Good evening, everybody. This is Food for Thought.
Thoughts if it were you, this is Neogentrics.
How is everybody doing today? Now, there's a
lot of different things that's going on in life,
and everyone has a lot of different things that
they like to talk about. And, you know, I cover
a lot of stuff from A to Z. Y 'all know I cover
life -related things, life lessons. stupid questions,
things of that nature. I mean, it's just stuff
that people either think about, stuff they don't
know, stuff they'd like to know. So I wanted
to create a whole new segment of Did You Know?
You know, everyone has at least like a small
segment of this, so I figured why not throw it
in there, cover a topic that, you know, different
topics that people haven't covered yet. Things
like, you know, how do I put this? Like the traffic
light for one you know who invented the traffic
light I mean There's a lot of the rumors out
there. There's a lot of different things out
there stating. You know it was this guy. It was
that guy No one really knows so I figured why
not go ahead and cover it That and other stuff
so from now on every now and then I'm gonna have
a Did You Know? or Who Invented? Yeah, we'll
do that. Excuse me. Couldn't breathe for a second.
I'm going to have a Who Invented That segment,
and we'll pick random topics, and I'll go ahead
and cover those. It'll be short. I'm not going
to make it long. But we're going to start with
the first major one, like I mentioned a second
ago. I've had a lot of people ask me this, like,
you know, Traffic Light's a great invention.
Who invented it? So we're going to take a short
break here, and then... We'll go into that. All
right, everybody. Okay, we're back. So we're
going to go into that question like I mentioned
before. Who invented the traffic light? There's
the question for today. First things first. Traffic
lights, or traffic signals, or whatever you want
to call them, they're typically located where?
Like on the corner in cities and towns? You know,
they're at like almost every intersection now.
And the color lights are red, yellow, and green,
respectively. Whether upside down, right side
up, sideways, or diagonal. I've seen those. Uh,
they indicate when it's safe to cross an intersection,
whether walking, driving, riding, biking, flying.
Yeah, we have those for flying and for trains,
too, surprisingly, despite them not exactly,
well, I mean, planes have more free path and
trains have a more direct path, but I, you know,
I digress. More interesting, though, is that
the first traffic signal, uh, how do I put this?
Well, let's start with this. The first instance
where it became needed that we needed something
of that nature to direct traffic was back in
the 1860s where traffic jams were a problem even
before the invention of the automobile. Keep
this in mind. Horse -drawn carriages and pedestrians,
crowded roads, especially in London, were a thing.
The British Railway... What was this guy's name?
John Knight, I do believe, suggested adapting
a railroad method for controlling traffic because
they have a system that they use for that. Railroads
used a semaphore system with small arms extending
from a pole to indicate whether a train could
pass or not. John P Knight's adaption of this
the semaphores would you know signal when to
stop or go during the day and at night red and
green lights would be used using gas lamps that
would illuminate the signs at night and a police
officer would be stationed next to the signals
to operate them okay so I mean gas lamps were
a thing we didn't have light bulbs at the time
yet that comes later obviously so we had Railroads,
we had train signals. We had stop and go signals
in the past. We had no way of controlling traffic
until later. This is also where that game Red
Light, Green Light comes from. So there's another
did you know fact right there. The world's first
traffic signal was installed December 9, 1868,
I believe, at the intersection of Bridge Street
and Great George Street in London Borough of
Westminster. It was near the House of Parliament
and the Westminster Bridge. It was a success,
just to shorten that, and Knight predicted there
would be more to be installed later on. However,
a month or so later, a police officer controlling
the signals was badly injured when a leak in
the gas main caused one of the lights to explode
in his face, and then the project was declared
a public hazard and was immediately dropped.
So, public safety was always an issue, even in
the past. Next day, uh, let's see. What happened
after that incident? Oh, yeah. After that, about
four decades passed before traffic signals began
to grow in popularity again, mainly here in the
United States. And as more automobiles started
to hit the road in the early 1900s, they saw
several patents being filed, each with different
innovations for the same basic idea. You know,
trying to simplify it where it was a lot safer
to use, obviously, so it doesn't blow up in somebody's
face. And it wasn't until 1910 when Ernest Serene,
an American inventor, introduced an automatically
controlled traffic signal in Chicago. His signal
used two illuminated display arms arranged as
a cross that rotated on an axis. According to
a lot of different texts that I've managed to
read, the signs read... Stop and proceed. Those
were what they used. The first electric traffic
light using red and green lights was invented
in 1912 by a man named Lester Farnsworth Wire.
He was a police officer in Salt Lake City, Utah.
At least to my knowledge. I do believe it was
in Utah. Anyway. Wire traffic signals resembled
a four -sided birdhouse mounted on a pole. It's
placed in the middle of the intersection and
was powered by an overhead trolley wire. A police
officer had to manually switch the direction
of the light stuff. So we're still in a manual
system at this point. Okay, we're back. Here's
where things get interesting. You're gonna love
this. Okay, now we're gonna move forward It's
not that we've gotten to the part where we're
basically making electric traffic lights Let's
go into that for a second here. You're gonna
love this The credit for the first electric traffic
signal usually goes to a guy named James B. Hogan
The system based on his design was installed
back in August 5th, 1914 in Cleveland. He received
the patent for the system in 1918 though. He
had filed his application in 1913. His traffic
signal used the alternating illuminating words
stop and move installed on a single post on each
of the four corners of the intersection. The
system was wired such that police and fire departments
could adjust the rhythm of the lights in case
of an emergency, obviously. The guy named William
Gil... Gil Greer, forget it. His last name is
kind of hard to pronounce. I remember the name.
