1890 Recording of London's Big Ben Clock Tower

Hear London's iconic clock tower Big Ben tolling 10:30, 10:45, and 11am, as recorded on July 16, 1890 on an Edison Phonograph by Miss Ferguson and Graham Hope.

[@Matrixpandagamer]

That bell is so terrifying in this old audio quality.

[@nasalwhistleminecraftgamer9274]

MatrixPandaGamer its good ya know!

[@Matrixpandagamer]

...

[@pppodcast490]

Really? It's old? Man I thought today was 1899.. FUCK

[@zaaaaaaay2x]

MatrixPandaGamer_22 nah he just frying eggs

[@Oakleaf700]

@@@zaaaaaaay2x Now I am bloody starving , all this talk of fried eggs .

[@villagernumber77]

That is good quality for a wax cylinder

[@beauburba4336]

Yes, it is.

[@courvoisibean]

Villagernumber77 especially when the main tolls happen, it really captures the timbre and beneath the noise you can really hear it quite vividly

[@ijmr2005]

Compared to the recording of Queen Victoria, you can actually hear clearly that the bell was chiming, sadly you cant hear much of Vic on the other recording.

[@stuckinthe60s56]

@@ijmr2005 the reason hers sounds so bad is because she destroyed the original cylinder as she didn’t like it. What we hear is a cast of the original cylinder

[@MovingOlives3437]

Why is the audio going up and down like this ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[@legostarwarsheadquarters3708]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="65">1:05</a> begins the chime we all know and love

[@arch4ngel]

Tristan Baugh Too late boiz

[@jounmiteeraizens_yt6271]

7

[@quackk2b2t]

This recording is- woah. I can’t believe such a old recording exists. I wonder how it’s doing right now.

[@TheHappyGabeShow]

@Red Panda :3 by someone called Scott martinville

[@channelsgoneandmoved4032]

It’s Almost Done With Repairs! Only 4 Or 3 Months Left! Hooray

[@quackk2b2t]

@@channelsgoneandmoved4032 i completely forgot about this, but thats pogchamp

[@elkricar5634]

@@channelsgoneandmoved4032 Wut?

[@WELLINGTON20]

It’s in an archive. It’s not very impressive considering the first photo was taken 55 years before this recording

[@Greenpoloboy3]

Better sound quality than many KZbin videos of today. Amazing recording!!

[@Xenorvya]

Can't tell if this is sarcasm.

[@Greenpoloboy3]

@@Xenorvya No Sir it isn't . Some youtube videos are terrible quality!!

[@RageDasher_7751]

@@Greenpoloboy3 tbh, I agree

[@Greenpoloboy3]

@@RageDasher_7751 :) thank you. Hence the expression "recorded with a toaster"

[@hariranormal5584]

@@Greenpoloboy3 I do not think so. Many modern proper videos have way better quality. All they use is a Phone which is more of a Camera today in modern standards. The quality in this video is SUPER disgusting but makes sense as it's from 1890's almost

[@CrazySharkGaming]

127 years and 1 day ago was its anniversary

[@nicolelawless3199]

CrazySharkGaming oh hell I forgotten the Anniversary

[@JoseMedina-ou7fc]

129 years ago now

[@danielcarneiro5483]

4 more days and it's gonna be 130 years old!

[@imdazzio4559]

130 years now

[@chrisdelano353]

130 years!

[@heresbutler]

Every one in that picture is dead London was industrial Jack the ripper Jacob and evie frye

[@psycoticbastard]

But the Royal family live on

[@krone2685]

Jack the ripper was 1888 this was 1890

[@DeadlyLazer]

Looked this up because i was replaying Syndicate

[@ahoynut]

Had to put the Assassins creed syndicate

[@Noka1899]

No shit

[@TiltedShot25]

What I could make out from the beginning dialogue: "Big Ben, Westminster, London. Striking half past 10, a quarter to 11, and 11 o' clock. July the 16th, 1890. (Of course) made by Miss Ferguson and Graham Hope."

