When you look towards the sky, you can’t miss them. Those brilliant red, orange, and white spheres dangle like giant Christmas ornaments from the power lines above. They’re also properly spaced apart, as you can see.
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However, while this neat pattern is clearly intentional, the balls themselves aren’t simply for show. They serve a function, and they are very important. Read on to find out what these red balls mean and how they’ve saved countless lives.
How It Began
It’s unclear when these spheres first appeared. According to many, the red balls first appeared in Florida and Arkansas in the 1950s. On the other hand, others claim these balls popped up in Arkansas first but not until the 1970s.
Spectrum News
Whether it popped up first in Florida or Arkansas, the red balls had been beneficial through many years. Thankfully, you don’t have to choose a side in this fairly dull debate. In any event, the balls are now scattered around the country.
An Illusion
However, because the spheres don’t appear to be very large, you may have to concentrate to see them. That’s actually untrue! Keep in mind that some of them are hundreds of feet in the air, so what you see on the ground isn’t an accurate picture of their real size.
These red balls are known to have a diameter of 20 inches and some of the bigger kinds reach a diameter of 36 inches. Although these balls are rather big, they look tiny up high. Each ball usually weighs around 17 pounds.
Smaller Spheres
The balls that dangle a little closer to the ground—say, less than 50 feet above where you stand—may only be 20 inches in diameter. These are distributed in a less liberal manner than their larger equivalents.
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Power companies have separated these red balls according to their sizes. They also assign specific intervals to each type of red ball. Smaller spheres can be as close as 30 feet apart, while larger spheres can be as far apart as 200 feet.
A System Design
Of course, this is, without a doubt, all part of a well-regulated system. So, what messages are these brilliantly colored, precisely proportioned, and neatly spaced balls trying to convey to passersby?
Science ABC
We may see it like a tiny red ball in the high electric wires. But we can’t say how this thing actually works. If you don’t know the purpose they serve, there’s a high chance you’re not in the industry. You may have theories, but it may not be true either.
Learning History
But we’ll give you a hint: it has something to do with what those electrical wires transport. That’s right, electricity! Actually, the ability to illuminate our cities and houses is a comparatively new phenomenon. Engineers Oskar von Miller and Marcel Deprez did not transport electricity over a large distance until 1882.
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The duo used overhead wires normally used to send telegraphs to send a 2.5-kilowatt current over a 35-mile span. Although this may not sound far now, it was groundbreaking at the time given the conditions.
Short Distances
A power plant could only support the villages and cities around before this historic event. That meant that energy only had to travel a short distance from its source to the companies and homes that required it.
Center for American Progress
Utility companies, on the other hand, expanded into larger, more distant facilities as time went on. The only problem? They were too far away from their consumers now, which made the process more challenging.
A Solution
To solve this issue, power companies needed to think of a brand-new method of effectively transporting electricity from its source to customers. It had to be effective and efficient to avoid loss of energy and money.
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This wasn’t a simple task. Lots of study and planning were done to achieve the desired results. And any wasted electricity meant money lost for these companies, so designing the appropriate conduction system was crucial. Then came the power line.
Not Insulated
High-voltage energy can now be readily delivered from power plants to our homes and workplaces. However, you might be startled to learn that the electric wires over your head are not insulated. What is the reason behind this?
It’s been determined a waste of money because few people ever got close enough to them. However, underground wires are insulated to protect people in the area from getting hurt. The ones above, though? Au naturel.
Rare Incidents
Power lines do cause accidents, and the most common accidents are electrocutions. That is what happens when a construction worker or their equipment comes into contact with the cable while also being in direct contact with the ground.
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This position acts as a conductor, allowing power to flow from the live wire to the ground through the person. Electrocution is extremely dangerous. It can cause severe injuries and even death. Every year, in the United States, more than 300 people die and 4,000 people are injured as a result of electrical accidents.
Feathered Friends
However, this also explains why birds may safely sit on electrical wires. The winged animals may perch on the wire without feeling the fatal surge because electricity won’t leave the wires unless it has a passage into the ground.
The Petri Dish
Although birds may safely do this, they do face problems if they touch two wires at once. They may also have a problem if they simultaneously brush up against a power line and the wooden poles that hold them up.
Caring For The Birds
Fortunately, power companies have taken precautions to protect our feathered companions by increasing the space between lines so that birds do not sit on two wires at the same time. Thus, making it easier for the birds.
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As a result, crows, pigeons, and other birds of their kind are completely safe to spend time up there. I’m pretty sure you’ve seen tons of our feathered friends chilling up there without a care in the world. We have to admit, we’re jealous.
What Are They Doing Up There?
However, we don’t only look for birds on electricity wires. We occasionally find old shoes hanging up there as well, especially in cities. People tie the laces of two shoes and throw them toward the lines. A good throw would generally hook the shoelaces over the wire, leaving them dangling in plain sight for all to witness.
iStock
Hundreds of pairs are sometimes hung up together on a single stretch. Sure, this looks really awesome, but have you ever stopped to consider why all those kicks are up there while gazing up at a power line? There is, in fact, a compelling reason for it — numerous, in fact.
