How traffic signals work (1937)

[supersuds]

That is interesting, Dave, but the patent doesn’t support the statement that he “perfected the device to look and perform as we know it.” Very inventive guy, though!

Figures I was wrong about the model year of the Caprice. I like that series of big Chevies. Does it have THM or Powerglide?

 

[iej]

I'm just amazed that sensors and intelligent junctions have been around for so long.

Seems smart cities have been around for longer than I thought and those light control technologies were quite widely rolled out in North America and Europe, with several companies competing with different systems.

It's incredible to think how much was done with nothing but relay logic, long before even transistors were common, nevermind microchips and computers.

We almost forget that a world of machines and complex systems existed before software.

It's even becoming difficult to imagine a non digital washing machine at this stage, yet we had fully automatic machines controlled with cams and relays for most of the 20th C.

 

[cornutt]

Our family lived in Chattanooga in the 1970s. There is a suburban town next to Chattanooga called East Ridge. In the mid '70s, East Ridge still had some of its traffic signals hung with green on top. A friend of mine who was red/green color blind could not drive in East Ridge because he could not rely on the position of the lamp to tell him what color it was.