AutoCAD Solutions

After all my research into reproducing a castle in AutoCAD, I decided to instead do Big Ben in London, England. Here is the final report and model.

 Raising the Great Bell at the Palace of Westminster: Investigating the 1858 Illustrated London News Report in AutoCAD 2014

Photo credit 

Introduction

The aim of this report is to chronicle the process of creating a three-dimensional model of the Elizabeth Tower at the North end of the Palace of Westminster in London, England from sparse data and to document the challenges associated with the inferences and assumptions made. Technical choices of the modelled tower and the resulting analyses are considered, and the methodology and process are described, including any problems and pitfalls encountered along the way.

The purpose of modelling the Elizabeth Tower is to compare the description from the Illustrated London News of the event of raising the Great Bell, or Big Ben, in a three dimensional artificial environment to visualize and investigate the process as reported in 1858. The Illustrated London News is used as a primary data source for understanding and digitizing the raising of the bell.

The Illustrated London News

The Illustrated London News was the world’s first illustrated weekly current events magazine, and began publication in May 1842. Costing sixpence, its audience was primarily the middle class of England. At its peak in the 1860s, 300,000 copies were in circulation (Sinnema 1998).

The Illustrated London News took very special interest in the manufacture and “the labour of lifting the great bell – the ‘Royal Victoria,’ ‘Big Ben,’ or whatever its name is to be” from 1856 to 1858. It published descriptive illustrations printed with elaborate wood engravings (Figure 1 for examples) along with its in-depth account of the events leading up to and the process of raising the bell, which was the largest ever cast (Illustrated London News 1858: 16 October).

Figure 1. Left, mode of raising the great bell and right, sectional view of the clock tower (Illustrated London News 1858: 16 October).

The Palace of Westminster

The Palace of Westminster has a long and storied past. Edward theConfessor first set up court there in 1040. The first clock tower was built in 1290, demolished in 1707 and the bell sold to St. Paul’s Cathedral, which still chimes the hour. The Palace of Westminster remained a piecemeal collection of buildings from different eras until 1834, when a fire destroyed most of the palace, although Westminster Hall was spared. The rest of the palace was demolished to make room for a new single structure.

After a public design competition, Charles Barry’s plans for a Gothic-style parliamentary building were chosen. The foundation stone was laid in 1840, although the new palace’s construction was not completed for more than 30 years (McKay 2010).

The Clock Tower

The clock tower, recently renamed the Elizabeth Tower in 2012 for the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II, holds the largest four-faced chiming clock in the world, at seven metres across, and is the third-highest freestanding clock tower. The minute hand of the clock is over 4 metres long and the tower raises 96 metres in the air. It is one of the most prominent symbols of the United Kingdom. Construction on the tower was completed in 1858. However, changes in ground conditions and tunneling for the Jubilee extension have caused the tower to lean by 230 millimetres to the north-west. In addition, due to thermal fluctuations, the building also oscillates by a few millimetres seasonally (BBC News 2011; McKay 2010). This and the former lean were not taken into account in the AutoCAD reconstruction as no lean was reported in 1858 when the bell was raised to the belfry.

Big Ben

The first casting of the bell in 1856 failed before it was lifted up the tower to the belfry when it cracked, although the metal was nine inches thick. It was broken up and used in a recasting in 1858 (London Illustrated News 1858: 6 March and 17 April). The 13 ton bell was painstakingly transported by sixteen horses from Whitechapel to the foot of the clock tower and deemed “far superior to the former one as the vibration of the ponderous mass is so perfect that sound can easily be produced from it with the knuckles only” (Illustrated London News 1858: 5 June).

A purpose-built crab, or windlass, was constructed to raise the bell up the shaft. A special cradle was made for the bell. It took eight men applying fifteen pounds of force to the handles more than two thousand revolutions with nearly 1800 feet of chain to haul up the bell (Illustrated London News 1858: 16 October).

Methods

Creating a model of the Elizabeth Tower in AutoCAD 2014 was no easy task. Uncovering any information at all about the dimensions of the building was an arduous task in itself. From pictures and Parliament’s interactivevirtual tour, I was able to trace the outline of the building’s shell at each landing and derive the general vertical layout of the building and the spacing of the floors. Of course, these data sources were not produced with the intention of displaying the kind of accuracy and precision I would have liked from which to create a model. Instead, they were made as informative tools to give the general public an idea of the building. This has clear implications on the outer appearance of the building. However, as I was primarily concerned with the raising of the bell, I conceded to an inaccurate representation of the external portion and the internal decorative interior as I had accurate measurements for the central shaft, doors and vertical aspect.

