Google doodles to celebrate 101st anniversary of first electric traffic signal system

Google celebrates the 101th anniversary of the first electric traffic signal with a special doodle on its homepage. The animated doodle shows cars with the letters spelling “G-O-O-G-L-E” at a traffic signal in a black and white colour variant.

The first electric traffic light was developed in 1912 by Lester Wire, a policeman in Salt Lake City, Utah, who also used red-green lights. On 5 August 1914, the American Traffic Signal Company installed a traffic signal system on the corner of East 105th Street and Euclid Avenue in Cleveland, Ohio. It consisted of four pairs of red and green lights that served as stop-go indicators and each of them was mounted on a corner post. It was wired to a manually operated switch inside a control booth, the system was configured so that conflicting signals were impossible.

The doodle is quite interesting as it shows the older Model T built by Ford since 1908 at traffic signals taking a halt when the light turns red and buzzing away in a hurry when the light shines green. The illustration also showcases two small lanes and small compact houses are shown towards the back. Google’s doodle does shows the traffic light which has red and green light, but no orange indicator.

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Clicking on the doodle today will directly take you to a search page showing the results to the query, ‘when was the first traffic light installed’.