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2007 –> 2008

Published on Dec 31, 2007 at 7:10 pm. 1 Comment.
Filed under history, time.

Happy New Year!

The Earth has completed one more trip around the Sun since my last New Year’s posting. So, we increment the calendar by one year. January 1 has not always been the date marking a new year, but today it is. You can read my post from last year for more information on that.

Tonight, at midnight, a decorative time ball will drop in New York’s Times Square. That will mark the end of 2007 and the beginning of 2008. Time balls have been around for a long time. They used to be a means of synchronizing time pieces. In years past, clocks were nowhere near as accurate and precise as they are today. So, not all clocks kept time at the same rate. That means that they had to be synchronized once in a while in order for their time to be correct. But, how could everyone agree on the exact moment to synchronize clocks? That is where the time ball came in. Royal Observatory Time Ball The time ball was a large ball, typically of iron, that would be mounted where it could easily be seen by many people. Shortly before noon, the ball was raised to the top of a mast. That was a signal to anyone watching that it was almost noon and that they should be ready to synchronize their time piece to read noon. Precisely at noon, the ball was dropped. Everyone would then set their clocks to noon. Since astronomers often would be the ones to determine the exact moment of noon, the time balls were often at observatories, such as the one shown here at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, England. Eventually, time balls were linked by telegraph lines to a master time ball, so the observatory could control time balls in many cities simultaneously. Eventually, though, clocks became better, so then did not need to be synchronized so often, and better means of signaling the current time became common (does anyone out there remember calling a phone number for the current time and temperature?). For decades, the official time has been broadcast on shortwave radio. Now, many computers automatically synchronize themselves to the official time. So, time balls are no longer needed to keep time. Only a very few are left, mostly preserved at observatories for historical significance.

In 1907 a decorative time ball was installed at One Times Square to be dropped at midnight on New Year’s Eve to signify the end of one year and the beginning of a new one. The ball was lit so that it could be easily seen at midnight when it was dropped. Tonight will be the one century anniversary of the Times Square Ball (though it will not be the 100^th time that it was dropped, since the ceremony was suspended during World War II). The time ball has been lit by incandescent bulbs since it was constructed. Originally, it was simply one hundred 25 watt bulbs. During the 1990s the ball became quite decorative. It was redesigned with a major makeover for 2000. It is was designed by Waterford Crystal, and it is composed of many triangular segments. This year, Philips Lighting has provided a new lighting system comprised of nearly ten thousand LEDs. This will make the ball far brighter and with far more brilliant colors than before. The lights can be controlled to produce all sorts of colors and patterns, making this visually one of the most impressive time balls to ever be used.