Written by: admin Saturday, December 31st, 2011 .
With New Year’s Eve just one day away, many are still scrambling to locate the most exciting party at which to ring in the new year; but for about 1 billion people worldwide, there is only one way to celebrate New Year’s Eve: the Times Square New Year’s Eve Ball drop. Nearly one million people will actually be in Times Square when the Ball drops, while the rest will watch the event on television. Of course, the New Year’s Eve celebration at Times Square involves a lot more than just the ball drop at midnight; around 3 p.m., the New Year’s Eve “revelers” begin to file into Times Square to catch the many celebrity and musical acts that precede the countdown. However, today we’d like to take a closer look at the ball to which a billion pairs of eyes will be glued tomorrow at 11:59 pm.
New Year's Eve Ball 1978
Since 1904, Times Square has been New York’s dedicated point of celebration for New Year’s Eve. The very first Times Square New Year’s Eve party, thrown by New York Times owner, Alfred Ochs, served a dual purpose. Aside from welcoming in the new year, the celebration was organized to commemorate the new Times Tower, now known as One Times Square. Although there was no ball drop the first few years, there was an all day festival followed by an impressive firework show, which drew hundreds of thousands of revelers to the square. After a few years, the city banned the firework show and that’s where the tradition of the ball drop comes in. Determined to maintain Times Square’s status as the place to be on New Year’s Eve, Ochs commissioned a seven-hundred pound illuminated ball to be lowered along the building’s flag pole at midnight in 1907.
New Year's Eve Ball 2000-2007
Except for the wartime years of 1942 and 1943, the Ball has been lowered every New Year’s Eve since 1907. The original Ball was built by the sign company, Artkraft Strauss, which was responsible for lowering the Ball for most of the twentieth century. Over the years, the Ball has received a number of facelifts, but it was in 2000 that the crystal ball we’ve become familiar with was created by Waterford Crystal. From 2000 to 2007 a six-foot-diameter crystal ball, weighing 1,070 pounds, was lowered each year as the almost 700 lights within and without the Ball transformed it into a spectacular and dazzling light show.
2011 New Year's Eve Ball
The crystal Ball that will be lowered tomorrow evening is twice the diameter of the millennial Ball and weighs a whopping 11,875 pounds. Of the 2,688 triangular crystal panels that make up the geodesic sphere, 288 are new this year. They are themed “Let There Be Love” and feature a diamond cut pattern of hearts. The remainder of the panels are left over from previous years, with themes such as “Let There be Courage,” “Let There Be Joy,” and “Let There Be Light.” A crystal ball is nice to look at, but it’s the 32,5256 Phillip Luxeon Rebel LEDs mounted to the Ball’s aluminum frame that makes it the true centerpiece of the New Year’s Eve countdown. Combined, these LEDs create over 16 million different colors and allow for the Ball’s vibrant kaleidoscope effect programmed by Focus Lighting. And you’ll be happy to know that the LEDs are so energy efficient that the amount of energy per hour it takes to light the Ball is the same as the energy required to power just two home ovens.
If you weren’t already planning to watch the Ball drop in Times Square this year, perhaps now that you have a little background on the event you’ll be more inclined to do so. And be sure to impress your friends with all the cool facts you just picked up about the world’s most famous crystal ball. Happy New Year’s!
