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The Traffic Light:Enhancing Transportation
in the Roaring 1920’s
By the1920’s,
there werealready
new and improved forms of transformation—ships, airplanes, cars, and of course,
trains. Transportation provided not only a means of getting from place to place,
buta new andinnovativeway of life.
Thanks to Henry Ford, the inflexible American industrialist, the assembly line and conveyer belt furthered mass production. Now, not only were
more meat packages produced, but more automobiles also—and at low prices too. An easy
enough job working at one of these assembly lines, women found work here and contributed
money to supporting their families.
But what was one to do about the increasing chaos on the streets? There
was a huge concern about the ever increasing number of vehicles
simultaneously moving on the streets.
It seemed as if this disorder would lead to a number of different issues. It caused more accidents and was more difficult
and dangerous for pedestrians who were trying to cross the road.
Police stepped in in their attempt to bring safety, order, organization to the flow of
traffic between automobiles and pedestrians. But these police, along with many other Americans of this time, knew
there had to be a simpler way…
…and Police Officer William L. Potts of Detroit, Michigan discovered that
solution. Railroads were using automatic controls, so he adapted these signals for
the streets to. Red; amber; and green railroad lights plus thirty-seven dollars worth of wire and electrical controls
made the world’s first 4-way three color traffic light.
In the year of 1920, this
newly conceived
traffic light was
installed on the corner
of Woodward
and Michigan
Avenues in Detroit.
By 1921, the city of Detroit had installed a
total of fifteen of these new automatic
lights.
Three years later, in 1923,
Garrett Morgan, the first African-American to own an automobile,
invented the electric automatic traffic light
. Realizing that Ohio was in need of control over the flow of traffic, he applied for a patent to produce inexpensive traffic lights. This had three positions (stop,
go, and the third halting all traffic to allow
pedestrians to cross the street more safely) on a
T-shaped pole.
"This invention relates to traffic signals, and particularly to those
which are adapted to be positioned adjacent the intersection of two or
more streets and are manually operable for directing the flow of traffic... In addition, my invention contemplates the provision of a signal which may be readily and cheaply manufactured." Garrett
Morgan
America was not the only country to adopt the traffic light. Other countries began using
the traffic light to enhance
transportation and promote safety.
1927: England’s first use of automatic
experimental traffic lights in
Wolverhampton.
These inventions in the 1920’s allowed for more transportation enhancement. More traffic lights were installed all over the world, in
addition to new traffic
signals. Now, pedestrians know when it is safe to cross the street, and cars know when to yield
to them. Worldly, safety on the streets has improved greatly.
Not only did pedestrians feel safer crossing the road when they knew no
traffic was approaching, but drivers felt more safe taking comfort in knowing that
there was an organized system preventing many accidents. This opened up many other doors for transportation and road methods of keeping everyone feeling secure and under control in the
hectic time period of the Roaring 1920’s. Thanks to this time period,
driving and being on the streets today has become a safer activity.