Big Ben Architectural Wire Art Sculpture Model
Product Description
2" x 2" x 12.25" tall
RETIRED DESIGN- SOLD OUT AT MANUFACTURER
This miniature architectural model is worthy of display on the most impressive desk, cabinet, sideboard, or mantel. It is designed in America, but made in China (hence the extremely reasonable price). It is quite sturdy and solid, not flexible at all. It is part of a series of "Doodles Destinations" architectural models.
Big Ben is actually the nickname for the great bell of the clock at the north end of the Palace of Westminster in London, but is often extended to refer to the clock and the clock tower as well. Big Ben is the largest four-faced chiming clock and the third-tallest free-standing clock tower in the world. The present tower was raised as a part of Charles Barry's design for a new palace, after the old Palace of Westminster was destroyed by fire on the night of 22 October 1834.
Although Barry was the chief architect of the Palace, he turned to Augustus Pugin for the design of the clock tower. The design for the Clock Tower was Pugin's last design before his final descent into madness and death, and Pugin himself wrote, at 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 the designs for finishing his bell tower & it is beautiful." The tower is designed in Pugin's celebrated Gothic Revival style, and is 96.3 metres (315.9 ft) high (roughly 16 stories).
The clock is famous 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, who completed the work in 1854. As the Tower was not complete until 1859, Denison had time to experiment: Instead of using the deadbeat escapement and remontoire as originally designed, Denison invented the double three-legged gravity escapement. This escapement provides the best separation between pendulum and clock mechanism. The pendulum is installed within an enclosed windproof box sunk beneath the clockroom. It is 3.9m long, weighs 300 kg and beats every 2 seconds. The clockwork mechanism in a room below weighs 5 tons.
The main bell, officially known as the Great Bell, is the largest bell in the tower and part of the Great Clock of Westminster. The bell is better known by the nickname Big Ben.
(some information adapted from Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia)