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N0KFQ > TODAY 05.08.10 17:34l 56 Lines 2648 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 13742_N0KFQ
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Subj: Today in History - Aug 5
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From: N0KFQ@N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA
To : TODAY@WW
Aug 5, 1914:
First electric traffic signal installed
The world's first electric traffic signal is put into place on
the corner of Euclid Avenue and East 105th Street in Cleveland,
Ohio, on this day in 1914.
In the earliest days of the automobile, navigating America's
roads was a chaotic experience, with pedestrians, bicycles,
horses and streetcars all competing with motor vehicles for
right of way. The problem was alleviated somewhat with the
gradual disappearance of horse-drawn carriages, but even before
World War I it had become clear that a system of regulations was
necessary to keep traffic moving and reduce the number of
accidents on the roads. As Christopher Finch writes in his
"Highways to Heaven: The AUTO Biography of America" (1992), the
first traffic island was put into use in San Francisco,
California in 1907; left-hand drive became standard in American
cars in 1908; the first center painted dividing line appeared in
1911, in Michigan; and the first "No Left Turn" sign would debut
in Buffalo, New York, in 1916.
Various competing claims exist as to who was responsible for the
world's first traffic signal. A device installed in London in
1868 featured two semaphore arms that extended horizontally to
signal "stop" and at a 45-degree angle to signal "caution." In
1912, a Salt Lake City, Utah, police officer named Lester Wire
mounted a handmade wooden box with colored red and green lights
on a pole, with the wires attached to overhead trolley and light
wires. Most prominently, the inventor Garrett Morgan has been
given credit for having invented the traffic signal based on his
T-shaped design, patented in 1923 and later reportedly sold to
General Electric.
Despite Morgan's greater visibility, the system installed in
Cleveland on August 5, 1914, is widely regarded as the first
electric traffic signal. Based on a design by James Hoge, who
received U.S. patent 1,251,666 for his "Municipal Traffic
Control System" in 1918, it consisted of four pairs of red and
green lights that served as stop-go indicators, each mounted on
a corner post. Wired to a manually operated switch inside a
control booth, the system was configured so that conflicting
signals were impossible. According to an article in The
Motorist, published by the Cleveland Automobile Club in August
1914: "This system is, perhaps, destined to revolutionize the
handling of traffic in congested city streets and should be
seriously considered by traffic committees for general
adoption."
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