It’s a New Year’s Eve tradition: watching the ball drop in New York City’s Time Square. It began in 1907. The city banned New York Times from doing their usual pyrotechnics and fireworks display. The Times needed something new. They hired Jacob Starr, a Ukrainian metalworker, to create a time ball. The idea came from a device used by ships to keep precise time. The first ball was made of iron and 25-watt light bulbs. The next designs were made of aluminum to make it lighter. In 1995, the ball got glitz and glamor with new rhinestones, strobe lights, and computer controls. Today’s ball has a crystal design. It uses LEDs programmed with different colors and patterns. Each year, a team of workers drops the ball using a pulley system, keeping time with pole marked with tape.