[@user-qo2bt1gg1o]

Jose C. Pretty good catch

[@tornadomateo688]

Enzo C. Your smart

[@anyuser5788]

Big brain

[@nr3858]

I am in awe and amazement that I am listening to something recorded in 1890,106 years before I was born!Wow just wow!

[@20xxnetwork51]

I believe he must've been inside that tower to ensure sound quality recording of those bells and those bells are indeed very endeafening up close. Awesome work and feels like time travel too hearing that recording from that time!

[@janselkennethtolentino8269]

The weird chimes and echos were probably caused by how old this recording is...

[@janselkennethtolentino8269]

I think it was also because the system that made it chime or those hammer like things weren't as new or precise as the modern day one.

[@vapno92]

Chiming devices, hammers and bells are original ones from 1859. Chimes sounds weird, because this is recorded to wax cylinder and that devices cannot hold stable RPM, so the recording is getting slower and faster...

[@CurtisLittlechild92]

Robbie Edward's MASSIVE business SayersTMt They weren’t. They would lose several minutes of accuracy, in a week. Probably more. Weather is a nightmare for old mechanical clocks.

[@CurtisLittlechild92]

Robbie Edward's MASSIVE business SayersTMt there are exceptions. It doesn’t only depend on weather, either. Build quality, and materials used can also have an affect on timekeeping.

[@MBM1117727]

RPM refers to the speed of the record, not the clock.

[@AnonymousCatPerson]

I'm watching this 128 years to the day after it was recorded

[@SkyF150]

Did they have to fry eggs while recording?

[@thesavageone_3605]

Sebastian Simion yep

[@SkyF150]

The background noise

[@PlatinumEagleStudios]

Well yes. It was mandatory back then

[@autoboy6446]

No is the very very old film static from 1890

[@dashdasha8724]

hahhaha

[@c033954]

And here we are! 126 years later! I commented on this current day! July 16th, 2016!

[@engliscfuhsaz4566]

actually its 156

[@engliscfuhsaz4566]

oop that's when it was built never mind

[@ezrathegreatconqueror]

Beta Then U lol

[@static7629]

*127 years now

[@karatgaming5792]

Now that recording is almost 130 years old, yet still sounds clear.

[@josephchristiansen1803]

to hear this bell tho in its prime is so awesome knowing that its still the same bell that chimes to this day and other then the old recorder sounds it still sounds just as good as it did then

[@JimPigMuseumOfSound]

Graham Hope, the announcer, and Mary Helen Ferguson were both secretaries who worked for George Gouraud, Thomas Edison's agent in England. The two primarily did dictation from phonograph cylinders.

[@shortanswers2267]

☺☺

[@noneofyourbusiness1199]

Fabulous trivia! 👏

[@danielmilitello4795]

Here is a restored version of the recording, kzbin.info/www/bejne/mIDKpaCEntahgck

[@iannogueira1848]

People complain about how nowadays everyone is obsessed with reordering everything, but look how hard people worked back in those days just to recorder a moment. This audio is fascinating for us because it has more than 100 years old, but for the man who recorded it was just another day of his life. The desire of recordering the history it's probably on our blood.

[@BritishEngineer]

I’m proud to be an electrical and electronics engineer, a member of the same industry that designed and invented one of the many reasons why this can be watched in 4K for example from the palm of someone’s hand.

[@bretsutherlandsterriblemem8439]

If you listen past the static, and the warble, (victorian era recording equipment wasn’t terrific.) you can hear that the bells sound better, as they were much newer. (40 years old instead of 160.) Years of use changes the pitch of bells, if you were to listen to a modern recording and this one, this one would have sounded better.

[@J0S3PH_J0HNS0N]

Though camera quality of phones and even sometimes direct recordings from high end devices replicate physical sound, listening to numerous videos of the bells ringing in recent past to this particular recording it's amazing right, the bells do in fact sound much newer and brighter!

