Answer: How did traffic signs come to be?

As you recall, a while back, a reader asked the question:  

1.  When did turn signals on AUTOMOBILES come to be a thing?  Can you determine when the first turn signals were installed on cars?  Who invented them? 

And that led me to wonder in turn... 

2.  When did signals on the ROAD come to be a thing?  Can you figure out when (and where) the first traffic lights were installed? 




This is a fun research Challenge--partly because it's interesting to see ALL of the different stories that are out there about traffic lights, but also because there are some key Search Lessons we have to remember to do this one well.  

As Rosemary, Ramón, Remmij, Debbie, Anne,  and Jon point out in their comments, these things were invented quite a while ago--it's very likely that the names would have changed over time.  

Like Ramón, I started with the query:  

     [ turn signals history ] 

which took me to the "Second Chance Garage" site and their story about turn signals (along with many of you, apparently).   In there, we learn that in 1909, a British man named Percy Douglas-Hamilton took out a patent on a "Device for indicating the intended movements of vehicles."  A quick Google Patent Search (that's a link to the Advanced Patent Search page) on his name gives us US patent #912831.  (incidentally, Percy Seymour Douglas-Hamilton lived at 6 Queen's Gate Gardens, London, at the time of the patent.) 

As you can see from the illustrations in the patent, the signals were in the shapes of hands.  The upheld hand would light up to indicate stopping, and the hands that point left and right would be back-illuminated to indicate a turn in that direction.  In reading the patent, it's clear that there would have been at least 3 different switches for the driver to use (one for stopping, one for each direction).  The lights would not have blinked.  

Continuing our search for the history of turn signals, I poked around the search results for a while, finding all kinds of interesting tidbits.  Including this piece from the New York Times ("Who made that turn signal?" July 12, 2013) that covers a number of signal introductions, and the relatively long amount of time it took for them to be adopted.  To quote from that article:  "Actress Florence Lawrence...developed an early version of the turn signal. “I have invented an ‘auto-signaling arm,’ which, when placed on the back of the fender, can be raised or lowered by electrical push buttons...”  But it didn't catch on, nor did the other inventions.  

Since this was so long ago, it's very likely that the terminology changed between now and then, so I did a quick Wikipedia search for: 

     [ Wikipedia turn signals ] 

and found that there was an Italian system of "trafficators" that dates back to 1908.  

"They [trafficators] first appeared in the 1900s, when they were actuated either mechanically or pneumatically. In 1908, Alfredo Barrachini in Rome had added electric lights inside the arms, that turned on as they extended, but operation was still by a cable system. Electric operation came in 1918 when the Naillik Motor Signal Company of Boston added electric motor drive." 

So the consensus seems to be that the inventions date to 1908, becoming more-or-less standard in the 1930s, with Buick introducing factory-installed turn signals (as opposed to after-market kits, which had been around for a while).  


Let's turn our attention to traffic lights:  When did THEY become a common thing? 

The obvious query: 

     [ traffic light history ] 

leads us to the Wikipedia article on the History of Traffic Lights.  The story told there is long and interesting, but the critical point is that on December 10, 1868, a semaphore system was put in place at the junction of Great George and Bridge Street in London, near Parliament.  Downtown London had so much horse and wagon traffic that a British railroad signal engineer designed the first traffic semaphore to regulate traffic movement. The device was the first traffic “light”, as lenses in the semaphores where lighted by gas lanterns at night. 

Armed with this information, I did a few queries: 

     [ 1868 semaphore system Parliament ]   (and similar) 

and found lots of other evidence to support this origin story.  One of the more interesting documents is from the Transportation Association of Canada annual conference, which tells this same story (and is a pretty reputable source). 

These sources also repeat the story of this first gas-powered traffic signal blowing up, injuring the policeman-operator.  

But for traffic signals as we commonly think of them today, I did a query for: 

     [ traffic signal history ] 

which led to several sources for the origin of the four-way, three-color traffic lighting system.  The red/yellow/green colors were used in the railway system of the day, and in 1920 in Detroit Michigan policeman  William L. Potts lighting scheme. As a consequence, Detroit became the first to use the red, green, and yellow lights to control road traffic.   See:  The Origin of the Green, Yellow, and Red Color Scheme for Traffic Lights  and the Wikipedia article above.    Traffic Lights Invented by William L. Potts  And for years afterwards, there was a period of great experimentation, including signals that copied some of the iconography seen on car turn signals as well.  

Image from FHWA.DOT.GOV

Search Lessons:  As I said, this wasn't a hard search problem (but it was extraordinarily interesting--I spent way too much time reading everyone's comments and clicking on all of the links.. .thanks!)  

But there are three lessons I want to point out today: 

1.  Wikipedia is a great place to start your research, but don't end there.  You know that (in general) the quality of the articles on Wikipedia is quite good.  But you should ALWAYS second source what you discover--especially when it's difficult, or unbelievable.  Be sure to avoid duplicative text--that is, whenever you see a word-for-word copy from the Wikipedia article, you can't really count that duplicate as an independent source.  

2.  Patent search is a great place to look for the start of a technology, but not its adoption.  There are many, many patents for technologies that began at one time, but then took decades to finally be adopted.  But that doesn't stop you from searching the Patents and discovering who did what, and what companies were involved.  You can often discover key players by looking at the patents.  

3.  When doing historical research, be very aware of the terms people used to describe things.  Remember the "trafficator" from above?  As you read through older documents, keep a sharp eye open for specific terms and phrases.  "Semaphore" and "signaling systems" kept coming up in my searches.  

A footnote:  One things that did NOT work for me (although I spent about 2 hours trying) is Book search.  I'm not sure why, but I just was not able to find a decent history of cars / automobiles that included any kind of discussion of the evolution of turn signals.  I tried "directional indicator" (and variations of that phrase, since that's the "classic" term used), but it just didn't work out.  

Did anyone else have success finding something in a book on this topic?  

Still searching! 

Search Challenge (2/11/15): How did traffic signs come to be?

This week's Challenge is another fun one that came across my desk.  It's a short, fun, historical romp through the fields of yesteryear.  

A while back, a reader asked the question:  

1.  When did turn signals on AUTOMOBILES come to be a thing?  Can you determine when the first turn signals were installed on cars?  Who invented them? 

And that led me to wonder in turn... 

2.  When did signals on the ROAD come to be a thing?  Can you figure out when (and where) the first traffic lights were installed? 


This is a fun one.  The search insight here will be something about what sources you choose to draw upon.  

How will you find out? 

When you know the answer (or at least, AN answer), be sure to write up a comment about HOW you found the answer.  What sources did you consult, and why those particular sources?  

Search on!  

New series: How-to-find...

I thought I might try something new here.

My plan is to start doing weekly (or biweekly, depending on how energetic I am) series of posts about "How To Find....<something>" (HTF)

The idea is that <something> will vary from week to week.

This week, I'm trying out my HTF notes about finding "Do it Yourself" information.

Please let me know what you think of this. I'm especially interested if you have additional things I should add to this "HTF DIY Information," or if you think the whole idea is a good one.

Do you have any particular topic you'd like to see in the HTF series?

Thanks.

-- Dan

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

How to find: DIY information 

Introduction

A common thing for people search for is “how to” information.  Sometimes called “do it yourself” (DIY),this kind of how-to-do-something is an important part of how people share their craft with others.  In the past few years, plenty of  web sites have sprung up to teach people how to sew, repair broken appliances, darn socks, or do thoracic surgery.  Once this kind of information was the area of hobbyists and obscure, difficult-to-find speciality magazines.  But now, the DIY and Maker movements have broken boundaries with some sophisticated DIY information that’s easily findable and widely available.  (Think about examples like  “how to build your own surfboard,”  “set up your own Minecraft server,” or “how to do fire spinning.”)  

Sometimes, getting the DIY information rapidly is critical--the water is gushing out of my plumbing NOW and I need to stop it instantly.  Most of the time, getting the DIY information is leisurely--you can learn how to fly a drone or build a Minecraft server pretty much any time.  In the get-it-to-me-now case, you don’t want to spend a lot of time futzing around… and that’s why you read this article now.  In the leisurely case, you probably want to find pretty reliable “how to” information so you don’t crash your drone on its first flight, or spent lots of time building a broken server.  

What is DIY content?  

DIY--or “how to do it”--information tells you (or better yet, shows you) how to do some particularly skilled thing.  Usually DIY info is for topics where it’s really not obvious how to do it (for instance, how DO you cut glass to make stained glass artwork?), mysterious (how do you make a fishing net out of a long string?), or involves steps where doing it wrong is really dangerous or expensive.

Lots of DIY content these days is in video form, although printed manuals and how-to guides are sometimes easier to use.  

While there are MANY kinds of DIY information, we’re going to look at just the most common kinds:

1. How to do a particular skill?  (Think twirling a fire baton, riding a unicycle, replacing car brake pads, or how to strum a power chord on your electric guitar at max volume.)  
   
2. How to fix something that’s broken?  (Your blender / TV / computer is broken.   Your socks need repair. Your kitchen faucet needs replacing.  What now?)
   
3. How to make something from scratch?  (Learn to bake a cake, build an igloo, make the best paper airplane, or write a strong resume.)  
   
4. How do you use a tool or piece of software?  (You need to learn how to fix up old photos using a software photo editor.  You’d like to learn how to use an awl correctly, without sticking it into your hand.)  

DIY searching: What do you need to learn?  

Luckily, the internet is full of people who have created tutorials and written-up how-tos for even the most obscure topics.  (Need to know how to take care of a pet spider?  There are tutorials written for you. Really.)  

Consider what you already know.  If you’re looking up DIY information about creating a new Mardi Gras costume, think about how much you already know.  Are you a sewer?  Do you have a closet full of needles and thread, ribbons and bolts of fabric?  Are you already an expert in the field?  

When starting a DIY search, first consider what kind of information you need.  If you’re a beginner, you’re going to need an overview or quick introduction to the field, if only to learn the language and to assess whether or not this is a good thing to start doing.  (It could be that you’re taking on something way over your head or budget.  That’s the point of up-front research:  Find this kind of thing out before sinking lots of time and money into a project.  Learning how to bake bread is fairly straightforward; learning how to bake a beautifully decorated cake involves more time, money, and practice.)  Check out the results all the way to the end.  (Don’t be surprised by a suddenly large amount of time you need at the end of the recipe when your dinner party is TONIGHT.)  

Once you’ve started finding your research, think about building up a collection of articles, evaluating which one(s) you think are the best.  Are they in language you understand?  Is it clear what’s involved?

Pro tip:  Always search for at least two or three different how-to articles (or vidoes) before diving in.  It’s often the case that one article will illustrate the method in a way that doesn’t make sense until you read another take on the same topic.  

DIY  search process

Start broadly:  When I’m doing a DIY search in an area I don’t know much about, I start broadly, usually learning a lot about the field before I dive into the specifics.  For instance, I know very little about knitting.  So if I wanted to get into knitting as a spare-time activity, I’d first look up more general articles about knitting to get a sense for what’s involved.  Use queries such as:  

    [ knitting overview ]

    [ introduction to knitting ]

    [ beginning knitting ]

I’d look at the high end to see the things I’d like to aspire to do one day, and then go back and look at the entry-level, or beginner’s level materials.  Can I get there from here?  

Dive in:  If I already know what I’m doing (or if I’ve learned a lot already), I’ll start to dive into mechanics of searching for teaching material.  I start broadly, casting out a wide net, and look for specialty sites along the way.  Let’s take the example of guitar playing:  

    [ how to play guitar ]

    [ guitar instruction ]

    [ guitar lessons ]

And if you know what style of guitar playing you’d like to pursue, add that in as well:

    [ how to play flamenco guitar ]

    [ gypsy guitar instruction ]

    [ jazz guitar lessons ]

Methods

In this section we cover 4  different methods for searching out educational content.  Broadly speaking, these methods are all ways to translate what you know about an educational need into search-engine specific strategies.  