The Hanging Shoes
We also have a shocking statistic for you. According to the radio station WBEZ, the city of Chicago was ordered to remove at least 6,000 pairs of shoes from power wires between 2008 and 2015.
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However, this was not a problem exclusive to Chicago. In fact, you’ll see shoes dangling from the wires all around the world. And it’s a phenomenon that may be explained in a variety of ways.
The Reason
Some have connected urban violence, particularly gang-related conflicts, to shoes on electricity wires. Patrick Starr (not the Spongebob character), a former gang member, verified this to WBEZ in 2015.
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Apparently, he and his pals would use overhead footwear to mark their area. Crews in other cities have also used shoes to mark where their enemies have died or where their own have died due to violence.
The Other Reason
However, you may have heard that a dangling shoe on power lines signals a drug sale location where people gather. This may be an assumption, but who knows? Locals in Chicago have already disproved this theory.
newpulpcity.com
However, there are also accounts of persons whose pals pranked them or threw their sneakers at them as a form of retaliation for a lost bet. So, there’s no one explanation why shoes end up hanging from the ceiling.
The Seal Of Approval
Are there any other explanations for these dangling shoes in the cities? While city officials do not really intentionally hang shoes to electrical lines, there are a few trinkets that do earn the official seal of approval.
Unsplash
Shoes on powerlines may convey a message that resembles a sort of communication to some individuals. But unlike dangling tennis shoes, there are state-approved things that have a clear function and significance for people who understand them.
Plates On Wires
Perhaps you’ve looked at a transformer and the high-voltage lines that emerge from it, only to discover strange disc-like things around the wires. It may look like huge bracelets that come in different colors. Do you know what these things are?
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These are most likely insulators to keep the live wires from contacting anything that may produce a shock, regardless of their color. The term insulator is also used more specifically to refer to insulating supports used to attach electric power distribution or transmission lines to utility.
Transformers (Not The Robot)
The cables have a direct path to the ground if they run near to or into a transformer. Because most transformers are made of metal, they can transmit energy downwards, which is something that power providers don’t want.
science4fun.com
The insulator maintains the air space between the energized, bare conductor and ground in a typical power line application. As a result, they use insulators to isolate the wires from the transformer’s edge. Thanks to the insulator and the accompanying air gap, it’s easy to prevent electrical shorts and flashovers.
The Power Of Insulators
Insulator disks also have to power to keep power plants transformers safe from storms and electrical surges. You may have even witnessed electricity wires being struck by lightning and wondered what would happen.
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Lightning touching down near your power line can lead to an extra spike in electrical voltage of millions of volts. Thankfully, if there are insulators up there, you won’t ever have to worry about this.
It’s A Ball!
Perhaps it’s possible that you’re not near a transformer. And what you’re looking at isn’t a power line with a disk-shaped stack. No, what you’ve seen is undeniably spherical: a massive plastic ball suspended from the electrical cables above you.
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You may be gliding across a lake, traveling across a ravine, or simply going past your neighborhood airport. These spherical giant plastic balls hanging from electrical wires can be easily observed in any area.
Colorful Balls
These balls are also available in a range of colors. A variety of colors are available from striking colors to plain white. The go-to color was red at first, but experts eventually switched to bright orange as their default.
Science ABC
Eventually, they added more colors to the collection. You may still see red spheres, as well as yellow and white ones. They also come in a variety of sizes, as previously noted, depending on the height it will be situated.
200 Feet
The balls are typically spaced 200 feet apart, however as you near an airport, they may be closer together. All of these features hint at what these spherical additions to your local electricity cables are for.
Colorado Public Radio
Can you guess the real purpose of these ingenious balls? Do you have an idea already? Well, there is one more last ironic thing to ponder about them. Maybe it will help you figure out what they’re really for.
How To Add The Balls
Surprisingly, the massive power line spheres you see have to be attached to the cables in a life-threatening way. Even with the highest cherry-picker, workers can’t always reach the lines. So, how do teams climb to the top of the mountain?
T&D World
Amazingly, installing these colored spheres is not as easy as we think. Workers sometimes have to fly in a helicopter that hovers near the cable for long enough to connect the enormous, brilliantly colored bead.
Taking Flight
And, as previously said, these markers began to show in the 1950s — at least according to some folks. Apparently, states such as Florida and Arkansas began to hang these huge and colorful balls from their power lines.
travel.thefuntimesguide.com
On the contrary, other people claim the pattern began 20 years later in Arkansas when the state’s governor at that time took a flight and observed something strange upon landing. We wonder which one is actually true.
Winthrop Rockefeller
When Winthrop Rockefeller, the state governor at that time, glanced out the window of his jet and he allegedly noticed electrical lines right next to the craft. That should be enough to frighten anyone! It is quite dangerous!
ualr.edu
Rockefeller was correct in believing that these live wires should be made more visible to pilots approaching the runway. As a result, the spheres began to emerge as a warning to pilots: keep away from the dangerous wires ahead.
