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Posted by Katy R (U14748743) on Friday, 22nd July 2011
Hello everyone
Today's question takes a Parliamentary angle:
In the Houses of Parliament when was the Clock Tower completed? And on what date were Big Ben's strikes heard for the first time?
Good Luck
Katy
Katy
Do you mean the first bell- that I think proved to be cracked- or the current one that replaced it?
Cass
I'm referring to the first bell that was installed within the clock tower.
Thanks for clearing that up
Hi Katy
Unless one knows the answer, or is prepared to cheat, this is really difficult. The Houses of Parliament were designed by Sir Charles Barry aided by the high priest of Gothic, Augustus Pugin. Pugin died in 1852 of something rather nasty. I have heard he never saw the HoP completed so we need a date after this. I assume the bell was one of the last things to be installed so how about 1857 to celebrate, to the minute, the 20th anniversary of the accession of Queen Victoria?
TP
Hi TwinProbe
Sorry - I didn't mean to make it that difficult. If it helps you've nearly got it right. Your just a few years out.
Did you want to make a second guess?
TP
I too had concluded that it was probably the later Fifties.. It is too long since I read about this- and it is not the kind of fact that I tend to see as significant- and thus are likely to remember.
The old buildings were destroyed c1837 so with the whole process of designing and building this final peace of the completion was likely to be c20 years later.
Perhaps the first ringing may have been part of the celebrations after Lord Raglan's initial victory in the Crimean War which actually achieved the mission's target and resulted in great rejoicings?
Cass
I think I'm going to award TwinProbe with the win.
The actual year that the Clock Tower was completed was 1859. The Great Clock started on 31 May, with the Great Bell's strikes heard for the first time on 11 July 1859. FYI the quarter bells first chimed on 7 September 1859.
So TwinProbe please kick off with the next question
Thanks Katy.
The 'Dawn' space probe is about to reach Vesta. Can you link the necessary preparatory work for this encounter with: the late Ian Gillies, of 'Brain of Britain' fame, a 17th century death in an open boat, the non-interrogative part of the invention of RADAR, and the loss of a celebrated guide to many an historic battlefield?
TP
" the loss of a celebrated guide to many an historic battlefield? "
I suspect this must be Richard Holmes (is that the name?) (chap who rode around Salamanca on a large black horse to show how Wellington won the battle). War Walks, that chap. Died recently.
Hi Jenny
Yes indeed, Prof Richard Holmes, he could even make military history intelligible to me. So you have only a little further to go!
TP
We are definitely in Baker Street. We have (Richard) Holmes. Ian Gillies was known as 'Mycroft'. Hudson (Henry not Mrs) was set adrift in an open boat by his mutinous crew. That is about as far as I can get.
In the stories Moriarty is said to have been a Professor of Mathematics who wrote a treatise on the Dynamics of an Asteroid. Could that be the connection to the Dawn probe?
Presumably there is a Watson somewhere in one of the answers I haven't got.
I always think of Hudson as an Elizabethan- and therefore 16c?
Cass
You fiend, you cunning cunning fiend!
Yes Daniel that's quite good enough for me. The inventor of RADAR was Watson-Watt.
The Dynamics of an Asteroid is indeed what I had in mind. What Prof Moriarty was actually studying is a puzzle since Newton and Gauss had more or less wrapped up orbits. I imagine it was Euler's 3 body problem but alternatives have been suggested.
Have you a question?
TP
Cass
You must do as you think proper but the fact is that Henry Hudson is believed to have died in 1611.
Regards,
TP
TP
Thanks for that
Cass
Here's a question I've been saving up:
In June 1559, Elisabeth, daughter of Henry II of France, was married to Philip II of Spain at Notre Dame de Paris. That night, as the new Queen lay in bed, she was visited in bher chamber by Fernando Alvarez de Toledo, 3rd Duke of Alba in company with the Queen's father and others. With great ceremony a corner of the coverlet on the Queen's bed was lifted and the Duke, having removed his footwear, touched his bare foot to the Queen's. He then left, his job done. What had just happened?
Daniel K
I think much the same as happened when Katherine of Aragon was due to travel to England to marry Arthur Tudor.. A gentleman was sent from the English court to take the vows on behalf of Arthur, and later on before witnesses he undressed a leg and placed in inside Katherine's bed as consummation of the marriage by proxy.
In such days unmarried princesses did not travel for fear of them being seized and forced into marriage, allowing their spouses to claim lordship of everything that they legally possessed or held.
Cass
That's the answer. The Duke of Alba stood proxy for both the marriage ceremony and the consummation. Your turn, Cass.
Was this a proxy marriage, with Alva as Philip's stand-in?
Ur-Lugal
If you have a question handy please take my turn.. I really should get off to my allotment-- Site inspection this week-end.
Cass
OK, then, here's a super-easy one.
A Parisian boulevard, a French president, and a dye extracted from coal tar - link them together.
But before I go- just to nit-pick- Katy asked:
"And on what date were Big Ben's strikes heard for the first time?"
Significantly when she gave the answer she referred to "the Great Bell"..
As I have said I have forgotten the details but the first Great Bell was not- I believe known as "Big Ben"..It was found to be cracked and was replaced
Campanologists know and understand this more fully than I do, but bells have a long history of "being".. In a very real way they are not "made" but are created and seen as having life and spirit and soul.. Perhaps the new Great Bell became associated with Benjamin Disraeli one of the first great parliamentary orators to stand out in the new Parliament building.