I could spell it, but it doesn't help with the
pronunciation. He was from San Francisco. He
patented the first automatic traffic signal that
used the red and green lights that we know of
today in 1917. His design had the option of being
either automatic or manual, though. So he had
the option to change it back and forth, you know,
without having to mess with the system itself.
In 1920, a guy named William Potts, he was a
Detroit police officer, developed several automatic
traffic light systems that included the three
-color signal. He added in the yellow caution
light that we know of today. So at this point,
now we have a basic red -green -yellow light
system, or red -yellow -green light system, and
it's automatic to a point, and it's electric.
Now, here's where things get interesting and
I had to do a little extra research to find this
out. It wasn't until 1923 where a black man named
Garrett Morgan patented an electric automatic
traffic signal. He was the first African American
to own a car in Cleveland on top of that, by
the way. He also invented the gas mask. So there's
another tidbit for you. Morgan's design used
a T -shaped pole unit. with three positions besides
go and stop. The system also first stopped traffic
in all directions to give drivers time to stop
or get through the intersection. Another benefit
of Morgan's design was that it could be produced
inexpensively thus increasing the number of signals
that could be installed. He sold the rights to
his traffic signal to GE or General Electric
as we know it today for $40 ,000. I had to look
that up. I forgot how much it was up until this
point. The first electric traffic light in Europe,
though, was installed until 1924 by Potsdamer
Platz in Berlin. But according to Marcus Welz,
the CEO of Simons Intelligent Traffic Systems
here in the U .S., the five -sided traffic light
was mounted on a tower and was primarily manual.
with some automation, which only required a single
police officer to manage it. A replica now still
stands nearby as a popular tourist attraction
over in Europe. But, you know, that was the first
time an electric system was installed in Europe.
It was basically created here in America. So...
Where was I going with this? Oh, yeah. Pedestrian
signals didn't actually become a thing until
later. They began being included with the traffic
signals in 1930, and according to the U .S. Department
of Transportation, a walk -don't -walk signal
was first tested in New York in 1934. It even
used an upright palm to indicate stop, so that's
always been a thing. They also had the version
of it that said walk and don't walk. John S.
Allen, an American inventor, filed one of the
earliest patents in 1947 for a dedicated pedestrian
signal. His design had the pedestrian signal
mounted on a curb level. It also was proposed
that the signal could be, it can contain advertisements.
In his application, he explained that the word
stop and go could be followed by the word for,
which in turn would be followed by a brand name,
if you'd like. They were advertisements at first,
but they had good intentions for it. Though the
design initially was kind of creepy to look at.
The traffic signals continue to improve as time
went on. Many traffic signals are intelligent
now and can monitor real -time traffic situations,
including direction, volume, density, and as
well as prioritize public transportation systems.
A guy named Welts said that Siemens is working
on a project in Tampa, Florida to implement the
connected vehicle technology which allows the
system to directly communicate with the cars
and the DPS system. Basically, it made it so
that communications are sent from over 40 traffic
lights to cars equipped with the technology to
receive the basic safety messages either on the
rear mirror or in the in -dash computer. That's
currently where we're heading now. So with that
being said, with the future being designed around
self -driving cars, and that's a thing that's
not going to die anytime soon, with these new
technologies coming in and the recent scenario
being published by MIT Sensible City Labs in
2016, the PLOS -1 is one of the few... Beta testing
systems that basically allows for the traffic
light system to connect to the onboard computers
of the vehicles It's coming so it knows how many
vehicles are sitting at the intersection so it
knows how much time it needs to take for before
its transition and also how many pedestrians
is on the street by you know interconnecting
the signals and seeing where everyone is so for
those out there that's not a fan of interconnected
systems people being connected interconnected
to their phones or such that nature keep in mind
this is where we're going but that's basically
who invented the traffic light its history and
how it got to where it's at now we're still proceeding
with a lot of the culture and such as it's continuing
to grow so we'll see where it goes Alright everybody,
that's about it. So, to sum this up in a nutshell,
and yes, I know that was a bit of a long episode,
I apologize for that. It wasn't until 1923 that
a black man named Garrett Morgan patented the
first electric automatic traffic system that
we see nowadays. It was created by an African
American, though he doesn't seem to get a lot
of credit for it. The original inventor of the
traffic signal was the guy named J .P. Morgan,
I'm sorry, J .P. Knight. Back in the 1900s. Early,
early 1900s. Though he's still given the credit
for creating the first traffic signal, the first
electric automatic system wasn't created until
later by this guy, Garrett Morgan. It helps to
know a little bit about your history and, you
know, here and there, and find out stuff that
you didn't already know. It's sad when I ask
people, do you know who created this or created
that, and they can't seem to remember, or they
automatically give it to someone who doesn't
deserve it. I don't fawn over ignorance, I assure
you, but I do like to help people who don't know.
Why stay ignorant when you can learn, you know?
That aside, if this series does well, and I'm
going to do a couple more episodes like this
of Who Invented or Did You Know? If you have
any topics, suggestions, you know, send them
in. I'll be happy to cover them. And go over
a little bit of the history of the item and who
actually invented it. And give the credit to
who actually, you know, deserves it. Despite
what the world may think. Wars are fought on
both sides, but the history is written by the
winners. But that doesn't mean that someone isn't
copying or writing down the history of those
who lost. And if that means I have to cover it
myself, I will. So with that, again, this has
been Food for Thought. Thoughts if it were you.
Thank you guys for listening. I hope you enjoy
the rest of your day. If you like what you hear,
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