[@thedarkforce9596]

just hearing these old recordings gives me the shivers I don't know why it just sounds very scary to me LOL

[@anyuser5788]

Same. Probably for the fact that we are hearing a dead man speak

[@suunflourrr2720]

Listen to lofi musics, it wont shiver you to static noise anymore

[@cudeell]

130 now

[@JoshayXdanton]

@@suunflourrr2720 hahaha

[@ajax9836]

It’s definitely because they found out how to record out a wax cylinder

[@chrisdawson6156]

I wish I could go back in time to see this

[@richmellow3315]

The expression, "Put a sock in it!"( Sock in the Cone) Comes from the fact that, early Phonograph "machines" Records Didn't have a volume knob .🍺😅

[@jon-seankempson5780]

If you listen to the ring of 'Big Ben' (which is the name given to the bell that rings the hours, not to the clock itself), you will note that the tone was different back then when compared to now. The reason for that is that the bell has in fact cracked from years of being pounded hourly and the note has changed. I think I like the new note better.

[@arch4ngel]

Jon-Sean Kempson Which new tone? This recording was when it was fairly new

[@jon-seankempson5780]

The 'old' note was when the bell was first cast - the 'new' note is since the bell cracked, the note as it is now.

[@dabsy1]

What a wonderful collection you have on your channel! I do hope you can add more of these exciting historical sounds!!! Thank you for sharing and taking care of history alive!

[@KCandFriendsUSA]

A week or two late. 127 years... and a late happy 158th to our good old friend, Elizabeth tower

[@Mr.Obongo]

Jack the Ripper was doing his crimes at this time

[@spen6334]

That was two years before this recording but it still would have been fresh in everyone's minds

[@lutella5045]

it was sometime in the 1830's

[@Leofwine]

1888

[@star-sama8044]

holy shit i thought cringe

[@danielcarneiro5483]

it was in 1888

[@Sclumsy]

This is very amazing yet uncanny.

[@sad-lm3zu]

Wow it looks like Big Ben is very old

[@josephtipton9735]

I agree but in 1890 technology was not so great than today…sorry 1890 :/

[@danielcarneiro5483]

it was built in the 1850's

[@peppemodz7085]

@@danielcarneiro5483 nel 1843

[@christymontes7748]

This is so cool how old it sounded

[@asian_seasoning8257]

It’s cool to see how things have improved

[@cappydappy1848]

i was born 114 years later after this recording

[@unfitforconsumption]

Big Ben Westminster London striking half past ten a quarter till eleven and eleven o clock July the sixtieth 1890 Of course Made by miss Ferguson and graham hope **chimes**

[@therestorationofdrwho1865]

If only you could get rid of that warbling. Unfortunately the warbling is something would be in the recording itself and not what plays it back. Obviously the device used wasn't exactly precise but at least it got the noise.

[@MBM1117727]

it's pretty good for 1890

[@bagpuss211]

Fair point, I can fairly make out what's being said, atmospheric by my admission!

[@jahno7154]

What do you want stereo sound? It's 1890!

[@tilmanluther1887]

The Restoration of Dr Who the warbling was something due to the way the cylinder was kept and the dust that got into the grooves and all the times it's been played

[@delta64461]

For 1890 it's good

[@TomokoAbe_]

This sounds very clear considering how old this is. Can you imagine life back then? No electrical conveniences either. These recordings were made from hand cranks and springs.

[@FoxSchalkeStudios]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="53">0:53</a> The Westminster Chimes <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="65">1:05</a> Big Ben Strike

[@BlueAcidball]

Hey kids! Today we're going to talk about descriptions. Read them. They have actual information. This was recorded in 1890. Not 1914. Not 2008, but 1890. I guess that could probably explain the weird sounds, but still, READ THEM.

[@dguy0386]

last year i got a 1890 6 pence from my grandad. its amazing to think that this is the England it was made in and the exact same year too!

[@eileen2553]

After listening to this, I don’t think I will be able to sleep ever again..

