28 May 28, 2005

Hector Duarte Jr
All Headline News Staff Reporter

London, England (AHN) - Big Ben stopped ticking at 10:07 p.m. Friday and
resumed shortly after, only to stop once again at 10:20 p.m. and remain idle
for the next 90 minutes.

Officials are still unclear why the clock stopped ticking, but speculate the
halt could be weather related. A recent heat wave has swept England, causing
temperatures in London to reach 90 degrees Saturday.

An engineer with The Palace of Westminster, speaking on condition of
anonymity, told the AP, he had been informed it was a minor glitch, which
was corrected soon after.

This is not the first time Big Ben experiences problems. In 1962, snow
caused the clock to ring in the New Year ten minutes late. In 1976, a piece
of its machinery broke and the clock stopped working; it also halted on
April 30, 1997 and again three weeks later.

Big Ben is housed in St. Stephen's Tower on the bank of The Thames River.
Completed in 1858, the tower stands 315 feet tall and survived German
Luftwaffe bombing campaigns during the second World War, continuously
marking time to within one-and-a-half seconds of Greenwich Mean Time.

http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/2234632120