The Big Ben Every evening, some part of the British Commonwealth hears the chimes of Big Ben, largest of the bells in the clock tower of the Palace of Westminster. The bell is popularly called Big Ben and it is this bell which chimes out the quarter hours to the people of London. For Britons at sea or living in distant lands, the sound of Big Ben is still a link with home, for the chimes are broadcast each evening by the British Broadcasting Corporation. Big Ben has been chiming out the quarter hours now for more than one-and-a-half centuries. It started chiming on 11th June, 1859. At that time, the Parliament couldn't decide what to name the bell. A light-hearted Member of Parliament called attention, in a speech, to the impressive bulk of Sir Benjamin Hall, Queen Victoria's Chief Lord of the Woods and Forests. ''Call it Big Ben", said the speaker and the name stuck Big Ben is 9 feet in diameter, 7 feet 6 inches tall and the thickness where the hammer strikes is 8.75 inches. The clock that regulates the chiming of Big Ben keeps good time. In 1939, the Royal Astronomer made a 290 days check on the perfornance of the clock. He found that during the test, the margin of error was less than two - tenth of a second in 24 hours on 93 days and greater than one second only on 16 out of the 290 days. There was an unexpected lapse on 12th August, 1945 and consternation, swept through the Ministry of Works. On that dark day, the clock was five minutes slow. A flock of starlings had roosted on the minute hand. 'Call it Big Ben' can be written in passive voice as