為什么在跨年之夜“降下”水晶球？

陳延洲

When Adolph Ochs purchased the floundering1 New York Times in 1896， he made it his mission to make the newspaper the number one paper in all of New York. He started by forming the New York Times Company and made himself the majority owner， ensuring the financial health of the paper. Next， he lowered the price of a daily edition from three cents to one cent. Readership began to ascend2. Then， he moved the entire staff into a new shiny building in the middle of Manhattan， to a place called Longacre Square， later renamed Times Square.

當阿道夫·奧克斯在1896收購陷入困境中的《紐約時報》時，他把將《紐約時報》辦成全紐約的頭號報紙當作了他的使命。他創(chuàng)辦紐約時報公司，自己持有多數股權，從而確保了報紙的財務健康。接下來，他把每份報紙的價格從3美分降到了1美分。讀者人數開始攀升。然后，他將公司全體遷入曼哈頓中部朗?？藦V場的一座全新閃亮的辦公大樓中，該廣場后來更名為時代廣場。

But Ochs was a man of fine tastes and big imagination. To celebrate the 1904 New Year and to show off the Times new digs， Ochs threw a lavish3 New Years celebration that was to be “the talk of the town.” He hosted an all-day street festival climaxing4 with a midnight fireworks display from the base of the Times building. Reportedly at midnight “the joyful sound of cheering， rattles5 and noisemakers from the over 200，000 attendees could be heard from as far away as Croton-on-Hudson， thirty miles north.” Despite the city later putting a kibosh6 on the fireworks display， the Times Square New Years Eve bash was born.

奧克斯是一個高品位的、富有想象力的人。為了慶祝1904年的新年和展示《紐約時報》的新駐地，奧克斯舉行了一場盛大的新年慶祝活動，成了街談巷議的話題。他舉辦了一個為期一天的街頭狂歡活動，在紐約時報大樓腳下舉行午夜煙花表演時，活動達到了的高潮。據報道，在午夜時分，“20多萬名參與活動的人發(fā)出的歡呼聲、嘈雜聲和喧鬧聲，地處北面30英里外的哈德遜河畔的克羅頓都能聽到?！北M管后來紐約市的煙花表演告吹，但時代廣場的跨年之夜狂歡節(jié)卻誕生了。

Even without fireworks， Ochs found a new way New Yorkers could celebrate the incoming new year in style and with glorious light. In 1907， Ochs commissioned7 the building of an electrically-lit ball to be lowered on the flagpole8 of the roof of One Times Square （the new name of the newspapers building）. A “time ball” had been the suggestion of the newspapers head electrician， Walter Painer， who had seen one in use on top of the close-by Western Union building.

即使沒有煙花，奧克斯也找到了一種紐約人慶祝新年的既時尚又炫目的新方法。1907年，奧克斯委托制造了一個電燈球，放在時代廣場一座（報社大樓的新名稱）屋頂的旗桿上?！都~約時報》的首席電工沃爾特·佩納曾建議使用“時間球”，他曾在附近的西聯(lián)大廈頂部看到過一個正在使用的“時間球”。

Time balls had been a favored way of broadcasting the time to sea travelers in the 19th century. The first one was built in 1829 by inventor Robert Wauchope. These soon became regular features in ports across the world. When the ball began its descent9 （1 pm in many parts of the world and noon in the US）， people would set their clocks to match the ball. By the beginning of the 20th century， with the advent10 of radio and other more advanced technologies， the time ball became obsolete11. In 1907， the time ball， while not completely considered archaic yet， was beginning to become something people just enjoyed watching.

在19世紀，時間球是向海上旅行者播報時間的一種廣受歡迎的方式。第一個時間球是由發(fā)明家羅伯特·沃克霍普于1829年建造的。時間球很快就成為了世界各港口的常規(guī)配置。當球開始下降時（在世界許多地方是下午1點，而在美國則是正午），人們會根據時間球來調準他們的時鐘。直到20世紀初，隨著無線電和其他更先進的技術出現，時間球逐漸過時了。在1907年，還沒有完全過時的時間球，開始漸漸變成僅供人們觀賞的東西。

Incandescent12 light bulbs were a relatively new invention， having just begun being mass-marketed to consumers around the turn of the twentieth century. The newness of this innovation appealed to Adolph Ochs and he fashioned his “New Years Eve Ball” with one hundred 25 watt light bulbs. The rest of the ball was made out of iron and wood. Though it was only five feet in diameter13， it weighed nearly 700 pounds. Ochs had a young immigrant metalworker by the name of Jacob Starr make the ball. Starr was also given the responsibility of lowering it at the specified time. On New Years Eve， 1907， at exactly the stroke of midnight， Starr lowered the ball signifying that it was 1908 and the beginning of a New Years tradition.

白熾燈泡是一個相對較新的發(fā)明，大約在20世紀初才開始大規(guī)模面向消費者銷售。這項新穎的發(fā)明吸引了阿道夫·奧克斯，他用一百個二十五瓦的燈泡制成了他的“跨年之夜水晶球”。球體的其余部分是用鐵和木頭制作的。雖然它的直徑只有五英尺，但它重約700磅。奧克斯讓一位名叫雅各布·斯塔爾的年輕移民金屬工人制作了這個球。斯塔爾也負責在規(guī)定的時間降下這個球。1907年的跨年之夜，午夜鐘聲敲響的那一刻，斯塔爾降下了這個球，象征著1908年的到來，也開啟了這一新年傳統(tǒng)。

The balls construction over time， in many ways， mimicked14 the history of industry in the United States. In 1920， they would replace the original ball with one made solely out of iron， showing off the steel strength of America. The ball didnt drop in 1942 and 1943—the only time it didnt drop in the last 110 years—due to wartime light restrictions and industrial production focused on the war efforts.

隨著時間的流逝，球的建造從許多方面烙下了美國工業(yè)發(fā)展的歷史印跡。1920年，他們用純鐵制的球代替了原來的球，展示了美國鋼鐵業(yè)的實力。1942年和1943年，是在過去的110年中僅有的沒有降下球的年份，這是由于戰(zhàn)時的燈火管制和工業(yè)生產服務于戰(zhàn)爭的需要。

In 1955， the heavy iron ball was replaced by a much lighter aluminum15 ball. Strobe lights and a computerized lighting system were added in 1995， signifying the age of ubiquitous16 computers.

1955年，沉重的鐵球被一個輕得多的鋁球替代了。在1995年，閃光燈和計算機化的照明系統(tǒng)的使用，預示著普適計算時代的到來。

The new millennium brought a new ball outfitted with 504 Waterford Crystals， 168 halogen17 bulbs， and spinning mirrors. The weight of the ball jumped from two hundred pounds to over 1，070 pounds.

千禧年帶來的是一個裝備有504塊沃特福德水晶、168個鹵素燈泡和旋轉鏡的新球。球的重量從200磅增加到了1070磅以上。

Today， the ball is twelve feet in diameter， more than double its original 1907 size. The new ball features LEDs and computerized lighting patterns. It sits on top of One Times Square year-round for tourists and locals alike to marvel18 at， but its only on one day a year that we actually see the ball drop.

如今，這個球的直徑是12英尺，比1907年最初的球大一倍多。新球的特點是運用了發(fā)光二極管和計算機化的照明模式。它全年都在時代廣場一座的樓頂上，讓游客和當地人都驚嘆不已，但實際上每年只有一天我們能看到球降下。