The original 1907 Times Square New Year's Eve ball had an outer surface made of iron and wood.
The first ball was built for the New York Times' New Year's celebration at its headquarters in Times Square. It was about five feet in diameter, weighed roughly 700 pounds, and was illuminated by 100 light bulbs. The ball was lowered from a flagpole at midnight, creating the ceremony now known worldwide as the Times Square Ball Drop.
The original construction is easy to confuse with later versions. The ball has been redesigned repeatedly as technology, safety requirements, and the scale of the celebration changed. Later balls used materials including aluminum and crystal, and the modern Waterford crystal ball is far more elaborate than the early iron-and-wood object. The first ceremony also predates the familiar name “One Times Square”; the building was then known as the Times Building, and the surrounding Longacre Square had recently been renamed Times Square.