Car Culture
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ by Mark Llewellyn ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
History Of The Traffic Light On December 10, 1868, the first traffic lights were installed outside the British House of Parliament in London by railway engineer, J.P. Knight. They resembled railway signals, with semaphore arms and red and green gas lamps for night use. Unfortunately, it exploded on January 2, 1869, killing the policeman operating it.
Leons Transmission’s Cassie Stewart, a traffic stopper in her own right, displaying a newer LED traffic signal
4-way beacon
The modern electric traffic light is an American invention. In 1912, a Salt Lake City policeman, Lester Wire, invented the first red and green traffic light. The color of the traffic lights representing stop and go were derived from those used in maritime rules to govern right of way; port being red and starboard being green.
In the 1920’s another police officer, William L. Potts, took the idea even further. Based on the concept of railroad signals, he adapted their use to create the world’s first four-way, three color traffic light. This new light was installed at the corner of Woodward and Michigan Avenues in Detroit. Around the same time, Garrett Morgan of Cleveland Ohio, a gifted inventor, created an electric ‘automatic’ traffic light. He sold the patent for his traffic light to General Electric Corporation, thus beginning their monopoly of the traffic light business. To learn more about traffic lights and see a large variety of models, I recommend visiting www.trafficsignalmuseum.com. Single face traffic signal on display at Leons Transmission Car Corner at the Murphy Auto Museum www.LeonsTransmission.com
Single face traffic signal
4-way traffic signal