On this day in 1859…
…the most famous bell on Earth rang out over London for the very first time. The most famous bell on Earth is cracked. The crack is why you know its voice.
§ The story
In 1859, London had a brand new Houses of Parliament, with a giant clock tower. The tower needed a bell, and not just any bell. It was the biggest in Britain: thirteen and a half TONS of ringing metal. Everyone called it Big Ben, probably after Sir Benjamin Hall, a very large and very loud gentleman who helped build the palace.
Getting it there took sixteen white horses, pulling it through cheering crowds. The bell was too big to go up the tower the right way up, so it was turned on its side and winched up, inch by inch, for thirty hours. And on 11 July 1859, exactly this day, its deep voice boomed out over London for the first time.
Two months later: disaster. CRACK. The hammer that struck the bell was more than twice as heavy as it should have been. Big Ben fell silent for four whole years. Then a clever astronomer called Sir George Airy found the answer. Turn the bell a quarter turn, so the hammer strikes a fresh spot. Use a lighter hammer. Cut a small square to stop the crack from spreading. It worked. Big Ben rang again, and the crack gave it a deep, soulful voice that no other bell on Earth can make.
It is still there, still cracked, still ringing. It rang all through the war while bombs fell around it. It is wound by hand three times a week by an officer called the Keeper of the Clock. And it keeps almost perfect time in a way so odd you will hardly believe it. The secret is waiting on your clock page.
» You read this line
The great bell rang out at last.
» You read this line
The crack is still there today.
Have the story read TO you, or read it together. The YOU READ lines are yours. Then close the book and tell it all back. Tonight you are the teacher.
§ Tell it in three pictures
You have told the story out loud. Now tell it again in THREE pictures: first the journey (sixteen white horses!), then the first ring, then the crack and the mending. One or two words under each picture is plenty.
Harder, go as far as you can — Under picture 3, write the letter A for Airy, the clever astronomer who mended the bell.
Check yourself: The letter: A
§ The words the bells sing
Say line one out loud three times. Add line two. Then three, then four. Clap the beat as you say it. March it up and down the hall. Tonight you will recite it to Daddy with the book closed.
Illuminate — While the words settle, ILLUMINATE the great letter A, the way monks decorated the first letter of a page a thousand years ago: colour it, pattern it, hide a tiny picture in it.
§ Number page
Big Ben BONGS the hour: one bong for each o'clock. At 3 o'clock: BONG, BONG, BONG.
Secret, do not tell Daddy until tonight
On top of Big Ben's great swinging pendulum sits a little stack of OLD PENNIES. Add a penny and the clock runs a whisker faster; take one off and it slows. The most famous clock on Earth is kept on time with pocket change.
Check yourself: a) 5 and 8 b) 12 d) 5
§ Draw the inside
Nobody can see through stone, but YOU can. Draw the tower as if it were sliced open: 334 winding steps, the clock faces near the top, the great cracked bell in the belfry, and the little pendulum swinging below with its stack of pennies. Put a tiny Keeper of the Clock somewhere, winding.
drawn by me
Labels
§ Move & notice
Catch
Climb your stairs counting every step OUT LOUD. Big Ben's tower has 334. How many steps has your house? Then sit by an open window and be as still as a bell tower for TWO whole minutes. Catch every sound. Draw or write three, and circle the one from furthest away.
Predict first
Before you sit, guess what the furthest sound will be. Were you right?
§ The thinking question
Big Ben is cracked. They left the crack in, and the crack is what makes its voice its own. Is anything in our house loved MORE because it is old, worn or mended?
For your treasury book
PENDULUM
From the Latin PENDERE, to hang. A pendulum is the swinging, hanging heart of a great clock.
Copy PENDULUM into your treasury book and draw it swinging, with its little stack of pennies on top.
Test the grown-up tonight — Ask Daddy tonight why Big Ben sounds like no other bell on Earth. Because it is CRACKED, and they left the crack in. Watch his face.
§ For the corridor timeline
First, look at your timeline string. Does a panel for this century already hang there? If not, cut out the century panel below. Then clip the event card onto it.
THE 19th CENTURY · the 1800s
event cards clip below this line — leave room, more will come
Event card
BIG BEN FIRST RINGS, 1859
The great cracked bell finds its voice over London.
draw the event here before you clip it up
§ Evening review
FOR DAD
Morning ignition (10 minutes)
On this exact day in 1859, the biggest bell in Britain rang out over London for the very first time. Sixteen white horses had pulled it through cheering crowds. Two months later it cracked, and the crack is still there, and that crack is why its voice is like nobody else's. You have heard it. Everyone has.
The sealed question
“How do they keep the most famous clock in the world exactly on time? I have never known.”
Evening review, in this order
Mark the badges (circle one for each)
One line worth remembering from today
the day is sealed here
Add to your week