Google doodle celebrates 101st anniversary of ‘electric traffic light’

Google’s doodle today shows the traffic light which has red and green light, but no orange indicator, as carriages and vehicles stop and then zoom past it with the Google alphabets on them.

Wednesday’s Google Doodle offers a glimpse of what American traffic would’ve looked like 101 years ago, when the world’s first electric traffic light was installed. The American Traffic Signal Company installed a traffic signal system on 5 August 1914 in the corner of East 105th Street and Euclid Avenue in Cleveland which comprised of four pairs of red and green lights that were used as stop-go indicators.

The doodle has been created by Nate Swinehart who hearkens back to an earlier time with shades of black and white, and uses the background colors to make the red and green signals particularly luminous. It was wired to a manually operated switch inside a control booth, the system was configured so that conflicting signals were impossible.

Speedy traffic flows when the signal is green and halts when the signal turns red. The illustrations and the whole animation are pretty interesting.

The hand-powered predecessor to the electric traffic light was unveiled outside Parliament in 1868, so pedestrians could navigate the horse-drawn traffic.

By clicking on it, you go to a search page that shows you “when was the first traffic light installed”, along with links and answers to the questions.