1.  Use specific terms that are use in your interest area.  For instance, a cable weave is a kind of knitting stitch, while a cable braid is a way to manage all of those pesky computer cables under the desk.  A “caliper” is part of a car’s brakes, but also a machinists measuring tool.  You can use specific terms like this to get very on-target search results.  (Caution:  Be sure you know what your speciality term means!  Don’t search for “penny whistle” if what you’re really looking for is “recorder.”  Use [ define  ] to double check.)  

     [ cable weave knitting pattern ]

    vs.

     [ woven cable headphone ]

2.  Check out different kinds of media.  Remember that there can be many different kinds of content.  Often we turn to videos to find out how to do something physical (e.g., fix plumbing or learning a dance move), but printed documents can also be very helpful, especially when they’re specifically for the thing you’re trying to repair. Sometimes an exploded parts diagram that you can refer to is exactly the right thing.  Also look for images for your topic.  Electronics repairs often require a schematic diagram to help you understand how things are put together.  

    [ repair manual PDF Cuisinart blender ]   (will find PDFs for a Cuisinart blender)

    [ furnace schematic ]   (Image search)  

And while it might seem odd, remember that Books can be a useful place to learn how-to do something.  Be sure to checkout Google Books.  (Books.Google.com)  

3.  Look for Q&A or Forum sites.  A Q&A (questions and answers) or Forum site can be a superb source of information.  These sites are usually run by enthusiasts in that particular field to answer questions that come up for people.  

    [ forum tile repair ]

    [ Q&A bicycle repair ]

4.  Search for online communities in your interest area.  Many social media networks (Facebook, Pintrest, G+, Tumblr, etc.) have communities of people with a shared interest.  It’s simple to look on a social network for things like:

    [ piano enthusiasts ]

    [ woodworking ]

    [ surfing ]  

and get quickly linked into those communities, usually full of people who are more than willing to answer your questions.  

5.  Search for DIY content for your specific device / widget / gadget.  People love to talk about their particular gadget.  So it’s realtively straightforward to look for how-to information that’s keyed to a particular kind of device.  Notice:  Be sure the article you’re reading and the device you have are the same model (or release).  Nothing is more frustrating than reading an entire how-to article and then figuring out that this was all for the previous version of the device… that you don’t own.  

    [ GoPro Silver how to time lapse ]

    [  Photoshop CC tutorial ]

Specific DIY Resources  

There are many videos on YouTube for your interest area.  Be sure to look not just for individual videos, but also for channels that are on your topic.

Stack Exchange Q&A sites on many topics.  http://stackexchange.com/sites

Often a manufacturer will have a website that’s dedicated to supporting their gear.  (A couple of examples: GoPro http://gopro.com/support/, Seagate http://www.seagate.com/support/ , etc.)  

Popular DIY sites:  

WikiHow

instructables

eHow

HowToGeek.com

HowTo.com

MOOCs:  There are a great many MOOCs that will teach you specific things (e.g., how to code, how to do data analysis, how to play jazz guitar).  Although they tend to be longer format, they’re often a great resource for life-long learning.  

Lynda.com -- a commercial online education resource (costs real money), but some of their technical content is superb.  

Chilton’s auto repair manuals (available in many libraries)  

Don’t forget about university courses and classes at your local library.  

Answer: Who else is in that family tree...?

 

  

The family tree of Jesse in a Chartres window

Sometimes you're lucky ... 

and you just know what to search for--other times, it's not quite as obvious.  This week's Challenge was a little of both.  

Our questions for this week begin with the extended family of the co-discovers of the piezoelectric effect.