As a child my bus stop back from school each day was in the shadow of the Big Tom tower of Christchurch Cathedral, allegedly named in honour of Thomas Wolsey, the colleges founder.
Cass
Is the dye one of the anilines?
Yes, it is.
That's m' lot I'm afraid. The pestiferous ones are coming soon so I'd better start cooking.
Did anyone establish earlier that the "Watson" referred to was actually
Having raised what is perhaps a non-issue for everyone else- and perhaps misinformed along the way, here is what Wiki says:
***
The main bell, officially known as the Great Bell, is the largest bell in the tower and part of the Great Clock of Westminster. The bell is better known by the nickname Big Ben.[21]
The original bell was a 16.3-tonne (16 ton) hour bell, cast on 6 August 1856 in Stockton-on-Tees by John Warner & Sons.[1] The bell was named in honour of Sir Benjamin Hall, and his name is inscribed on it.[22] However, another theory for the origin of the name is that the bell may have been named after a contemporary heavyweight boxer Benjamin Caunt.[23] It is thought that the bell was originally to be called Victoria or Royal Victoria in honour of Queen Victoria,[24] but that an MP suggested the nickname during a Parliamentary debate; the comment is not recorded in Hansard.
Since the tower was not yet finished, the bell was mounted in New Palace Yard. Cast in 1856, the first bell was transported to the tower on a trolley drawn by sixteen horses, with crowds cheering its progress. Unfortunately, it cracked beyond repair while being tested and a replacement had to be made. The bell was recast at the Whitechapel Bell Foundry as a 13.76-tonne (13½ ton) bell.[25] This was pulled 200 ft (61 m) up to the Clock Tower’s belfry, a feat that took 18 hours. It is 2.2 metres tall and 2.9 metres wide. This new bell first chimed in July 1859. In September it too cracked under the hammer, a mere two months after it officially went into service. According to the foundry's manager, George Mears, Denison had used a hammer more than twice the maximum weight specified.[1] For three years Big Ben was taken out of commission and the hours were struck on the lowest of the quarter bells until it was reinstalled. To make the repair, a square piece of metal was chipped out from the rim around the crack, and the bell given an eighth of a turn so the new hammer struck in a different place.[1] Big Ben has chimed with an odd twang ever since and is still in use today complete with the crack. At the time of its casting, Big Ben was the largest bell in the British Isles until "Great Paul", a 17 tonne (16¾ ton) bell currently hung in St Paul's Cathedral, was cast in 1881.[26]
Cass
Not all that easy!
The famous synthetic dye is Mauve, synthesised accidentally by William Perkin when he was trying to make quinine.
Magenta is another synthetic dye, and is a colour very similar to mauve. It was named after the battle of Magenta where the French were victorious and there is a Boulevard de Magenta, presumably the French equivalent of Trafalgar Square.
But I don't know of a link between either dye and a French president.
As I minor interesting fact a widow in the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ's serial 'Cranford' talks about lessening her mourning and going from black to mauve. But the serial is set in 1842 - at least a decade before mauve was discovered and named.
TP
Well, you've got the dye - but I still want the president!
Is it Charles de Gaulle? There is a rose named after him which is a rather revolting shade of mauve.
Luckily, it is not him - though he was a military man.
Think about the source of the name for the dye, boulevard and soldier - it's been mentioned but it's not necessarily mauve .....
, in reply to message 31.
Posted by Vizzer aka U_numbers (U2011621) on Friday, 22nd July 2011
Was there ever a President MacMahon? I'm sure that there was a French general of that name. Can't think of a link between him and the dye and the boulevard though.
There was certainly a 19th C Marshall MacMahon. The question rather suggests that he commanded at Magenta, although I must say I didn't know he was ever President.
This battle may have given rise to the colour Magenta but another battle in the War of Italian Independence, Solferino, is more associated with the colour red!
TP
, in reply to message 33.
Posted by Vizzer aka U_numbers (U2011621) on Saturday, 23rd July 2011
Whether MacMahon is the correct answer or not it's only fair to say that TwinProbe has got 2 out of the 3 answers so far and so the lead is with him. Besides - my lady and I are going to visit friends today so in terms of the Quiz and in the words of a dragon in a den -
"I'm out."
MacMahon was the man - created Duke of Magenta for his role in the victory, and first president of the Third Republic from 1875 to 1879.
Actually, the colour we now call "Magenta" is rather bluer than the original.
ps - the Solferino / Red link is that the care of the casualties at Solferino was the inspiration for the formation of the Red Cross.
, in reply to message 35.
Posted by somewhatsilly (U14315357) on Saturday, 23rd July 2011
Has anyone got a question to pose? The TV is rotten and I'm bored.
Has anyone got a question to pose? The TV is rotten and I'm bored.Β Well set one yourself, then!
, in reply to message 37.
Posted by somewhatsilly (U14315357) on Saturday, 23rd July 2011
I'm out from first thing tomorrow so should I manage to dream a question up, I might not be around to respond. Having moaned about that happening before, I'm reluctant to set myself up for a slagging. Anyway, selfishly, I want something to mull over to keep me amused.
What is the (reputed) link between the police force, and the fact that London express trains stop at the minor railway station of Hampton in Arden?
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