Ball Will Brighten New Year With a New Face
The ball that drops in New York’s Times Square to light up the New Year has been given a face-lift.
This year, the ball atop the One Times Square Building will be computerized and illuminated by lasers. In addition to serving nearly 100 million American television viewers, for the first time it will be live on the Internet.
The ball, a tradition since 1906, used to have rows of ordinary light bulbs and was lowered by hand to signal the magic moment.
Beginning at 6 p.m. EST Sunday, the new ball will pulsate with strobes, a 10,000-watt xenon bulb and 12,000 rhinestones.
A minute before midnight Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani will focus a laser on the 6-foot, 500-pound ball, which will flash, emit fog and descend by a mechanical rigging device calibrated to the National Institute of Standards atomic clock in Boulder, Colo.
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