freight railway-line. It is more rural than its northern partner. South Anston contains

704-722: Is a common pars pro toto shorthand for the United Kingdom. An example of a pars pro toto in geography is the use of the capital to refer generally to the country such as Washington for the United States , Beijing for China , or Moscow for Russia . When the capital is used to refer specifically to the country's government, the figure of speech is a metonymy rather than a pars pro toto . Certain place names are sometimes used as synecdoches to denote an area greater than that warranted by their strict meaning: Body parts are often colloquially used to refer to

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768-875: Is believed to be part of a medieval smuggling route. Evidence of this has been found in the valley an example of this is Dead Man's Cave at Anston Gorge, a large cave carved out of the limestone used for hiding goods. An 1867 excavation of Dead Man's Cave pointed to Palaeolithic occupation, through the discovery of flint tools and a reindeer toe bone. North Anston is on main Rother Valley South bus routes to Dinnington, Worksop and Sheffield with Links to Rotherham too. Stagecoach East Midlands (Stagecoach Bassetlaw) 19A & 19 covers services to Rotherham (Main Rotherham service), Worksop and Dinnington. First South Yorkshire covers Rotherham, Meadowhall, and Sheffield. The nearest railway station from North and South Anston

832-627: 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 Stephens", a term that survives in Welsh-language political reporting as "San Steffan". The Palace does contain

896-599: 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 (13.7 tonnes ; 15.1 short tons ). Its nickname may be derived from Sir Benjamin Hall , who oversaw its installation, or heavyweight boxing champion Benjamin Caunt . There are four quarter bells , which chime on

960-546: Is known for its reliability. The designers were the lawyer and amateur horologist Edmund Beckett Denison and George Airy , the Astronomer Royal . Construction was entrusted to clockmaker 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

1024-424: Is square, measuring 40 feet (12.2 m) on each side, resting on concrete foundations 12 feet (3.7 m) thick. It was constructed using bricks clad on the exterior with sand-coloured Anston limestone from South Yorkshire, topped by a spire covered in hundreds of cast iron rooftiles. There is a spiral staircase with 290 stone steps up to the clock room, followed by 44 to reach the belfry, and an additional 59 to

1088-541: Is thought that the bell was originally to be called "Victoria" or "Royal Victoria" in honour 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 in Hansard . 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

1152-456: Is with reference to Greenwich Mean Time ( BST in summer). So, at twelve o'clock, for example, it is the first of the twelve hour-bell strikes that signifies the hour (the New Year on New Year's Eve at midnight). The time signalled by the last of the "six pips" ( UTC ) may be fractionally different. On 13 November 2022, Remembrance Sunday, the chimes of Big Ben returned to regular service for

1216-493: The BBC World Service , a practice that began on 31 December 1923. The sound of the chimes is sent live from a microphone permanently installed in the tower and connected by line to Broadcasting House . At the close of the polls for the 2010 general election the results of the national exit poll were projected onto the south side of the tower. On 27 July 2012, starting at 8:12 a.m, Big Ben chimed 30 times, to welcome

1280-460: The Games of the 30th Olympiad , which officially began that day, to London. On 21 August 2017, Big Ben's chimes fell silent for four years to allow essential restoration work to be carried out on the tower. The decision to silence the bells was made to protect the hearing of the workers on the tower, and drew much criticism from senior MPs and Prime Minister Theresa May . The striking and tolling of

1344-543: The West Riding of Yorkshire . It was a large parish, also known as Anston cum Membris, which also included North Anston and the township of Woodsetts . When civil parishes were created in 1866, Woodsetts became a separate civil parish and the remaining part of the parish became the civil parish of North and South Anston. In 1974 the parish was transferred to the Metropolitan Borough of Rotherham in

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1408-426: The 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month and the start of the two minutes' silence. In 1999, prior to the millennium New Year, a recording of the clock was released by London Records under the title "Millennium Chimes", with the artist labelled as Big Ben. It reached number 53 for the week ending 8 January 2000 (which included purchases prior to 31 December 1999). The chimes of Big Ben have also been used at

1472-627: The Clock Tower, which resembles earlier Pugin designs, including one for Scarisbrick Hall in Lancashire. Construction of the tower began on 28 September 1843. The building contractors were Thomas Grissell and Morton Peto . An inscribed trowel in the Parliamentary Archives records that Emily, sister of Peto's daughter-in-law, was given the honour of laying the first stone. It was Pugin's last design before his descent into mental illness and death in 1852, and Pugin himself wrote, at

