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A giant ball dropping on a pole was an important measure of time not too long ago.

It all started when ship captains needed a good way to track time in order to navigate. Delicate machines called chronometers would do so, but they would often get out of sync.

So Captain Robert Wauchope had the idea of dropping a giant ball from an elevated position near the shore. The first dropped in 1829, at Portsmouth, England, marking noon. The idea caught on.