Month: December 2009

New Year’s Eve Ritual: The Time Ball In NYC’s Times Square

Auld Lang Syne - A Quillcards™ Ecard
Auld Lang Syne - A Quillcards™ Ecard

The Clock Is Ticking
At precisely 11:59 p.m. time tonight on this New Year’s Eve in New York City when clocks on the East Coast of the USA will be ticking the very last minute of 2009, about one million people will gather at 1 Times Square at an area formerly known as the Tower – and exactly at that particular minute, their eyes will focus on a magnificent, huge time ball which will begin its crucial descent.

More Than 1.1 Billion People Join The Watch
Through satellite technology, Times Square and its time ball will also be picture of choice on the TV sets of another estimated 100 million Americans around the country and one billion people worldwide who will watch the final minute countdown as the ball journeys its position in the skies to the ground to officially usher in the new year of 2010.

A Legend Is Born (Back In 1904, That Is)
New Year’s Eve revelers wait for hours in the winter cold of New York of Times Square to see the sparkling Waterford crystal time ball for themselves, partaking in a wonderful festivity that began 105 years ago when the very first New Year’s Eve celebration of this kind took place at this same location.

The Brainchild Of Alfred Ochs, Owner Of The New York Times
That first New Year’s Eve event was the brainchild of Alfred Ochs.

A German Jewish immigrant to the USA who was the owner at that time of The New York Times newspaper which was founded in 1851, Ochs and his staff were set to commemorate the official opening of the newspaper’s new headquarters in that area of the city in 1904.

‘The Gray Lady’
Known as ‘The Gray Lady’ because of its serious-minded appearance and style, today The New York Times is the largest metropolitan newspaper in the USA and the winner of 101 Pulitzer Prizes (which is the most of any news organization).

Two Innovations Change New York City in 1904
However, The Times (as The New York Times is known) was already an institution more than a century ago when Ochs first had his idea for the annual celebrations in an area where throngs of people bustled about.

Along with New York having its first official New Year’s Eve celebrations that year due to Ochs’ efforts, 1904 was also the year when the first subway line opened in New York City.

Both of these innovations would ultimately transform this famous area in New York City to the point where New Yorkers would fondly term the area of Times Square as ‘the Crossroads of the World’.

Times Square Gets Its Name
Even at the beginning of the 20th century, The Times was already an institution.

This led August Belmont, who was then the president of the city’s subway system known at that time as the Interborough Rapid Transit Company to suggest to the Rapid Transit Commission that the name of the area where the newspaper’s new headquarters would be housed should be changed from Longacre Square to Times Square.

Ochs followed Belmont’s lead and lobbied the city too, and ultimately both men were successful and the city granted their wish.

The Impressive Times Tower On ‘Tiny’ Times Square
As anyone can see when they travel through Times Square which is found at the intersection of 7th Avenue, Broadway, and 42nd Street, the imposing Times Tower is in fact marooned on a very small triange of land.

Nevertheless, Times Tower in 1904 was Manhattan’s second-tallest building. Indeed, if one had measured from the bottom if its three humongous sub-basements that had been built to accommodate the structural loading and weight demands of The Times’ up-to-date printing equipment, it was actually the tallest building in the city at that time.

Ochs’ Inaugural New Year’s Event Is A Showstopper
Ochs pulled out all the stops for his inaugural New Year’s Eve bash in 1904. Two hundred thousand people attended an all-day street festival. This culminated in a fireworks display set off from the base of the tower, and at midnight the sound from all the cheering, noisemakers and rattles could be heard for miles around.

Though admittedly biased, Ochs’ newspaper described the occasion claiming that “….from base to dome, the giant structure was alight – a torch to usher in the newborn year….”

Before this event of 1904, Trinity Church in Lower Manhattan had been ‘the’ place to bring in the new year in New York City. But Ochs’ extravaganza was such a huge success that it replaced the church and captured the imagination of the country at large and the world beyond.

Fireworks Are Banned And The First Falling Ball Appears In The City
However, two years later the city banned the fireworks display due to safety fears.

Determined to have some sort of grand finale at the end of his all-day street festival, Ochs arranged at that point to have an illuminated iron and wood time ball that weighed 700 pounds (about 318 kilos) lowered from the tower flagpole at exactly the stroke of midnight to signal the end of 1907 and the start of 1908.

What Exactly Is A Time Ball?
Large metal or painted wood balls, time balls are dropped at predetermined times primarily to give sailors the means to check their marine chronometers from their boats offshore.

Such timekeeping was one way that mariners at sea could determine their longitude accurately.

The Life Span Of Marine Time Balls
The first time ball was erected in 1829 by its inventor Robert Wauchope, a captain in the Royal Navy, at Portsmouth, England.

In Ochs’ time when he began using a time ball to herald the beginning of 1908, such time balls were still in active use.

Coinciding with the beginnings of radio time signals, however, time balls became obsolete and many were demolished in the 1920s.

This New Year’s Eve Celebration In Modern Times
Although Ochs’ New York Times had outgrown Times Tower so that by 1914 the newspaper was relocated to 229 West 43rd Street, New Year’s Eve festivities in Times Square had become a permanent fixture of the city by that time.

What this has meant for more than a century is that whether at a party, bar, or relaxing at home, millions participate in the cultural phenomenon of watching the last few minutes of the New Year’s Eve party atmosphere at Times Square as the time ball is prepared for its descent.

If you go to see the time ball in person, there is a barricaded area and you are locked in and unable to return to wherever you came from before you joined the festivities of one of the most famous ‘parties’ around the world to ring in the new year.

Sizing Up The “New” New Year’s Eve Time Ball
In November 2008, the co-organizers of the New Year’s Eve celebrations in Times Square unveiled a new Times Square New Year’s Eve Ball.

The new ball is a 12-foot geodesic sphere. It is double the size of previous New Year’s Eve balls, and it weighs 11,875 pounds (about 5,386 kilos). The ball is covered in 2,668 Waterford crystals and it is powered by new solid state lighting technology through its 32,256 Philips Luxeon Rebel LEDS.

She’s Like A Rainbow, Coming Colors In The Air
The Times Square Alliance website states that the new ball can create “a palette of more than 16 million vibrant colors and billions of patterns producing a spectacular kaleidoscope effect atop One Times Square.”

The Modern Art of Architectural Lighting Design For The ‘New’ Ball
Lighting designers of the architectural lighting design firm in New York City called Focus Lighting have created a spectacular lighting design for the new ball by using more than 3,500 lighting cues to orchestrate the colorful moving patterns that radiate from the new ball.

Making Quite A Splash
These lighting designers have used theatrical techniques in their attempt to set off the beauty of the individual facets of the crystals so that the sparkle is visible whether it is viewed from 5 feet (about 1.5 meters) as members of the press have seen it, or from 500 feet (about 152 meters) when viewed from the streets of Times Square.

No doubt Alfred Ochs who used that time ball of his the first time ‘round to herald the new year of 1908 and all his fellow New Year’s Eve revelers from that year would find the effect dazzling from any angle.

New Year Around The World - A Quillcards™ Ecard
New Year Around The World - A Quillcards™ Ecard

Resources
Websites
Times Square Alliance
Associated Content
Wikipedia
LyricsFreak – “She’s A Rainbow” by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards of The Rolling Stones

The Quillcards New Year Ecards Collection