Other States Weren’t Lucky
Pilots in other states didn’t have the same warning system as the Arkansas pilots – at least not as early. The installation of the spheres became a warning system that help the pilots for good flights. However, it is discovered that it is more dangerous not having this kind of system.
Youtube
In fact, it even resulted in a tragedy on one occasion. Colorado officials began installing the balls across their state’s famously difficult terrain at the end of the 1980s, but they didn’t do so quickly enough to avoid an accident across the South Platte River.
A Tragic Accident
In 1988, a news channel’s chopper crashed with a 150-foot-long steel cable dangling over the river. The chopper pilots did not notice the long wire ahead. Sadly, that hit was enough to cause the aircraft to crash.
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The incident made news headlines as they reported casualties. Unfortunately, there were life casualties, as a couple of journalists tragically due to this unfortunate incident. Sadly, this wasn’t the only incident involving these wires.
FAA
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) can’t make it mandatory for every state to place the colored balls on its live wires, despite this and prior incidents. They cannot force every state to do so to make a safe place for aircraft and crews.
Hawaiian Electric/YouTube
The agency instead may only recommend that these warning signals be utilized to prevent deadly accidents between the above aircraft. Implementation of this system is highly recommended by FAA to lessen tragic incidents that may happen in the future.
Not Uncommon
It is also known that helicopter pilots collide with electrical wires occasionally. According to a 2003 story in FAAviation News, helicopter pilots frequently strike the wires for a huge variety of reasons.
energized.edison.com
According to said report, these tragic reasons include “dirty windscreens, light conditions [and] the obscuring effects of terrain and changes in visual perspective that occur during climb and descent.”
Other Factors
Furthermore, the report also said, “accurately estimating the helicopter’s distance from unmarked cables is almost impossible.” Even a skilled pilot who takes the same route back and forth from the airport might be still put in serious danger.
newsroom.sdge.com
There are lots of factors why even senior pilots could still be caught up by this potential accident. These reasons include when wires change shape with the seasons, the color of the cables changes, or if another optical illusion occurs.
Visibility Marker Balls
In the aviation sector, these spheres are called visibility marker balls, and there are several areas where you’re more likely to see them. Critical areas where the altitude is a concern or areas with any natural or man-made obstacles.
Engineering Discoveries
They usually dangle in places where aircraft and helicopters frequently fly low, such as canyons and ravines, mountain passes, and valleys, as well as above highways, skyways, and even near airports.
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Furthermore, the wires that zigzag across these regions must be marked with visibility marker balls. Otherwise, planes’ pilots may be unable to see the lines ahead as they begin to descend and result in another accident.
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The FAA standards also specify why the balls should be available in specific sizes and colors. Depending on where these balls should be placed, there is a corresponding size and color that must be utilized.
FAA Guidelines
The spheres that you see over lakes, rivers, valleys, and canyons are extra-large, as you may have imagined. In fact, the FAA requires that they be at least 36 inches wide in order to create a clear warning.
Wikimedia Commons
However, for power lines less than 50 feet in height, the smaller markers—20-inch balls— are deemed good enough. You may actually find these scaled-down replicas at the end of various airport runways.
Closer Together
And when you glance out the window of your airplane, you’ll see that the spheres are getting closer together as you approach the end of the runway. By then, the distance between the markers is usually only 30 to 50 feet.
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With the correct installation of these huge and colorful spheres, things would fall into place perfectly. As a result, they serve as useful indications that the aircraft is slowly approaching the tarmac’s edge.
Why Red
However, why are the visibility markers red? Well, simply speaking, because they are visible against the sky! However, according to a later FAA study, orange is actually a more visible color for pilots.
thekidshouldseethis.com
So, even if there are still exceptions, you’re more likely to see fire-colored spheres dangling from electricity wires these days. Ultimately, it’s up to where the markers will be hanged that determines what color it should be.
An Alternating Sequence
If there are less than four balls on a wire, they should all be this garish shade of orange. Longer lines with more balls, on the other hand, may benefit from a color pattern to guarantee that at least one of them gets the pilot’s attention.
Engineering Discoveries
The majority of these sequences alternate between orange, white, and yellow. However, it is still essential to adapt the choice of color to the surroundings of the marker to make them more visible to the aircraft pilots.
Everyone Benefits
The visibility indicators haven’t simply prevented aerial accidents. The spheres have also helped direct geese away from hazardous live wires, according to a 1983 report from United Press International.
thekidshouldseethis.com
Also, according to the article, boat and ship captains learned to avoid them since the markers help them to identify live wires nearby and avoid further casualties. Due to the noticeable color, it has saved numerous lives.
Great News
This is fantastic news for individuals working in the aviation and nautical sectors, as well as those concerned about animal protection. The enormous, brightly colored spheres that adorn your electricity wires serve a purpose: they save lives.
Wikipedia
And now, when you see them swinging from your city’s electricity lines in all their orange, red, yellow, or white brilliance, you can appreciate everything they do. They may look like a mere decoration to keep the wires attractive, but it serves a purpose that keeps everyone safe and sound.