Who Invented The Traffic Light?

Even though we’re long past the invention of the car and the first appearance of traffic regulations, it’s interesting to know how it all began. To think that some 100-150 years ago, people considered carriages to be more effective than the first auto prototypes is an interesting thought. And let’s not get started on who was the first person to come up with an automobile, as it’s a book-long debate. 

Instead, let’s focus on the traffic light. Perhaps this topic is not as engaging as engineering the first vehicles, but traffic laws were always there for a reason. Without them, it would be utter chaos on the road, and if you’ve ever wondered who should be credited for the modern traffic light iteration, we are ready to provide answers.

The First Steps

Despite what you might be thinking, horse carriages were responsible for many traffic jams back in the day. For instance, busy London roads filled with these and pedestrians made for a certain degree of confusion and chaos. That is why John Peake Knight, a British railway manager, suggested adapting a railroad method to solve the issue. 

Railroads employed a semaphore system, meaning there was a pole with extended arms, indicating if there was a passing train. However, the inventor adapted it by putting the signs “stop” and “go” on the semaphores during the daytime. At night, however, red and green lights would be used alongside gas lamps to illuminate the signs. The only downside was that it needed a police officer to operate it. 

Nonetheless, it was installed for a test run on December 9, 1868, near the Houses of Parliament and the Westminster Bridge, but the results were harrowing. The police officer scheduled to operate the traffic light was badly injured due to a gas leak. One of the lamps exploded and badly burnt him, causing the inventor and other people involved to drop the project.

Developments Further Down The Road

After the incident with the first invention, a varying degree of patents started to appear in the 1900s. People liked the idea, but it needed some improvements before it was widely implemented to regulate traffic.

In 1910, an American inventor, Ernest Sirrine, opened the race by introducing an automatically controlled traffic signal in Chicago. His version used two non-illuminated display arms arranged as a cross that rotated on an axis with the signs “stop” and “proceed”.

Just two years later, a police officer in Salt Lake City, Lester Farnsworth Wire, stepped in as well. His version of the traffic light looked like a four-sided birdhouse on a tall pole, which was placed in the middle of intersections and utilized the power from overhead trolley wires. However, a police officer still had to operate it.

1914, however, saw the first electric traffic light. It was designed by James Hoge in Cleveland, and he even received a patent in 1918. His traffic light featured two illuminated words, “stop” and “move”, mounted on a single post on every four corners of the intersection. The police and fire departments also had control over them during emergencies.

In 1917 William Ghiglieri patented the first traffic signal with red and green lights in both iterations: manual and automatic. Three years later, a Detroit police officer, William Potts, added a yellow “caution” light into the mix and improved upon his predecessor.

However, in 1923 Garret Morgan, the first African-American to own a car in Cleveland, came up with the mother of inventions. He used a T-shaped pole with three positions. Apart from the “Stop” and “Go”, the system also stopped traffic in all directions to give drivers time to stop or cross the intersection. Because his invention was also significantly cheaper to produce, Garret Morgan sold the rights to the traffic light for $40,000 to General Electric. 

Thanks to all these contributions, traffic lights finally became widespread and eventually found increased usage in both America and Europe. And, of course, came to be as they are today.

Improving The Traffic Light

But even though it’s fun to go down memory lane, it’s even more interesting to think about the future. And, considering recent technological developments, the changes will be so drastic that we will likely not even recognize traffic lights in the coming years. 

One of the ideas is to capitalize on self-driving cars, removing the traffic lights from the formula altogether. All you need is to develop software and hardware that allows the vehicles to recognize each other on the road. This eliminates the need for stopping and enables the autos to slow down in time to pass intersections like clockwork. 

Another plan is to implement AI technology and make the traffic lights adapt to changing conditions. In the works by Rapid Flow Technologies, this idea could reportedly reduce travel times by 25%, reduce waiting times and decrease emissions. 

Summary

The traffic light started as a simple invention based on people’s needs, and now it’s a complex template that can be improved upon. It went through a long journey of innovation and development, helping people abide by traffic laws along the way. Even though we don’t know what it will look like later down the track, what’s sure is that the future is just as exciting as the history of its invention. 

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