1536-509: The House of Commons confirmed that the name change could go ahead. David Cameron , then prime minister, officially announced the change of name on 12 September 2012. The change was marked by a naming ceremony in which John Bercow , then Speaker of the House of Commons , unveiled a plaque attached to the tower on the adjoining Speaker's Green. Augustus Pugin drew inspiration from the clockmaker Benjamin Lewis Vulliamy when he designed

1600-525: The House of Commons, not via the tower entrance. It was last used in 1880 when atheist Charles Bradlaugh , newly elected Member of Parliament for Northampton , was imprisoned by the Serjeant at Arms after he protested against swearing a religious oath of allegiance to Queen Victoria. Officially, the Serjeant at Arms can still make arrests, as they have had the authority to do since 1415. The room, however,

1664-629: The Leeds Arms. To the south of the village lies the Chesterfield Canal . It was from a dock just to the south of Dog Kennel Lane that stone taken from quarries in South Anston was transported to London for the rebuilding of the Palace of Westminster following the fire in the 1830s . The blocks of stone were taken by horse-drawn sled to the canal, then taken down to West Stockwith where they were transferred to sailing barges for

1728-693: The Little Mester on Nursery Road, the Cutler on Woodsetts Road, and Anston Club on Main Street. North Anston is home to the Tropical Butterfly House, Wildlife and Falconry Centre, a popular attraction seeing around 80,000 visitors every year. It is also home to the limestone gorge of Anston Stones Wood, a Site of Special Scientific Interest . Anston stones wood stretches across the border of South Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire. The wood

1792-523: The air " I know that my Redeemer liveth " in Handel 's Messiah . The notional words of the chime, again derived from Great St Mary's and in turn an allusion to Psalm 37 :23–24, 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

1856-612: The beginning of the 20th century. The ornate surrounds of the dials are gilded. At the base of each dial is the Latin inscription DOMINE SALVAM FAC REGINAM NOSTRAM VICTORIAM PRIMAM , which means "O Lord, keep safe our Queen Victoria the First". Unlike Roman numeral clock dials that show the "4" position as IIII, the Great Clock faces depict "4" as IV. The clock's gun metal hour hands and copper minute hands are 8.75 feet (2.7 m) and 14 feet (4.3 m) long respectively. When completed,

1920-547: The bells for important occasions, such as New Year's Eve and Remembrance Sunday , was handled via an electric motor; and at least one of the four clock faces always remained visible during the restoration. Scaffolding was put up around the tower immediately after the bells were silenced. The cost of the project to the taxpayers and creditors was originally estimated to be roughly £29 million (equivalent to £35.7 million in 2023), but it more than doubled, to £69 million (equivalent to £77.6 million in 2023). In February 2020,

1984-399: The bells remained silent with few exceptions. Elizabeth Tower, originally named the Clock Tower, and popularly known as "Big Ben", was built as a part of Charles Barry 's design for a new Palace of Westminster after the old palace was largely destroyed by fire on 16 October 1834. Although Barry was the chief architect of the neo-gothic palace, he turned to Augustus Pugin for the design of

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2048-482: The climb from ground level to the belfry is 334 steps. Its base is square, measuring 40 feet (12 m) on each side. The dials of the clock are 22.5 feet (6.9 m) in diameter. The clock uses its original mechanism and was the largest and most accurate four-faced striking and chiming clock in the world upon its completion. It was designed by Edmund Beckett Denison and George Airy , the Astronomer Royal , and constructed by Edward John Dent and Frederick Dent. It

2112-645: 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 ♯ , F ♯ , E, and B. They were cast by John Warner & Sons at their Crescent Foundry in 1857 (G ♯ , F ♯ and B) and 1858 (E). The Foundry

2176-539: The dials and clock hands were Prussian blue , but were painted black in the 1930s to disguise the effects of air pollution. The original colour scheme was reinstated during the 2017–2021 conservation work. Analysis of the paint layers found that no fewer than six different colour schemes had been used over the past 160 years. The Victorian glass was also removed and replaced with faithful reproductions made in Germany by glassmakers Glasfabrik Lamberts . The clock's movement

2240-459: The dials. Each is made of cast iron sections bolted together. The whole frame is 22.5 feet (6.9 m) 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

