| Tuesday, 18-May-2004 00:00 |
|
Snap Shot - Traffic Light
|
|
:arrow: TRAFFIC LIGHT
Even during the horse and buggy days, traffic in big cities was often heavy. Police officers had to be stationed full time directing traffic at busy intersections. The world’s first traffic light came into being before the automobile was in use, and traffic consisted only of pedestrians, buggies, and wagons. Installed at an intersection in London in 1868, it was a revolving lantern with red and green signals. Red meant "stop" and green meant "caution." The lantern, illuminated by gas, was turned by means of a lever at its base so that the appropriate light faced traffic. On January 2, 1869, this crude traffic light exploded, injuring the policeman who was operating it.
And with the coming of automobiles, the situation got even worse. Police Officer William Potts of Detroit, Michigan, decided to do something about the problem. What he had in mind was figuring out a way to adapt railroad signals for street use. The railroads were already utilizing automatic controls. But railroad traffic traveled along parallel lines. Street traffic traveled at right angles. Potts used red, amber, and green railroad lights and about thirty-seven dollars worth of wire and electrical controls to make the world’s first traffic light. It was installed in 1920 on the corner of Woodward and Michigan Avenues in Detroit. Within a year, Detroit had installed a total of fifteen of the new automatic lights.
At about the same time, Garrett Morgan of the United States realized the need to control the flow of traffic. A gifted inventor and reportedly the first African American to own an automobile in Cleveland, Ohio, he invented the electric automatic traffic light. Though it looked more like the semaphore signals you see at train crossings today, it provided the concept on which modern four-way traffic lights are based.
In memory of Garrett Augustus Morgan (1877-1963), father and inventor of the electric automatic traffic light. The sound effect or noise from the traffic light during the "lintas" or cross sign is for blind people (to cross the road).
http://www.spreadfirefox.com/?q=affiliates&id=8074&t=86(Get Firefox) - The Browser You Can Trust
|
