What the hell are those things and why would I want one?
They’re called gazing spheres. I believe they became popular during Victorian times as a garden ornament. Looking into one you can see yourself surrounded by the garden.
You probably wouldn’t want one though.
Dang, I could’ve sworn Cecil did a column on this but I can’t find it.
I always heard them called “witch balls” or “hex balls”, but evidently nowadays they’re called “gazing” or sometimes “glazing”, or “mirror” balls or globes.
http://www.mainstreetseedandsupply.com/gazingglobe.htm
As for their purpose, well, who better to ask than experts? 
http://sacredspiral.topcities.com/garden/2garden.html
Heh.
Well, thanks. Won’t have none of that stuff in our neighborhood. I surreptitiously removed the offending “sphere” or whatever the hell that thing is under cover of darkness. It’s currently wrapped in double-layer foil and some quick-rite fast setting cement. It’ll get dropped at th’ lake here in a day or two when th’ moon ist right. That’ll learn em’. Gyalldarn Athiest Commies anyhoo. I’ve forwarded their names to the appropriate agencies.
My grandmother used to say the reflection kept out birds and squirrels that would otherwise eat whatever it was that she didn’t want them to get at. If the reflection does do that, a mirrored sphere would be hard to beat for picking up the reflection from the whole area.
I think their popularity declined because they don’t repel the two-legged pests who think it amusing to smash the gazing spheres into shards.
I have seen Victorian era grave markers (in Alexandira VA, for instance) that feature highly polished granite spheres of about the same size on them at about the 3 to 4 foot height that the glass gazing spheres would be set at. I expect they had been intended for something like the same purpose, although one friend says they were made like that “so the yankees wouldn’t sit on the gravestones”.
He’s taken the bait, proceed with the plan…
Regarding the theory that they’re witch balls, I believe that I’ve read the witch supposedly is “trapped” by her reflection, which keeps her from doing anything bad to the house’s inhabitants.
Don’t know how many witches each ball can handle, though. I would suppose it gets cluttered in there after a while.
Now that the ground has been broken (CSX, Fleet bank, and another company) have been sued for having participated in the enslvement of Africans 145+ years ago, can we expect a flood of such lawsuits?
For example-can I , as an American of Irish descent, sue the british governrmnt for damages done to my forbears (who perished during the “potato famine”)? Can we expect the descendents of the American Indians to sue the government of Spain for genocide?
Who will pay to defend against these ridiculous lawsuits? Will judges actually admit these legal monsters in the making?
Um, Ralph, what the hell are you talking about?
Methinks ** Ralph** is a newbie who doesn’t know how to start a new thread.
Another story attached to gazing balls is that they were used by Victorian parents to keep an inobtrusive eye on their daughters and their young suitors, while they sat together in the garden.
I have seen gazing balls made from old bowling balls, sprayed liberally with metallic paint. They aren’t as shiny, and surpass the “real” thing for tackiness factor, but they sure wouldn’t get smashed!
How well do these gazing spheres stand up to hailstorms? Are they very common in places where hailstorms are frequent?
It’s just a palantir. Doesn’t everyone have one?
Particlewill, perhaps Ralph is saying that with all these lawsuits, the descendants of those witches trapped in gazing balls will feel the need to sue as well? 
if you want a durable gazing ball, try making one out of a bowling ball you can cover it by gluing on pennies or flat marbles or if you want a shiny one paint it with metallic paint
Ah, you need the STAINLESS STEEL version:
12" mirror ball, steel, $31.99
http://www.waterscapesweb.com/orbs.html
Then you just have to prevent all the high-voltage enthusiasts from stealing them for use on top of Tesla coils and VandeGraaff machines…
dwc, my Grandmother lives in Missouri, where they have hellacious hailstorms. As I recall, none of the gazing balls ever broke from a hailstorm. I don’t recall what she did to keep them from being blown over by wind, though.
bbeaty: thanks! To take it a step further, woulldn’t a Tesla coil or van de Graaf generator in the garden be the best anti-squirrel device ever? (Next to a .22?)
You people have balls?
All I know about these gazing balls is that they are often very poorly incorporated into the gardens I see.
I too thought the idea was to gaze into them, so they should be somewhere in a planned garden. More often than not, I see them horribly misplaced - no garden around -and wonder just what the heck the homeowner was thinking. But that goes for alot of what homeowners do, I guess.