A Brief History of the New Year's Eve Ball Drop in New York

Ever since crowds began gathering in Times Square to celebrate New Year's Eve more than a century ago, it has been a ritual to gather in the illuminated chaos of downtown to herald new beginnings. At 11:59 p.m., a dazzling ball hurtles down a pole, as spectators – and millions of people tuning in from home – count down from 60.

At the stroke of midnight, the crowd erupts into a cacophony of sounds, often pulling their loved one in for a ceremonial kiss. But how did the New Year's Eve celebration begin, and why do we commemorate the occasion by watching a ball go down a pole?

When was the first ball thrown into Times Square?

The Times Square ball first dropped in 1904 and came about thanks to Jacob Starr, a Ukrainian immigrant and metalworker, and former New York Times editor Adolph Ochs. The latter successfully drew crowds to the newspaper's Times Square skyscraper with pyrotechnics and fireworks to celebrate the coming year, but city authorities banned the use of explosives after just a few years of festivities.

So Ochs hired Starr, who worked for the sign company Strauss Signs (later known as Artkraft Strauss, the company of which Starr served as president), to create a new visual display. Over the past century, this display and symbol of the New Year has evolved from an iron and wood cage adorned with light bulbs to a dazzling Technicolor crystal sphere.

His concept was based on time balls, nautical devices that gained popularity in the 19th century. As timekeeping became more accurate, ship navigators needed a standardized way of setting their chronometers. Every day, ports and observatories raised and lowered a metal ball at the same time to allow sailors to synchronize their instruments.

Both Ochs and New York Times chief electrician Walter Palmer were credited with the idea, supposedly inspired by the Western Union Building downtown, which released a time ball every day at noon. But Starr's granddaughter, Tama, who joined Artkraft Strauss in 1982 and now owns the business, said in a telephone interview that she believes it was her grandfather who came up with the concept of the ball being lowered and illuminated with the numbers of the year. new at midnight.

“The idea was… to light it with the new electricity that had just come to the neighborhood,” said Tama, who for many years served as foreman at the launch of the ball in Times Square.

“And it was downloaded manually…starting one minute before midnight, and that’s how it was done for many years.” “It was an adaptation of an old and useful thing,” she added. “It was instantly popular. People just loved it.”

Although Manhattan has been partially lit by electricity since the early 1880s, the U.S. National Park Service (NPS) notes that half of American homes were still lit by gas lamps and candles until the 1920s.

The sight of a glowing ball descending from the dark sky would have seemed otherworldly.

When the ball reached the railing with a sign displaying the year numbers, “the electrician would flip the switch, turning the ball off and turning the numbers on at the same time,” Tama said. “Then it seemed like the falling ball turned into the set of numbers.” All of Times Square entered the theater. For the first year, waiters at nearby restaurants and hotels wore battery-powered “1908” top hats, which lit up at the stroke of midnight. “It felt like magic to people,” Tama said.

'A minute out of time'

There have been seven different balls in Times Square since that first descent, from a 700-pound iron structure equipped with 25-watt light bulbs, to a lighter aluminum structure after World War II, to a “Big Apple” during the administration of the former city mayor, Ed Koch. In 1995, when the ball received a glitzy update with rhinestones, strobe lights and computer controls, traditional sign makers were no longer needed – which meant that Artkraft Strauss, the company that brought the ball to Times Square, also was no longer necessary.

Today's ball is a collaboration between Waterford Crystal and Philips Lighting, using 32,256 LEDs that can be programmed to display millions of colors and patterns on its surface.

Still, Tama fondly remembers his years as a timekeeper on the rooftop of One Times Square. When the last minute of the year arrived, workers lowered the ball using a complex system of pulleys.

As she performs this ritual year after year, Tama sees an intrinsic link between counting down, which she calls “a minute out of time,” and making New Year's resolutions. “When you are very focused, time seems to slow down,” she said.

“It felt like the longest minute in the world. It seemed like you had time to wash your hair, call your mother, change your life. You really can change your life in a minute – you can decide to be different. You can decide to be kinder and better.”