Happy Birthday to Traffic Lights!

[SamWolves23]

Yesterday, Sunday 5th November 2017, marked the 90th birthday of the first set of traffic lights in the United Kingdom.

The first traffic lights were placed in Princes Square, Wolverhampton, on the 5th November 1927. To celebrate this, the set there to this day have the original white and black stripes up the pole, unlike others which are plain black.

I am only just putting this on now because I didn't realise until very late in the day yesterday and this is my first post, so I had to find where to do it .

[Steven]

Princes Square was oddly enough, also the first place in the United Kingdom where pedestrian barriers were installed.

One thing to remember though - the Princes Square lights were the first modern-style automatic traffic lights, not the first lights of any kind.

[Ruperts Trooper]

Yesterday, Sunday 5th November 2017, marked the 90th birthday of the first set of traffic lights in the United Kingdom.

The first traffic lights were placed in Princes Square, Wolverhampton, on the 5th November 1927. To celebrate this, the set there to this day have the original white and black stripes up the pole, unlike others which are plain black.

I am only just putting this on now because I didn't realise until very late in the day yesterday and this is my first post, so I had to find where to do it .

My vague recollection of student days in Wolverhampton in the '60s was that the lights were on a single pole in the centre of the junction rather than at each entry point - I did have other priorities in those days!

[fras]

I think it was Potsdamer Platz in Berlin that had the first set in Europe.

https://potsdamerplatz.de/en/history/

[WHBM]

The first in the USA are already over 100 years old. I visited the junction, in Cleveland Ohio, but it had nothing to commemorate it, unlike Wolverhampton, which has traditional black/white poles (DfT dispensation apparently needed). I believe they were just lights. The all-time classic Acme signal, with the semaphore arms, the bell that rang as they changed, and the lights (originally the lights were just for night time), much featured in old Hollywood cartoons, were a Los Angeles feature.

Did the Wolverhampton ones have a policeman operating them, or were they automatic ? Were they switched off at night ?

The Los Angeles Acmes were, like many US signals still are, switched off at night. California Jays, a blue/grey bird about the size of a blackbird, developed a habit of building nests in the semaphore operating slots overnight, which would jam the mechanism the next morning.

[RichardA626]

You can see some Acme traffic signals in Sunset boulevard.

I think it was Eureka (the 1980s Children's show) which showed the evolution of traffic lights, mentioning some early policeman operater gas ones which had a habit of blowing up!

[Focus 2]

Remarkable they were first installed in Wolverhampton and not London. Until 1985/6 they were still many elderly tin lantern sets operating in London with the WAIT and CROSS/CROSS NOW lanterns for pedestrians with black and white striped poles.

Seeing sets in Amsterdam with black and white poles was rather nostalgic.

[Steven]

Did the Wolverhampton ones have a policeman operating them, or were they automatic ? Were they switched off at night ?

The Princes Square article linked to upthread has the answer!


automatic

[WHBM]

I wonder when the last of the once-universal pneumatic strip operating pads were replaced by induction loops. I presume there are none left working. They were still pretty standard in the 1970s, and you could operate them at quiet times by jumping on them. There must have been an air compressor in the control box to keep them inflated. I recall a tracked bulldozer being driven along a street in Edinburgh which wrecked a couple of them.

[Ruperts Trooper]

I wonder when the last of the once-universal pneumatic strip operating pads were replaced by induction loops. I presume there are none left working. They were still pretty standard in the 1970s, and you could operate them at quiet times by jumping on them. There must have been an air compressor in the control box to keep them inflated. I recall a tracked bulldozer being driven along a street in Edinburgh which wrecked a couple of them.

I can recall them being difficult to operate for cyclists - needed to stop over them and use your foot - they don't bother complying with lights now!

[Bryn666]

I wonder when the last of the once-universal pneumatic strip operating pads were replaced by induction loops. I presume there are none left working. They were still pretty standard in the 1970s, and you could operate them at quiet times by jumping on them. There must have been an air compressor in the control box to keep them inflated. I recall a tracked bulldozer being driven along a street in Edinburgh which wrecked a couple of them.

It is defunct as normal loops are in position beyond it, but there is still such a strip (bounded by stone setts too no less) outside my office.

https://goo.gl/maps/UA62ShmNzLR2