Putting it in Perspective

To-Night in Times Square: There the Crowds will See the Year in Ball of Fire To Annouce It
NY Times, December 31, 1908

The advent of 1909 will be announced to-night to the thousands assembled in Times Square and the thoroughfares stretching away from all sides of The Times Building by the falling of a great ball of light from top to bottom of the flagstaff surmounting The Times tower. This will be followed instantly by the flashing of “1909” in figures of light from the four sides of the copula.
The ball of light will burn from dark until midnight. Its 350 electric lights, forming a globe five feet in diameter, will be visible over a wide area of the city, and will beam down on all those in Times Square and the streets radiating there-from.
At midnight precisely, official time, this ball will drop. As it touches the base of the flagstaff it will establish an electric connection which will flash forth “1909” from figures six feet in height.
The Times Building will be illuminated throughout the evening. Light will shine forth from every window, and from the top of the tower will play a searchlight of 2,000,000 candle power, the largest on the Northern Atlantic seaboard with the possible exception of that of Sandy Hook Lighthouse. This great reflector will project a light twenty miles, and the beam when uplifted will be plainly visible in the remotest limits of the city.
As in each of the years since the Times Building was completed Times Square itself, surrounded by restaurants, hotels, and theaters, will be the center of the New Year festivities, to which the greatest crowds will flock.
Police Commissioner Bingham made elaborate preparations yesterday for handling the crowds, summoning all of his inspectors to Headquarters to receive their orders. “I want all to have a good time,” said he later, “but there must be no rowdyism. Ticklers and slap-sticks will not be tolerated. The police will be considerate, and will allow tin horns and confetti. They must allow these, I suppose, for people have to enjoy themselves.”