The Typhoon Signal Mast
Image by Canadian Pacific
This is an old typhoon signal mast. The round ball is one of the typhoon warrning level signals. Other typhoon warning levels have different shapes.
Hong Kong has been a major sea port since the 1830s. Between the months of June and September, typhoons from the west Pacific and South China Sea threaten Hong Kong occasionally.
Before the days of wireless communications, radio, telephone, TV, internet and satellite communications, people and marine navigators in Hong Kong relied on this signal mast to find out what the forecast for typhoon warning would be.
When a warning is issued, the signal ball would be hoisted up to the top, so people from afar could see it.
As a matter of fact, because of the "hoisting" process, the Royal Hong Kong Observatory used to actually "hoist" a typhoon warning signal, rather than "issue" a warning signal.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hong_Kong_tropical_cyclone_warning_…
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