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Britain's Big Ben Marks 100 Years of New Year 'Bongs'

The Elizabeth Tower, which houses the Great Clock and the Big Ben bell, is seen above the Houses of Parliament, in central London, Britain. (Reuters)
The Elizabeth Tower, which houses the Great Clock and the Big Ben bell, is seen above the Houses of Parliament, in central London, Britain. (Reuters)
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Britain's Big Ben Marks 100 Years of New Year 'Bongs'

The Elizabeth Tower, which houses the Great Clock and the Big Ben bell, is seen above the Houses of Parliament, in central London, Britain. (Reuters)
The Elizabeth Tower, which houses the Great Clock and the Big Ben bell, is seen above the Houses of Parliament, in central London, Britain. (Reuters)

London's Big Ben on Sunday marks the 100th anniversary of its "bongs" to ring in the New Year being broadcast live across the world.

Ever since New Year's Eve 1923 when BBC engineer A.G. Dryland clambered onto a roof opposite the British parliament to record the strikes, live transmission has become an annual tradition.

The unmistakable sound of the "nation's timepiece" has long occupied a special place in national life.

The bongs are heard twice daily -- at 6pm and midnight and three times on Sunday -- on BBC radio, and at the start of the nightly News at Ten on commercial channel ITV.

Such is their importance that even during the recently-ended five-year restoration program when they were largely silenced, important exceptions were made.

As well as New Year, Big Ben also continued to mark Armistice Day and Remembrance Sunday when the nation remembers its war dead.

Big Ben also rang out to mark Britain's departure from the European Union in 2021 and the state funeral of Queen Elizabeth II in 2022

After a week of testing, normal service finally resumed last November.

While the rest of London is enjoying New Year's Eve, clock mechanic Andrew Strangeway will be at the top of the 96-metre (315-foot) Elizabeth Tower.

The tower houses the clock and its five bells, including the largest one from which Big Ben takes its nickname.

Along with the two other members of the in-house timekeeping team, the 37-year-old will be making last minute checks to make sure the clock will be "within fractions of a second of being correct."

Although the chances of a mishap on the big night are tiny, Strangeway said the clock did suffer a disaster during the 1970s when it stopped due to metal fatigue.

"I think the chances of anything going seriously wrong are small. Our main worry on things like New Year is -- is it going to go off and is it going to be on time," he said.

Completed in 1859, the structure was known as the Clock Tower before being renamed the Elizabeth Tower in 2012 to honour the late queen's Diamond Jubilee.

In the years before the renovation, parliament's timekeepers would benchmark the Great Clock's time against the telephone speaking clock.

Now, it is calibrated by GPS via Britain's National Physical Laboratory.

But the method to adjust the clock's timing mechanism remains old-fashioned: old pennies are added or removed from weights attached to two giant coiled springs, to make or lose a second.

"It's a fantastic job," Strangeway told AFP, adding that even when he was out and about in London he would frequently look for Big Ben and think "yes it's still running".

He said he was very excited that he would be "right next to the bells... at that moment when everyone is looking at that clock for the start of the New Year".

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Russian ‘Spy Whale’ in Norway Wasn’t Shot Dead, Likely Died of Infection

FILE - In this photo taken in April 2019 a beluga whale found in Arctic Norway is fed. (Jorgen Ree Wiig, Norwegian Directorate of Fisheries via AP)
FILE - In this photo taken in April 2019 a beluga whale found in Arctic Norway is fed. (Jorgen Ree Wiig, Norwegian Directorate of Fisheries via AP)
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Russian ‘Spy Whale’ in Norway Wasn’t Shot Dead, Likely Died of Infection

FILE - In this photo taken in April 2019 a beluga whale found in Arctic Norway is fed. (Jorgen Ree Wiig, Norwegian Directorate of Fisheries via AP)
FILE - In this photo taken in April 2019 a beluga whale found in Arctic Norway is fed. (Jorgen Ree Wiig, Norwegian Directorate of Fisheries via AP)

A beluga whale that lived off Norway’s coast and whose harness ignited speculation that it was a Russian spy, was not shot to death as claimed by animal rights groups but died of a bacterial infection, Norwegian police said Friday.
A final autopsy by Norway's Veterinary Institute “concludes that the probable cause of death was bacterial infection -- possibly as a result of a wound in the mouth from a stuck stick,” Amund Preede Revheim, head of the North Sea and Environment section of the police in south-western Norway said.
“There have been no findings from the autopsy that indicate that the whale has been shot,” he stressed, adding that the autopsy had been “made difficult by the fact that many of the whale’s organs were very rotten.” As there was no indication of foul play, there was no reason to start a criminal investigation into its death, The Associated Press quoted Preede Revheim as saying.
The tame beluga, which was first spotted in 2019 not far from Russian waters with a harness reading “Equipment St. Petersburg,” had been nicknamed "Hvaldimir,” combining the Norwegian word for whale — hval — and the first name of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
It was found floating in a southern Norway bay on Aug. 31.
In September, animal advocate groups OneWhale and NOAH filed a police report saying that the animal’s wounds suggested it was intentionally killed.
They pointed at several wounds found on the animal’s skin, including what was interpreted as a bullet hole.
“Assessments made by the Veterinary Institute and the police’s forensic technicians are that these are not gunshot wounds. X-rays of the chest and head were carried out without any projectiles or other metal fragments being detected,” police said in a statement.
Earlier, police had described a stick about 35 centimeters (14 inches) long and 3 centimeters (1 inch) wide which was found wedged in the animal’s mouth, its stomach was empty and its organs had broken down, police said. No further details were given.
The 4.2-meter (14-foot) long and 1,225-kilogram (2,700-pound) whale was first spotted by fishermen not far from the Arctic town of Hammerfest.
Its harness, along with what appeared to be a mount for a small camera, led to media speculation that it was a “spy whale.” Experts say the Russian navy is known to have trained whales for military purposes. Media reports also have speculated that the whale might have been trained as a therapy animal.
There was no immediate reaction from OneWhale or NOAH.