Getting started isn't hard: 

     [ piezoelectric effect discover ] 

(Or even just a simple [ piezoelectric effect history ]).  With either query, we quickly find out that this side effect (aka "pyroelectricity") of twisting or hitting certain crystals was first noted by Pierre and Jacques Curie in 1880 and reported by them in the Bulletin of the Mineralogical Society of France.  

1.  Who ELSE in the Curie family worked in the sciences?  What areas are they best known for?  (And, for extra credit, who in this extended family had an affair with his PhD thesis advisor's wife? Just to keep things interesting, her granddaughter and his grandson were married years later.)  Can you draw a diagram to keep track of who's-who in this remarkable family? 

 As you know, Marie Curie (aka Marie Skłodowska Curie) and Pierre gained fame with their work on radioactivity and radioactive elements in particular.  (Such as radium and polonium.)  Recognizing in each other an intellectual and soul mate, they married in 1895, and together they turned out a remarkable body of research in chemistry and physics, leading to their Nobel prizes, the Davy Medal and so on.  

They were also the centerpiece of this remarkable family of incredibly accomplished people. 

When I started tracking down the cousins, uncles, and granddaughters, I realized that someone else had probably done this already.  So my next query was for: 

     [ Marie Curie family tree ] 

And it's not hard to find a bunch of them by doing an image search.  

Here's one from ektalks.blogspot.com, which also features several other family trees of prestigious scientists (such as the James Clerk Maxwell family, the Alexander Graham Bell family, etc.)  

Curie family tree. By Ravi Singhal.

As you can see, Pierre and Jacques were brothers, both accomplished mineralogists and physicists.  Pierre married Marie, and they had two children, Irene and Eve.  

Marie with her daughters, Irene and Eve. (1908)
from: Dorset Life

Irene was quite a researcher herself, initially helping her mother, Marie, run x-ray units in the field during World War I, and then developing lab techniques for radiochemical research.  She also married smart, joining research forces with Frederic Joliot.  They then did significant research together and made major discoveries in chemistry and physics (e.g., creating radioactive nitrogen from boron--the transmutation of elements, the alchemists dream!).   

(Interestingly, Irene's PhD thesis advisor in physics was Paul Langevin. Paul's thesis advisor, in turn, was her father, Pierre Curie.   Remember Paul, he'll return in another role. )

Irene and Ferederic won a Nobel prize (chemistry) in 1935, while mother Marie won a joint Nobel prize with Pierre in 1903 (physics), and again, solo,  in chemistry (1911).  

Eve Curie, the youngest daughter of Pierre and Marie was a writer and pianist.  Her father, Pierre, was tragically killed when she was just 2 (run over by a horse cart), and she ultimately wrote a quite popular biography of her mother, Madame Curie, which won the third annual National Book Award for non-fiction.  The book was turned into a movie, with Greer Garson in the title role (and an uncredited Aldous Huxley as the screenwriter!).  

We have a couple other questions:  "Who had an affair with his PhD thesis advisor's wife?"  

Here, I liked Ramon's query:  

     [ Curie affair ]  

The Excelsior news of France,
with Marie Curie on the cover.  Scandal!

Following up on all of the pages this returns is a great way to spend an afternoon.  Not only do you discover that yes, Marie and Paul Langevin had a fairly torrid affair, but that it was splashed all over the front pages of scandal-driven newspapers of the time.  Even Einstein wrote to Marie telling her to ignore the trolls in the press about the affair.  

(I wish I could go into all the details of Marie Curie's life--but let me assure you, if you're looking for evidence that scientists can be as earthy and sexy as any pop star, check out any of the biographies of Marie Curie's life.  What a woman!)  

And of course, I learned by reading the biography of Paul Langevin that their Paul's grandson (Michel Langevin) and Marie's granddaughter (Hélène Langevin-Joliot) married to one another.  

Hélène is currently a professor of nuclear physics at the Institute of Nuclear Physics at the University of Paris and a Director of Research at the CNRS), while Michel Langevin used to work there as well.  

