BIG BEN SKIPS A BOOM

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 49, 27 February 1937, Page 26

BIG BEN SKIPS A BOOM

■'■"Big ;Ben, timepiece of ."the Empire, pride, of Londoners, the "clock that's 'rfever slow,".guardian of the Houses of Parliament, went back on his word one day recently.' 'He went back, in fact, -about half :an hour, says the ."Christian Science Monitor." :.■>; ~.:..-- --• -The village postmaster .visiting Lon--"don who made citizens* guffaw when, looking at.his'own -watch, he announced Big Ben. 'wksj.tw'o minutes fast, would Have had'"thei laugh on Londoners at last. ~•'.: .; .Passers-by, peering through a, morning fog, saw that Ben had stopped. It was after' 9 and trie clock stoutly maintained it was only a 1 quarter to. -'•At about 9.30 the'foreman of a gang of painters working on the inside of the clock tower went out to see the time. He craned his neck' and stared in amazement. Then tie .ran as fast as he could up''-t6 trie'top 'of .the tower. Before he. got • there -' the clock had started again. •■•-•■ ■•■■---■■- <■■ • .What happened? .The foreman didn't

know. He asked the painters. The painters didn't know. They didn't even know the clock had stopped.

Then the clockmakers came in and elucidated the mystery. ' .

The painters had placed a ladder against the spindle which turns Big Ben's hands. The ladder did not stop the clock, but the weight of a man who climbed up it did. And when he came down again his weight apparently started it once more. It was not until 40 a.m. that Big Ben began to show the correct time again. The hours boomed out just as if nothing had happened, with the same measured, dignified boom ... boom . . . as always But there are probably a handful of office workers who are quite grateful; they had a good excuse for being a few minutes late. "Oh, but it isn't as late as that, surely. I put my watch right as I.passed Big Ben!'\