Thursday, December 10, 2015

Traffic Light Day



December 10, 1868 the first traffic light was installed outside of the British Houses of Parliament. It was installed to control traffic on Bridge Street, Great George Street, and Parliament Street. The original idea came from railway engineer J.P. Knight and was constructed by the railroad signal engineers Saxby and Farmer.

The first traffic light resembled a railroad signal. There were two gas lamps, a red and green lamp that were used for night time use. The gas lamps were held by semaphore arms on a pillar. Because they were gas lanterns the needed to be operated by a police constable. The constable would turn a lever for the gas lamp to fac the right direction of traffic

The first electric traffic lights would make their appearance by 1912. The electric light would be invented by Lester Wire. The first only used red and green lights. It was James Hoge that would design the traffic light that would have both red and green lights but with a warning buzz that would alert the drivers of changing light. It was a police officer by the name of Potts to create the first four way three color traffic light in Detroit Michigan. Now there a great variety of traffic lights.


helpful resource here

17 comments:

  1. So cool! I didn't know about this :D

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  2. Okay then, I guess there is a day for everything so I am going to make my own day too...LOL

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  3. I didn't even realize the long history of the traffic light. It certainly morphed over time!

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  4. I love learning little tidbits of history. I am a trivia addict LOL

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  5. Wow! It's true that you learn something new every day, I didn't know this x

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  6. I didn't know about this. Good to know.

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  7. how fun is this? I knew nothing about the history of traffic lights

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  8. Nice! I had no idea where or how they originated. I hope this is a Jeopardy question someday :)

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  9. I always thought old traffic lights and railroad lights looked similar!

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  10. great post! I didn't know about the history of traffic lights. Thanks for sharing

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  11. Wow, that's really cool. This is the first time I've heard of its origin. Nice stuff.

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  12. I never knew about this. I love learning ne things

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  13. I didn't know they originated here in the UK! Thank you for sharing. Kaz x

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  14. LOL That is an interesting fact about the day.

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  15. Well this was interesting to learn. I had no idea, but now I do so great to know! - Jeanine

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  16. I didn't now the history behind them. The original does look like a train crsossing sign a bit, doesn'it? Coo.l. :)

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  17. I didn't now the history behind them. The original does look like a train crsossing sign a bit, doesn'it? Coo.l. :)

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