Electric Traffic Light Turns 101 Year-Old Today

Everyone of us has to face the traffic lights in one way or the other every day. Irritating sometimes, but highly helpful, these electronic signals help in preventing any mishap on the road and avoids the jamming of traffic. In this fast pacing age of today, sometimes we forget to cherish the importance of some utterly beneficial things. So, lets have a look at the history of traffic lights and how they evolved majestically over time.

The electronic traffic light was introduced exactly 101 years from today. The most popular search engine, Google has modified its Doodle especially for today to celebrate the 101th anniversary of these useful lights. The Doodle depicts the first ever traffic light to be installed and put into use in Clevland, Ohio, on August 5 1914.

The first traffic lights were planted outside the Parliament houses in London in the late 19th century. However, the mechanism was completely different. These used to be gas operated and there was no involvement of any electricity. The Police officers had to operate the lights in order to control the flow of traffic crossing on Bridge Street, Great George Street and Parliament Street. However, the idea had to be dropped later when a gas line exploded and seriously injured the officers operating it.

Thirty years later, the concept of traffic lights changed forever. These now included electric red and green lights and the credit goes to Lester Wire in 1912, due to which traffic lights began to go viral in the US shortly after. Later, in 1920, bells were also added to traffic light systems to alert motorists when the lights were about to change - they were later placed with the amber light now seen on all traffic light systems today. The most majestic traffic light specimen was designed by the French sculptor Pierre Vivant in 1998 and was eventually called as the Traffic Light Tree. The eight-metre tall tree consisted of 75 sets of lights and became a famous tourist spot in London.

Traffic lights of these days are highly sophisticated and advanced. These now have distinct units for different vehicles like cars, bicycles, etc. Some also have an interruptible feature to allow emergency vehicles to go first. These comprise of transmitters as well that communicate with the nearby traffic light to further ease up the process and save the life of someone. Almost all the countries use traffic lights today and these have a big role in easing up our life to a great extent.