2.  It turns out that remarkable families seem to center on a particular theme or domain of interest.  The Bach family (for instance, Johann Sebastian, Carl Phillip Emmanuel, Johann Christoph Friedrich, etc etc) were synonymous with music from 1600 until 1800.  Can you find another remarkable family with 8 or more members who distinguished themselves in math?  (Or, if you prefer, some other area...)  

I liked Hans solution for this: 

     [ famous family mathematicians ] 

When I did this initially, I did the query:  [ family mathematics ] but was reminded that "family" is a technical term in mathematics, and has nothing whatsoever to do with people and family relationships.  So adding in the term "famous" is a great solution. 

As many Regular Readers pointed out, the Bernoulli family is an outstanding example of mathematicians and physicists that's impressive in its scope.  The Wikipedia article on the Bernoulli family is pretty amazing, listing 11 family members who made major contributions--including the Bernoulli differential equation, the Bernoulli distribution, and Bernoulli effect (for air moving through tubes of different sizes).  

Other Readers pointed out the Huxleys (a British family of which several members have excelled in scientific, medical, artistic, and literary fields), and the extended Darwin clan (two interrelated English families, descended from the prominent 18th-century doctor, Erasmus Darwin, and Josiah Wedgwood; the family includes Charles Darwin, at least ten Fellows of the Royal Society and several artists and poets).  


Search Lessons: 

This wasn't a difficult Challenge, but it was fun.  Who knew there could be such wonderful histories! 

For searching, this was largely about choosing the right terms, getting started, and then taking notes as you read along the way.  

1.  Use Images when searching for an inherently visual thing.  For instance, when I was looking for a family tree--Google Images took me right to a bunch of great examples of the Curie family tree.  

2.  Remember that you'll sometimes stumble across words that have unexpected technical meanings.  As I found in the above "family mathematicians" example, "family" has a meaning I hadn't expected, so I had to add in "famous" to limit the results to just those that are about famous, human families.  


Search on! 

Search challenge (2/4/15): Who else is in that family tree?

Family tree of Jesse. Chartres cathedral.

Sometimes you're lucky ...
and you're born into a family that has connections, lives in an interesting place.  Or perhaps you're born into a family has a few remarkable family members.  

Today's Search Challenge investigates one such family tree.  Your first challenge is to investigate the family of the brothers who first showed the existence of the piezoelectric effect. That's the physical effect behind many gas lighters installed on backyard barbecue grills, the quartz beating heart of many watches, and radar transponders.  Basically, when you squeeze certain crystals, they produce electricity that can be turned into sparks, or very slight mechanical movements that happen very precisely (as is the case for watches).  

It turns out that these brothers were part of a large, VERY interesting family that includes a number of Nobel prize winners. In fact, a remarkable number of Nobel prize winners.  

Today's questions are simple (#1), and slightly more complicated (#2). 

Caution:  You can easily spend hours and hours having fun with this.  I spent waaay too much time investigating the family tree.  This is a great jumping off point for hours of reading and investigation.  

1.  Who ELSE in the family worked in the sciences?  What areas are they best known for?  (And, for extra credit, who in this extended family had an affair with his PhD thesis advisor's wife? Just to keep things interesting, her granddaughter and his grandson were married years later.)  Can you draw a diagram to keep track of who's-who in this remarkable family? 

2.  It turns out that remarkable families seem to center on a particular theme or domain of interest.  The Bach family (for instance, Johann Sebastian, Carl Phillip Emmanuel, Johann Christoph Friedrich, etc etc) were synonymous with music from 1600 until 1800.  Can you find another remarkable family with 8 or more members who distinguished themselves in math?  (Or, if you prefer, some other area...)  

When you find your answer, be sure to tell us HOW you found the answer and post it into the comment thread.  What led you from clue-to-clue?  What questions did you ask yourself, and how did you answer them? 

(Note that we're all interested in what you really did, not what you think you should be doing.  If you asked someone, that's totally fine--just tell us!)  

Search on!