In 1833 the Greenwich Royal Observatory in England installed a “time ball” on top of its building. The ball would rise up a pole at 12:55 PM daily and drop precisely at 1 PM, allowing observers to accurately set their timepieces. Time balls became fixtures in many coastal towns to aid ships at sea. In 1907 the lowering of a time ball at midnight became part of New York’s Times Square New Year’s Eve celebration.