As part of the modelling and end product, I had the intention of recreating two of the events recorded with wood engravings in the main article of reference in the Illustrated London News from 16 October, 1858 about the raising of the bell (see Figure 1 and 2). Measurements of the bell are included in this article and notes on the thickness of the metal throughout. Thus, the resulting model of Big Ben is accurate to those said measurements: the widest part of the bell is its mouth at 2.9 metres and its maximum height is 2.4 metres tall. The measurements for the bell shaft in the Elizabeth Tower are also stated (Illustrated London News 1858: 16 October). As observed in Figure 3, this a tight fit with a maximum of 27 centimetres on each side and 4 centimetres end-to-end. This indicates that, when designing and manufacturing the bell, the maximum size was a direct result of the restrictions of the shaft from which to haul the bell up to the belfry. The shaft extends from the ground to the clock room “upwards of 180 feet [54.86 m] in an unbroken line” (Illustrated London News 1858: 16 October).

Figure 2. Moving the Great Bell (Illustrated London News 1868: 16 October).

Figure 3. Two dimensional illustrative image of the size of the bell and the size of the bell shaft (in blue).

The bell was created in a separate document and externally referenced in the final document. This creates a block from the object which holds an important role in productivity when managing an AutoCAD file. It reduces overall file size, allows the program to consume fewer resources to display the document and simplifies the process of creating a model. Each floor was also converted to a block to reduce repetitive actions and file size.

Materials were added to each object in the rendering stage. A sample of the Ashton Limestone cladding was extracted from a photograph of the Elizabeth Tower. Although not as beautiful as the real thing, the model is approximately the right colour and texture.

Results

The final product is a rather rough model of the Elizabeth Tower as described by the Illustrated London News inn 1858 and Parliament in the modern age. All proportions and measurements are very precise, albeit slightly inaccurate because of the data sources obtained.

Figure 4 is a sampling of possible visual styles from AutoCAD which display various edges and shading in the viewport to more easily understand aspects of the model. As one can see, the exact measurement of the model is 96 metres.

Figure 4. Three different views of the model of the Elizabeth Tower. Conceptual (left), Sketchy (middle) and Wireframe (right).

Due to time constraints, I was only able to recreate one image from the Illustrated London News article. I ran into many troubles and pitfalls when creating the overall model. As this was an extremely time-consuming process, I was forced to narrow my goals to a more feasible product. I focused my energy on recreating Figure 2 as closely as possible.

Figure 5 is that attempt. Although, not the most realistic or enthralling image, I am certain that everything is this image is accurate based on the Illustrated London News account of the event. Undoubtedly, I invested many long hours on this produce. Unfortunately, it is not was I expected. It seems AutoCAD is somewhat limited in creating realistic rendered models, as I have learned the hard way.

Figure 5. Raw 3D rendered model of the event from Figure 2.

Conclusion

Going through the process of creating a three dimensional model of an existing building in AutoCAD was an excellent way of learning how to use the program within the field of archaeology. It also gave me real exposure to the problems and hindrances in accurate model building. Overall, it was a frustrating exercise in patience and creativity. The resulting model would have never existed without the help and collaboration of my fellow classmates and joys of Google.

Bibliography

Illustrated London News. 1858. Breaking-up “Big Ben” (6 March). London: J. Clayton.

Illustrated London News. 1858. Recasting of the Clock Bell for the New Houses of Parliament (17 April). London: J. Clayton.

Illustrated London News. 1858. The Great Bell for the Houses of Parliament (5 June). London: J. Clayton.

Illustrated London News. 1858. Raising the Great Bell at the New Palace, Westminster (16 October). London: J. Clayton.

McKay, C. 2010. Big Ben: the great clock and the bells at the Palace of Westminster. New York: Oxford University Press.

Sinnema, P.W. 1998. Dynamics of the Pictured Page: representing the nation in the Illustrated London News. Brookfield, VT: Ashgate Publishing.