[@nullname0]

*sleeps after listening to this 15-20 times*

[@misterzag2871]

I think you will just have nightmares

[@nullname0]

@@misterzag2871 I just have normal dreams

[@TheHappyGabeShow]

@@nullname0 are we twins? I'm not scared either!

[@nullname0]

@@TheHappyGabeShow we are not twins

[@shannonsmith7201]

That the 2nd oldest footage I've seen I love it.

[@funni5555]

Audio: hey guys do you want eggs and bacon? 🍳🥓

[@LazuliX]

WOW!!

[@joeypescado7300]

Everyone: OMG THAT IS SOOOOO TERRIFYING Me: it’s just grooves carved into was what is there to be afraid of...

[@user-xv8bu3gq4p]

Everyone who has spoken or was around to listen to this specific recording live is now dead..

[@GIOGIOJOJOOO]

even the newborns are.

[@Kret-o]

About 15-25 years ago there were people who could’ve heard this live and still be around to tell you Think about that

[@NZCS]

Although its mildly disturbing its really cool history.

[@QPRTokyo]

Good work, sir.🇬🇧

[@BN-yf1qr]

If you lsiten closley, you can failtly hear people and horses walking in the back ground

[@FurbyGaming125]

Firewood popping while it’s burning

[@motivationinspiration-wu7sw]

Is there any other recordings like this, during this time?

[@Def_7470]

It says “Big Ben, Westminister, London, Striking, Half Past 10, 10 O clock, Quarter to 11, and 11 o clock. July 16, Eighteen Hundred and Nintey. Recording by Miss Ferguson and Graham Hope”

[@nigelsworldofcreatures5871]

The only thing on that picture that still exists is The Big Ben and maybe some other few buildings and the road

[@CMKprod4610]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="23">00:23</a> -<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="31">00:31</a> Big Ben sounds great

[@CMKprod4610]

0:53

[@craigr9881]

Imagine if you told the guy that in 2023 everyone would be carrying this recording around in their pocket everyday 📱 he wouldn’t have believed you. Although he was properly quite comfortable with the London Underground it had been already been running for 27 years, although of course not the size it is today.

[@knightrider5050]

Beautiful then and Beautiful now. Big Ben holds a special place in my heart

[@VestovianCommunalGovernment1]

Imagine seeing this in 2020

[@lazerpeabody8062]

Are you referring to the picture or audio ?

[@ComputerGuyKeryao]

The fact that this is recorded in 1890, yet i almost understand this man's english.

[@kierantaboryt7827]

what is that Eerie Sound in the background that sounds kinda like a steam train chugging along?

[@JimPigMuseumOfSound]

You're hearing surface noise on the recording … it's tempo is the revolution of the wax cylinder.

[@JesusLover3412]

This was 89 years before I was born.

[@SupremeShittyCraps]

Who is listening to this 131 years later?

[@DanSurgeYT]

You know, when you look past the disoriented sound, it actually sounds better when it was still new

[@ajax9836]

I don’t what’s scarier, the fact that I just heard a dead man talk, or that I’m listening to this at night

[@ThePowerpuffHotline]

I feel like due to the age of this recording now, the clock bells sound a bit weird

[@FurbyGaming125]

Big Ben Hit A New Record For Surviving 162 Years

[@Elavator66]

for those wondering what this should sound like in better quality, i found this video of a news report on big ben and the bell audio is pitched down, it matches pretty close and sounds like this. kzbin.info/www/bejne/pJ6TlYGPq7-fh7M

[@BlakeBot101]

My gosh that Big Ben bell is soooooo terrifying and old

[@user-kw8jy8tq1z]

129 years later, we are here

[@comander1242]

It's 2020 guy is reach 130 year since old record Big Ben chimes

[@yelangqx]

dang the quality, i only understood 11 AM😻

[@gachagamerexpensive3565]

Graham hope said "Big ben Westminster london striking at half past ten a quarter to eleven and eleven O clock july 16,1890 of course made by miss ferguson and graham hope."

[@phoundyq]

"Big ben, Westminster, London, strinking half past 10, a quarter to 11, and 11 o'clock, July 16 1890 (eighteen hundred and ninety), Recorded by Miss Ferguson, and Graham Hope."

