What are the colored balls on the electric wire?

Since childhood, this question has been in the minds of all of us, what are these colored balls on the wires for? What is their job and how are they thrown or placed on the top of the electricity tower and on the wires?
In this article, we are going to address these questions:
The use of marker balls on power lines dates back to the 1950s, when the US Federal Aviation Administration recognized a growing safety concern, which was aircraft collisions with transmission lines.
Balls on power wires are installed on high voltage power cables that are located at high altitudes. These colored plastic balls can often be seen on highways, in mountainous areas and valleys, on electric wires that pass overseas, lakes or rivers, and most importantly around airports.

The importance of using marker balls

Several theories have been proposed for the use of these balls:
The first theory is that these balls are installed on electrical wires for safety warning, to warn artificial birds when they are flying at low altitudes, such as helicopters and airplanes. Give the wires. Also, because the roads under the masts are very wide and there is a lot of traffic under them and the length of the wires increases and decreases due to heat and cold, these balls are placed on these wires so that they can be seen by passers-by.
The next theory is related to the distance between the masts. The distance between two masts is called span. When the span of the masts is short, hollow balls are used, and if the span is long, solid balls are used, which usually have a series of springs inside them. It happens that the wires connected between the two masts stand a little looser or give a so-called belly. If they are pulled to prevent the wires from standing loose, due to a small impact, these wires vibrate and cause disruption in the transmission system. And the wear of the wires becomes faster, so when the wires are stretched, some weights, which are balls, are attached to the wire to dampen and eliminate the vibrations.

Color the balls

The color used for the international standard is orange, and it was chosen because it is clear from long distances. However, other colors such as red, white, yellow and black are also used. White and bitter yellow colors are used around rivers and valleys, and orange and red colors are used on wide roads, and black is this color. It is in two hemispheres.

Constructors

The size of these balls varies from twenty inches to thirty-six inches and they weigh about 17 pounds (7.7 kg). In valleys and rivers and paths that end in deep water, their size cannot be less than 36 inches and 91 centimeters.
The smaller 20-inch (51 cm) cannons can only be installed on lines that are less than 50 feet (15 meters) above the ground or within 1,500 feet (about 485 meters) of an airport runway exit. The best material that can be used for these balls is fiberglass, but mainly aluminum is used and very high-quality coating colors that are resistant to sunlight and cold.

Installing the balls

These balls should be installed on the electric wire that has the highest height. In some cases, when there are several wires together at the highest point of the mast, the balls are installed on each wire in turn, maintaining the same standard distance of 200 feet. This method makes the weight of the balls evenly distributed throughout the wire.
So we found out what is the reason for putting the ball between the electric cables and what exactly are the use of these colored balls. It may be hard to believe that balls that look so small from a distance can prevent possible aerial collisions and damage to the structure of electric wires, but the fact is that the importance of using balls on electric wires is more important than what we think. It is much more.