Times Square Ball

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Each year on New Year’s Eve celebration in Times Square in Manhattan, New York City, a Ball made of crystal and electric lights is raised to the top of a pole on the One Times Square building and then lowered to mark the coming of the New Year. It is an event that is watched by people around the world on television. The Ball descends 77 feet (23 meters) over the course of a minute, coming to a rest at the bottom of its pole at 12:00am. The electronic screen below the Ball counts down to midnight as well.

Every year thousands of people gather in Times Square to watch the Ball drop, and millions watch the event on television.

1 History
2 Controlling the Crowd
3 See also
4 Sources & External Links

[edit] History

Main article: Time ball

The descent of a time ball each New Year’s Eve is a ritual derived from a common visual synchronization procedure once used primarily for navigation and astronomy. This practice evolved long before the age of electronic communications, but after mechanical timekeeping had reached a high degree of accuracy. In 1829 the first time ball was installed in England for visually synchronizing the chronometers used in navigation.

1907 – The New Year’s Eve Ball first descended from a flagpole at One Times Square, constructed with iron and wood materials with 100 25-watt bulbs weighing 700 pounds (318 kg) and measuring 5 feet (1.5 m) in diameter.

1920 – The Ball was replaced with an iron material Ball and weighing less than the original, only 400 pounds (181 kg).

1942 -1943 – Due to World War II, the descending of the Ball was suspended.

1955 – The Ball gets replaced with a lighter Ball weighing 150 pounds (68 kg).

1981 – 1988 – Due to I Love New York campaign, there are red light bulbs and green stem in a design of an apple.

1989 – The traditional white bulbs again get put on the Ball.

1995 – The Ball gets computerized, aluminium coated, rhinestoned, and has strobe light system.

1998 – The aluminium Ball gets replaced.

2000 - 2006 – The Ball gets an overhaul for the new millennium celebrations with a design from Waterford Crystal and new technology. It weighs 1070 pounds (485 kg), measures six feet (1.8 m) in diameter and installed with 504 crystal triangles, illuminated externally with 168 halogen light bulbs and internally with 432 light bulbs of clear, red, blue, green and yellow colors. Each year there is a theme in the Waterford crystal concept with a particular chunk of designed crystals being called something, and in previous years there have been for example “Hope for Fellowship,” “Hope for Wisdom,” “Hope for Unity,” “Hope for Courage,” “Hope for Healing,” “Hope for Abundance” etc. There are strobe lights and mirrors to create bursts of excitement and special effects for the audience.

2007 - The ball will remain as a Waterford Crystal ball as in 2000-2006 (described above), but will be lit by LED lights provided by Phillips instead of halgeon bulbs for the 2007 edition and all future years.

[edit] Controlling the Crowd

Over a quarter of a million people go to watch the ball drop each year. Therefore, New York Police Department (NYPD) must have strict control over the crowd so as to prevent riots. The technique used by NYPD is dividing Times Square up into sections, commonly referred to as "pens." As people arrive, usually in the afternoon, people are directed into the pens. NYPD starts with the pens closest to 43rd Street, and as these pens get full, NYPD closes these pens to further people and works their way back toward Central Park. Once inside the pen, people may leave, but will not be able to reenter the pen.

Also, access to Times Square is extremely limited during the course of the celebration. Those staying in hotels in the area, such as the Doubletree Guest Suites, need to prove with NYPD that they are in fact guests at these hotels. Also, no alcoholic beverages are permitted (as per NYC's open container laws). Also, there are no portable public restrooms, so as to further discourage drinking before the celebration. Police patrol in the area during the celebration is extremely high, not only to greatly reduce the potential for riots, but also due to modern-day terror alerts.