Google Celebrates the Birth of the Traffic Light

"(T)he inspiration of today’s Doodle (is) the electric traffic signal, which was first installed at the corner of 105th and Euclid in Cleveland, Ohio on August 5th, 1914," according to Google. "Doodler Nate Swinehart 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." Note the absence of yellow!

credit: Google Doodle archive. [Click to access video].

"The Doodle [video] shows the jerky and chaotic traffic flow of a century past — a feature intentionally added by illustrator Nate Swinehart, who wanted to outline that the yellow light wasn’t introduced until even later to regulate traffic flow more effectively," writes Joanna Plucinska for Time.

At the time, the electric traffic light was welcomed as it enabled better deployment of the city police, writes the Doodler.

Intersections in major cities were congested, and traffic was directed by police officers who stood in the middle of chaotic highways waving their arms--an unenviable beat, to say the least, especially during a blustery winter in the Midwest.

The Telegraph reminds us that the first actual traffic light was gas-operated, "unveiled in London in the late 19th century, and placed outside the Houses of Parliament," writes James Rothwell. "The project was short-lived after an explosion in 1869 when a leak in gas lines passing under the device exploded, and seriously injured the police officer operating the lights."

As for that yellow phase, it had a predecessor. "In 1920 bells were added to traffic light systems to alert motorists when the lights were about to change - they were later replaced with the amber light now seen on all traffic light systems today," adds Rothwell.

Will Google celebrate the birth of the roundabout next? Wikipedia traces the first roundabout to a 1907 installation in San Jose, Calif., not too far from the company's headquarters in Mountain View.