Tech History Behind New York's New Year's Eve Ball

Toe, The writes "A perennial icon of New Year's Eve is the geodesic ball which first dropped in Times Square in 1907. Over the past century, there have been seven iterations of this ball. The first one, made out of iron and wood, weighed 400 pounds and sported one hundred 25-watt bulbs. The current ball weighs almost six tons and uses 32,256 Philips Luxeon Rebel LEDs. The designers expect there to be more tech improvements to the ball soon. What do you think of the ball and the bizarre status it holds in our culture? How would you change it for years to come?"

Comments

Just the east coast?

[crow]

Growing up in Idaho, nobody particularly cared about the ball. Is this just an East Coast thing?

Re:32256 LEDs?

[Phibz]

They probably would go in the space occupied by the mast on each end of the ball.