The New Years Eve Ball in Times Square

December 31, 2008 is fast approaching. As students and scholars scramble to plan their exciting New Year’s celebration, many of us know we may end up sitting on our sofas watching the New Years Eve celebration in New York City’s Times Square. Do not despair because the New Years Eve celebration is a treat to watch, especially from the comfort of your own warm home. When did the celebration in New York City begin and why do Americans drop a brightly lit ball to signify the beginning of a new year?

Revelers began celebrating New Year's Eve in Times Square as early as 1904, but it was in 1907 that the New Year's Eve Ball made its maiden descent from the flagpole atop One Times Square. This original Ball, constructed of iron and wood and adorned with 100 25-watt light bulbs, was 5 feet in diameter and weighed 700 pounds. In 1920, a 400- pound ball made entirely of iron replaced the original. The Ball has been lowered every year since 1907, with the exceptions of 1942 and 1943, when its use was suspended due to the wartime "dim out" of lights in New York City. The crowds who still gathered in Times Square in those years greeted the New Year with a moment of silence followed by chimes ringing out from One Times Square.

In 1955, the iron ball was replaced with an aluminum ball weighing a mere 150 pounds. This aluminum Ball remained unchanged until the 1980s, when red light bulbs and the addition of a green stem converted the Ball into an apple for the "I Love New York" marketing campaign from 1981 until 1988. After seven years, the traditional Ball with white light bulbs and without the green stem returned to brightly light the sky above Times Square. In 1995, the Ball was upgraded with aluminum skin, rhinestones, strobes, and computer controls, but the aluminum ball was lowered for the last time in 1998. For Times Square 2000, the New Year's Eve Ball was completely redesigned with crystals that combined the latest in technology with the most traditional of materials, reminding us of our past as we gazed into the future and the beginning of a new millennium.

The actual notion of a ball "dropping" to signal the passage of time dates back long before New Year's Eve was ever celebrated in Times Square. The first "time-ball" was installed atop England's Royal Observatory at Greenwich in 1833. This ball would drop at one o'clock every afternoon, allowing the captains of nearby ships to precisely set their chronometers (a vital navigational instrument). Shortly after the success in Greenwich, roughly 150 balls were constructed around the world to assist captains though few remain today.

Notably, the tradition is carried on today in places like the United States Naval Observatory in Washington, DC, where a time-ball descends from a flagpole at noon each day - and of course, once a year in Times Square, where it marks the stroke of midnight not for a few ships' captains, but for over one billion people watching worldwide. Happy New Year! Information adapted from the New York City Times Square Alliance. For more information about the Times Square New Years Eve Celebration check out: www.timessquarenyc.org/nye/nye_ball.html