The Gdańsk Time Ball was a steel ball, measuring 6 feet in diameter and weighing 150 pounds. Each day shortly before noon it was raised to the top of a mast above the lighthouse dome and then, exactly at 12 o'clock, following a telegraphic signal from the Royal Astronomical Observatory in Berlin, dropped.

Project drawing of the Gdańsk Nowy Port Lighthouse and its Timeball, 1893 

This allowed the captains of the ships lying at anchor in the Bay of Gdańsk the precise setting of their ships' chronometers, whose accuracy was essential to establishing the exact position of their ships on the map during a voyage, and hence to safe navigation. In the 19th century one could find a time ball in every major harbour city of the world. The first was built in 1929 in Portsmouth, the second in 1833 in Greenwich, England. The Gdańsk ball, the first on the Baltic Sea, was installed in 1876, first on a special wooden tower, then moved to the top of the (new then, historic now) Gdańsk Nowy Port lighthouse. 

The Royal Astronomical Observatory in Berlin, 19th Century. The telegraphic sygnal sent from this Observatory every day at 12:00 o'clock released the fall of the Time Ball on the Gdańsk Lighthouse. 

Radio invented by Marconi at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries gradually eliminated the usefulness of time balls, and the Gdańsk ball was removed in 1929. Today there are only a handfull of time balls left in the whole world, e.g. in Greenwich, Washington, D.C., Singapore, Lyttelton (New Zealand), etc.

The first time ball of Greenwich, England, installed - 1833, reconstructed - 1919 

All are major tourist attractions in those cities, as monuments to the navigation techniques of the bygone era, and symbols of the maritime character of those cities. The reconstruction of the Gdańsk Time Ball has already begun and its completion is scheduled for the fall of 2006.

The Gdańsk Nowy Port Lighthouse and its Timeball, 1894. 

The mast on the Gdańsk Lighthouse after the removal of the Time Ball. 

Lyttelton Timeball Station, built - 1876, reconstructed - 1978 

W kwietniu 2008 roku na szczycie latarni zamontowano odrestaurowany maszt z kulą czasu, sponsorowane przez Saur Neptun Gdańsk i Zarząd Morskiego Portu Gdańsk.
21 maja 2008 o godzinie 12 odbyła się uroczysta inauguracja i pierwszy pokaz funkcjonowania kuli czasu.

Maszt z Kulą Czasu

Kula przygotowana do montażu na latarni

Korona masztu

Podnoszenie kuli

Montaż Kuli Czasu

Montaż ukończony