The Ingenious Meaning Behind Those Balls On Power Lines – And How They’re Saving Lives

You can’t miss them when you look up. Those bright red, orange and white spheres hang overhead like giant Christmas baubles from the power lines. You can see that they’re spaced perfectly apart, too. But while that neat pattern is obviously by design, the balls themselves aren’t just there for show. They have a purpose — a rather critical one.

Uncertain Origins

When these spheres started appearing is up for debate. Some say the red balls began popping up in Florida and Arkansas in the 1950s. Others, by contrast, claim that they came to Arkansas first – and not until the 1970s. Thankfully, you don’t have to pick a side of this rather unexciting argument... And in any case, the balls are all across the country now.

Bigger Than They Look

You may occasionally have to squint to spot the spheres, however, as they don’t appear to be all that big. This is just an optical illusion. Remember that some are hundreds of feet in the air, so what you see on the ground doesn’t represent their actual size. Some larger varieties measure up at a minimum of 36 inches in diameter.

Special Distances

On the other hand, the balls that hang a bit closer to the ground – say, under 50 feet above where you stand – may be only 20 inches in size. These are distributed a bit less generously than their more sizable counterparts. Smaller spheres can be 30 feet apart, while the bigger ones are separated by about 200 feet. This is all part of a well-regulated system.

Long Distance Electricity

So, what purpose do these brightly colored, perfectly sized, and evenly spaced balls have? To understand, you'll have to know a thing or two about electricity. Being able to light up our cities and homes is a relatively recent phenomenon. It took until 1882 for engineers Oskar von Miller and Marcel Deprez to send electricity over a long distance. The pair relied on overhead wires that would transmit telegraphs, using these to pass a 2.5-kilowatt current over a 35-mile stretch. That was revolutionary at the time.