Because the low bell (B) is struck twice in quick succession, there is not enough time to pull a hammer back, and it is supplied with two wrench hammers on opposite sides of the bell. As any tradesperson knows, the quality of the job depends not just on their knowledge and skill but on using the right tools, and an essential tool for a professional scaffolder is a quality spirit level.

The quarter bells play a once-repeating, 20-note sequence of rounds and four changes in the key of E major: 1–4 at quarter past, 5–12 at half past, 13–20 and 1–4 at quarter to, and 5–20 on the hour (which sounds 25 seconds before the main bell tolls the hour).

The intention was that the clock should run accurately for a further 200 years before major maintenance is again required; in fact the repairs sufficed for ten years.

The compact loop-over-the-belt design gives added strength making this super heavy duty range the firm favourite across the industry. This includes a planned maximum of 22 mm increased tilt due to tunnelling for the Jubilee line extension. m. until 10:13 the following morning, after a workman repairing air-raid damage to the clock face left a hammer too close to the mechanism. In 1999, prior to the millennium New Year, a recording of the clock was released by London Records under the title "Millennium Chimes", with the artist labelled as Big Ben.

Angela LifeGiver on Mar 11, 2018 wrote:On the level with the gold chests on Big Ben, how do you open them? Before 1878: The clock stopped for the first time in its history, "through a heavy fall of snow" on the hands of a clock face. When a television or film-maker wishes to indicate a generic location in the country, a popular way to do so is to show an image of the tower, often with a red double-decker bus or black cab in the foreground. An inscribed trowel in the Parliamentary Archives records that Emily, sister of Peto's daughter-in-law, was given the honour of laying the first stone. Other costly discoveries included asbestos in the belfry, the "extensive" use of lead paint, broken glass on the clock dials, and serious deterioration to the tower's intricate stone carvings due to air pollution.