On Saturday, London's Big Ben fell silent around 8 a.m. And with no sounding of the next hour, it could really be a pain for someone counting on Big Ben for the time. This silence isn't the result of Peter Pan and the Darling children standing on the clock hands, or some Alien spaceship that crashed into it, which would require the help of the Doctor. Doctor Who?
Time has in some ways stopped for Ben as workers rappalled to begin a month long work of maintenance. Ben will undergo cleaning on it's four latticework faces.
The time will start up again, but the bell won't sound for some time. Engingeers will use the next few weeks to replace bearings in the clock mechanism. This is the first time since 1956 that both Big Ben's sonorous hourly bongs and the chimes that mark each quarter-hour will be silent, robbing London of one of its most distinctive sounds.
So for the next month there will be no bongs from Ben.
Bibliography:
Satter, Raphael G. Yahoo News. 11 Aug. 2007. 11 Aug. 2007 .
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