[@SlickNickVids]

It was 130 years ago today.

[@jaysvintagerecordsandphono6184]

Yup

[@mediocreweirdo]

this was clearer then the recording of au clair de la lune from 1860

[@carolmason3028]

Do you reckon the man who is talking at the beginning is now deceased?

[@BD12]

well the recording must've been made when he was still alive

[@CurtisLittlechild92]

Lol

[@YAH2121]

Nah, he's still walking around.

[@thedarkforce9596]

yeah he's probably watching this video saying holy fucking shit that's what I sound like

[@AnonymousElectricity]

Na he just chilling, sleeping

[@isohum4880]

and now it will not be ring for 4 years

[@nicolelawless3199]

Yeah 157 years

[@nullname0]

Work on your grammer

[@karatgaming5792]

I was born about 101 years, 9 months, and 21 days after this recording.

[@nr3858]

I was born 106 years and 24 days after this recording 😊

[@dhtelevision]

Big Ben bell sounds like a steel bell

[@itz_maya1223]

What a lovely old Recording That clock survived WW2 being shot bombed burned... and yet that clock kept going And yet it’s still here today ☺️

[@Jimmy-lm2eg]

SOMEONE COMPARISON SOUND IN 1890 VS 1945 VS 2000 VS 2017

[@green.5568]

131 years later

[@bennickss]

Did not know that audio recording existed this far back! I thought it came around in the 1930s, not the 1890s!

[@Kret-o]

The first audio recording device was invented in 1860 a full 70 years from what you thought

[@GrupoPugOfficial]

​@@Kret-o1 year after Big Ben Ssrr built (it was built in 1859)

[@AnonymousElectricity]

quarter to ele ELEVEN O CLOCK!!

[@urmomlol23]

Lol🤣

[@toasterghost6113]

Sound in 1890s sounded really old

[@karatgaming5792]

and almost like hearing a ghost talk.

[@pauleringo2109]

r.i.p bongs July/16/ 1890- ????/??/2017

[@nasalwhistleminecraftgamer9274]

Paul e Ringo no its 2018

[@Thomas1651]

No it's July 11, 1859 - August 21, 2017 But they will be alive again in 2021

[@AwesomeYena]

Don't worry it's just getting some repairs, for 4 years... ._.

[@farhanahmed637]

The bongs are still played for special occasions.

[@courvoisibean]

130 years and a month

[@FineSniper-COD]

Well this 1890 is the perfect bell for halloween

[@J0HNJ0RDAN]

..it tolls for thee.

[@owyongwahedwin9419]

Omg big ben first bell

[@kellypoxon9540]

This was recorded 128 years ago today

[@stevensky329gaming]

*BIG BeEN Wes-mins-terLondon*

[@MasaboyUgon-do2ot]

I love london

[@PilotGun]

i'd say that this is the unique version of the Big Ben chimes. Even it is a little bit scary tho, but how can u get scared of a famous landmark in UK?

[@airbusA-ve7ls]

Now, picture an old, creepy rule britannia recording and british soldiers. then think of the British Empire. I suddenly feel proud to be british.

[@bagpuss211]

Who was the announcer on that cylinder, & who was Miss Ferguson?

[@BassLoverDude]

130 years ago, meaning it would have only been about 20-30 years old at the time, in archaeological terms that's young

[@danielcarneiro5483]

this was 129 years ago. but 4 more days it's gonna become 130 years old as this was recorded 16 July 2020

[@zzascha5512]

Night of the Second Day: 36 Hours Remain

[@siwapornthongklin8088]

Yep That Empire Is Great Britain And Can Sound Like Old Thing

[@squiby6471]

the first youtuber

[@nailitdown219]

This was WAY after Big Ben himself cracked his voice with his large hammer.

[@thuhienle1814]

It’s 2020!

[@BlendedMozart]

This recording is 130 years old

[@tropicalwaves4004]

Sweet