Time ball

Okay kiddo, let me explain what a time ball is! Back in the old days, people didn't have super modern clocks like we do now. They needed a way to know what time it was at all times, especially if they were traveling or needed to catch a train.

So, to help people know what time it was, different cities would use a time ball. A time ball was basically a big ball that was attached to a pole on top of a tall building, like a clock tower. The ball was usually black and white and was big enough to be seen from far away.

Now, here's the really cool part - every day at a specific time, usually noon, the ball would drop down the pole to let the people know that it was exactly 12 o'clock. Why did they do this? Well, before there were cell phones and modern clocks, it was really hard to know what time it was! But by having a time ball that was dropped at exactly the same time every day, people could look up and know for sure what time it was.

So, that's the whole story about time balls! They were an important way for people to keep track of time before modern clocks, and they were pretty impressive to see drop down from the top of a big building!