London's Big Ben Chimes Are Behind The Times

Transcript

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

Good morning. I'm Steve Inskeep with a blow to British prestige. Britain, long ago, made itself the center of geography and time. Zero degrees longitude is Greenwich, England. Time zones are expressed as Greenwich Time plus or minus so many hours. But Britain's Parliament now admits an ugly truth about Big Ben, the big clock in London. It's slow by as many as six seconds. In a digital age, Ben is analog. Mechanics are placing or removing pennies from the pendulum to alter its speed. It's MORNING EDITION. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.