Where did the New Years Ball Drop come from?
Ever wonder where the New Years Ball Drop came from?
We know the first Times Square New Years Ball Drop was held on December 31, 1907. Adolph Ochs, who owned The New York Times newspaper, organized the event as a successor to a series of New Year’s Eve firework displays held to promote the headquarters of the Times.
But where did the idea come from?
The “Time ball” came about in 1829. Robert Wauchope, a captain in the Royal Navy, invented and erected the first Time ball at Portsmouth, England. It was used to help navigators aboard ships offshore verify the setting of their marine chronometers. Without Accurate timekeeping, it would have been impossible to determine longitude while at sea.
Time balls were usually dropped at 1 p.m. The time was recorded when the ball began descending, not when it reached the bottom. With the starting of radio time signals, time balls became obsolete and many were demolished in the 1920’s.
Read more about time balls here.
Over the years, the ball used in the New Years Ball Drop has changed.
The first time ball 1907-1919
The original Time ball used was was made from wood and iron and lit with 100 incandescent light bulbs.
The second and third time balls 1920-1998
The first ball was retired in favor of a new design. The second ball was constructed from iron and weighed 400 lb. The second ball was replace by a ball constructed from aluminium in 1955. It now only weighed 150 lb. In 1981 it was revamped in honor of the I Love New York campaign. Red light bulbs with a green stem were used to make it look like an apple. In 1989 the original white light bulbs returned. They were replaced by red, white and blue bulbs int 1991. The third ball was revamped yet again in 1995 with a computerized lighting system.
The fourth time ball 1999-2007
For the arrival of the new millennium the Third ball was replace by a ball constructed by Waterford Crystal. The new ball measured 6 feet in diameter and weighed 1,070 lb. It had 504 triangle shaped crystal panels, and a pyramid shaped spinning mirror.
Present day time ball 2008-present
With the centennial anniversary, the time ball was once again re-designed. Waterford Crystal created a 6 foot 1,212 lb ball that was only used once. with 9,576 energy-efficient bulbs, it only consumed the same amount of electricity as 10 toasters.
For 2009, a 12 foot icosahedral geodesic sphere was created. The time ball is lit with 32,256 LED lamps and contains 2,688 Waterford Crystal panels. It weighs 11,875 lb. Since the new design is weatherproof, the time ball can be displayed nearly year round.
