Who owns times square ball

Over the past century, the symbol of the New Year -- the luminous ball -- has evolved from a iron and wood cage adorned with light bulbs to a dazzling technicolor crystal object. But how did this New Year's Eve celebration start, and why do we commemorate the occasion by watching a ball descend down a pole? Nautical inspiration. The latter had successfully drawn crowds to the newspaper's new skyscraper home in Times Square through pyrotechnics and fireworks to celebrate the forthcoming year, but city officials banned explosives from being used after just a few years.

In , Ochs commissioned Starr, who worked for sign-making firm Strauss Signs later known as Artkraft Strauss, which Starr served as president , to create a new visual display. Crowds gather in Times Square to on December 31, The intersection has hosted New Year's Eve celebrations since The new concept was based on time balls, nautical devices that had gained popularity in the 19th century.

As time-telling became more precise, ship navigators needed a standardized way to set their chronometers. Each day, harbors and observatories would raise and lower a metal ball at the same time to allow sailors to synchronize their instruments. Both Ochs and the New York Times' chief electrician, Walter Palmer, have been credited with the idea, allegedly inspired by the downtown Western Union Building, which dropped a time ball each day at noon.

But Starr's granddaughter Tama, who joined Artkraft Strauss in and now owns the business, said in a phone interview that she believes it was her grandfather who came up with the concept of the ball being lowered and lit up with the new year numerals at midnight.

One design of the New Year's Ball was an aluminum cage outfitted with lightbulbs. People just loved it. The Ball has gone through some major transformations in its plus years of partying. The original Ball was replaced in with a 5-foot, pound iron Ball.

This Ball lasted to , when a third Ball debuted, adding rhinestones and a computerized lighting system featuring strobe lights. For the arrival of the new millennium, an entirely new Ball was constructed. Weighing 1, pounds and measuring 6 feet in diameter, the fourth ball was covered with Waterford Crystal triangles illuminated with halogen bulbs outside.

Internally, bulbs of clear, red, blue, green and yellow colors along with strobe lights and spinning mirrors lit up the night.

It was retired on December 31, newly rigged with light-emitting diodes. Manufactured again by Waterford Crystal with a diameter of 6 feet, weighing 1, pounds, it used LEDs, computerized lighting pattern, and can produce over The Ball was only used once— a sixth new Ball debuted on New Year's Eve and is still in use. Today's Ball is 12 feet in diameter, weighing 11, pounds. While retaining the design, this Ball was rebuilt double its previous size. In , the iron Ball was replaced with an aluminum Ball weighing a mere pounds.

After seven years, the traditional glowing white Ball with white light bulbs and without the green stem returned to brightly light the sky above Times Square. In , the Ball was upgraded with aluminum skin, rhinestones, strobes, and computer controls, but the aluminum Ball was lowered for the last time in The crystal Ball combined the latest in lighting technology with the most traditional of materials, reminding us of our past as we gazed into the future and the beginning of a new millennium.