2304-405: The first time since August 2017, preceding the hour bell being sounded at 11:00 a.m. local time, the first hour strike marking the beginning of two minutes of silence. The clock has become a cultural symbol of the United Kingdom , particularly in the visual media. When a television or film-maker wishes to indicate a generic location in the country, a popular way to do so is to show an image of

2368-407: The hammer. According to the foundry's manager, George Mears, the horologist Denison had used a 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

2432-526: 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 is 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 the chimes of Great St Mary 's church, Cambridge , and supposedly a variation , attributed to William Crotch , based on violin phrases from

2496-477: The journey to London. North and South Anston is part of Rother Valley Constituency, the current Member of Parliament is Alexander Stafford MP (Conservative). Anston is part of the Anston and Woodsetts ward of Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council. It is represented by Councillors; Tim Baum-Dixon (Conservative), Drew Tarmey (Liberal Democrat) and Tracey Wilson (Independent). Anston Athletic F.C. competed in

2560-573: The lenses). Pars pro toto usage is especially common in political geography, with examples including " Russia " or " Russians ", referring to the political institution (both historially and contemporary) or its people; " Holland " for the Netherlands ; and, particularly in languages other than English, using the translation of " England " in that language to refer to Great Britain or the United Kingdom . Among English-speakers, "Britain"

2624-530: The new county of South Yorkshire. The original interest for the area (beyond Anston's agricultural uses) was the sandy " Anstone " Magnesian Limestone , but the real growth in Anston's population was more due to the sinking of the Dinnington Main Colliery in the early 20th century. Anston railway station opened on 20 May 1912 and closed on 2 December 1929. North Anston is located at about 53° 21' 20" N, 1° 13' W and merges seamlessly into

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2688-489: The new year. In April 2022, the gantry supporting the scaffolding was removed. Pars pro toto In the context of language, pars pro toto means that something is named after a part or subset of it or after a limited characteristic, which in itself is not necessarily representative of the whole. For example, " glasses " is a pars pro toto name for something that consists of more than literally just two pieces of glass (the frame, nosebridge, temples, etc. as well as

2752-428: 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 Caunt . 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

2816-540: The parish church of St. James , and two Methodist chapels (dating from 1871 and 1935). It also contains Anston's working quarries which continue to mine stone for the building industry. Its location is ideal as it is rural enough for enjoy a range walks from the village yet near enough to Sheffield to enjoy a wealth of infrastructure and transport links. There are two pubs in South Anston: the Loyal Trooper and

2880-411: 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 I listed building since 1970 and a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1987. The clock and tower were renovated between 2017 and 2021, during which

2944-553: The renovations revealed that the Elizabeth Tower had sustained greater damage than previously thought from the May 1941 bombing raid that destroyed the adjacent House of Commons . Other costly discoveries included asbestos in the belfry, the "extensive" use of lead paint, broken glass on the clock dials, and serious deterioration to the tower's intricate stone carvings due to air pollution . The cost of addressing these problems

3008-525: The settlements of North Anston and South Anston , divided by the Anston Brook. Anston, first recorded as Anestan is from the Old English āna stān , meaning "single or solitary stone". In the Domesday Book (1086) North and South Anston ( Anestan and Litelanstan ) were both held by Roger de Busli . South Anston was an ancient parish in the wapentake of Strafforth and Tickhill in

3072-403: The soot-stained dial frames having been stripped away. The clock faces were regilded, and the shields of St George repainted in their original red and white colours. The 1,296 pieces of glass that make up the clock faces have also been removed and replaced. In December 2021, after four years of renovations and restoration, the tower emerged from behind its scaffolding in time for the ringing in of

3136-401: The sound of Big Ben is preferred as the original and best. Big Ben is a focal point of New Year celebrations in the United Kingdom , with radio and television stations airing its chimes to welcome the start of the New Year. To welcome in 2012, the clock tower was lit with fireworks that exploded at every toll of Big Ben. Similarly, on Remembrance Day , the chimes of Big Ben are broadcast to mark

3200-445: The state funerals of monarchs on four occasions, chiming one stroke for each year of the monarch's life: firstly, at the funeral of King Edward VII in 1910, (68 strokes); secondly, at the funeral of King George V in 1936 (70 strokes); thirdly, at the funeral of King George VI in 1952 (56 strokes); and lastly, at the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II in 2022 (96 strokes). On some occasions, Londoners who live an appropriate distance from

