Good morning, Whitewater.
Sunday in town will be sunny and mild, with a high of sixty-three. Sunrise is 5:19 and sunset 8:26, for 15h 06m 59s of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 94.9% of its visible disk illuminated.
The ornate decoration on the Elizabeth Tower’s upper floors owes much to Augustus Welby Pugin’s influence on the main architect, Sir Charles Barry. The two architects collaborated successfully on the Palace of Westminster’s neo-Gothic style which is displayed to great effect on the clock dials. Each dial is 7m in diameter and is made from cast iron. Each dial contains 312 separate pieces of pot opal glass, a type of glass with an opaque finish. The hour figure of four o’clock is shown by the Roman numeral IV, rather than IIII, as is more commonly used on clock dials. Under each clock dial there is a Latin inscription carved in stone: “Domine Salvam fac Reginam nostrum Victoriam primam” which means “O Lord, save our Queen Victoria the First.” At 9am on 11 August 2007, a team of specialist technicians abseiled down the south clock dial, to spend the day cleaning and repairing the clock dials. This essential work takes place once every five years. Via Parliament.uk.
On this day in 1859, the clock on Elizabeth Tower (the tower named as such in 2012) goes into operation:
The name Big Ben is often used to describe the tower, the clock and the bell but the name was first given to the Great Bell.
The Elizabeth Tower, which stands at the north end of the Houses of Parliament, was completed in 1859 and the Great Clock started on 31 May, with the Great Bell’s strikes heard for the first time on 11 July and the quarter bells first chimed on 7 September….
Until installation in 1859, the clock was kept at Dent’s factory. Denison made many refinements including inventing the ‘Double Three-legged Gravity Escapement’. This was a revolutionary mechanism, ensuring the clock’s accuracy by making sure its pendulum was unaffected by external factors, such as wind pressure on the clock’s hands.
Denison’s invention has since been used in clocks all over the world. It is also known as the ‘Grimthorpe Escapement’ as Denison was made Baron Grimthorpe in 1886.
The clock was installed in the Clock Tower in April 1859. At first, it wouldn’t work as the cast-iron minute hands were too heavy. Once they were replaced by lighter copper hands, it successfully began keeping time on 31 May 1859. It was not long before the chimes of the Great Bell, also known as Big Ben, joined in.
On this day in 1899, the Gideons are founded in Beaver Dam:
On this night two salesmen, John H. Nicholson and Samuel E. Hill, crossed paths a second time, in Beaver Dam. The pair had first met eight months before in the Central Hotel in Boscobel and discussed the need for some way to provide Christian support to traveling businessmen. During this second meeting in Beaver Dam the two decided to “get right at it. Start the ball rolling and follow it up.” They invited their professional contacts to an organizational meeting to be held in Janesville on July 1, 1899, at which the organization was formally named and chartered. By 1948, The Gideons had distributed over 15 million bibles world-wide. View more information about the Beginning of The Gideons International.