3264-506: The time of Barry's last visit to him to collect the drawings: "I never worked so hard in my life for Mr 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 (96.3 m) high, making it the third tallest clock tower in the UK . Its dials (at the centre) are 180 feet (54.9 m) above ground level. The tower's base

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3328-411: The time of the clock. Adding a coin has the effect of minutely lifting the position of the pendulum's centre 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's speed by 0.4 seconds per day. It keeps time to within a few seconds per week. It is hand wound (taking about 1.5 hours) three times

3392-562: 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 leek of Wales. They also feature the pomegranate of Catherine of Aragon , first wife of the Tudor king Henry VIII ; the portcullis, symbolising both Houses of Parliament; and fleurs-de-lis ,

3456-469: The top of the tower, which is lit when Parliament is sitting, was also fully dismantled and restored along with the other lights in the Belfry, being replaced with low-energy LEDs . One of the most visible changes to the tower has been the restoration of the clock-face framework to its original colour of Prussian blue , used when the tower was first built in 1859, with the black paint that was used to cover up

3520-410: The tower and Big Ben can, by means of listening to the chimes both live and on analogue radio, hear the bell strike thirteen times. This is possible because the electronically transmitted chimes arrive virtually instantaneously, while the "live" sound is delayed travelling through the air since the speed of sound is relatively slow. ITN 's News at Ten opening sequence formerly featured an image of

3584-474: The tower with the sound of Big Ben's chimes punctuating the announcement of the news headlines of the day. The Big Ben chimes (known within ITN as "The Bongs") continue to be used during the headlines and all ITV News bulletins use a graphic based on the Westminster clock dial. Big Ben can also be heard striking the hour before some news bulletins on BBC Radio 4 (6 p.m. and midnight, plus 10 p.m. on Sundays) and

3648-486: The tower, often with a red double-decker bus or black cab in the foreground. In 2008, a survey of 2,000 people found that the tower was the most popular landmark in the United Kingdom. It has also been named as the most iconic film location in London . The sound of the clock chiming has also been used this way in audio media; the Westminster Quarters are imitated by other clocks and other devices, but

3712-525: The town of Dinnington to the north. Today, it is largely a commuter base for Sheffield, Worksop and Rotherham, and is mainly made up of suburban housing estates. The picturesque "old village" at the south-east however retains its green , and the village wells . The surrounding landscape contains several disused quarries: the plantations to the east, and Greenlands Park to the west being prime examples. There are currently three pubs in North Anston:

3776-480: The whole body, as in: The names of affiliates or subdivisions of large corporations are sometimes used to refer to the entire corporation: Other examples include an individual object being used to refer to a larger object or group of which it is a part: Anston Anston is a civil parish in South Yorkshire , England, formally known as North and South Anston . The parish of Anston consists of

3840-515: Was added in 1873 by Acton Smee Ayrton , then First Commissioner of Works and Public Buildings . The Ayrton Light is a lantern sited 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

3904-487: Was designed by Sir Charles Barry 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-Welsh Tudor dynasty . A Latin inscription celebrates Queen Victoria , in whose reign the palace was built. The tower stands 316 feet (96 m) tall, and

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3968-428: Was estimated at £18.6 million (equivalent to £20.9 million in 2023), bringing the total budget for restoring the Elizabeth Tower to nearly £80 million (equivalent to £90 million in 2023). The 2,567 cast-iron roof tiles were removed and refurbished, and a lift was installed to make access easier, along with a basic toilet facility with running water , for the first time in the tower itself. The Ayrton Light at

4032-649: Was in Jewin 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-repeating, 20-note sequence of rounds and four changes in the key of E major : 1–4 at quarter past, 5–12 at half past, 13–20 and 1–4 at quarter to, and 5–20 on

4096-555: Was recast on 10 April 1858 at the Whitechapel Bell Foundry as a 13.5-ton (13.76-tonne) bell. The second bell was transported from the foundry to the tower on a trolley drawn by sixteen horses, with crowds cheering its progress; it was then pulled 200 ft (61.0 m) up to the Clock Tower's belfry, a feat that took 18 hours. It is 7 feet 6 inches (2.29 m) tall and 9 feet (2.74 m) diameter. This new bell first chimed on 11 July 1859; in September it too cracked under

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