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Green Is For Go

How a little story from childhood led to the invention of traffic lights.

By Anu SundaramPublished 3 years ago Updated 3 years ago 5 min read
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Green Is For Go
Photo by David Maltais on Unsplash

Greg was hiding behind his mother's dress in the sewing shop. His mother could not afford to send him to a school with her meagre hourly wages. Greg did not mind being at the sewing shop among machines, gears, threads. He created stories in his head in which his only and most precious wooden car was the hero. And up until a week ago, Greg and his car had been successfully vanquishing all villains.

But now, his heroic car could not cross the aisle because of the new shop supervisor and the villain - Mr Fox, who had replaced the friendly but old supervisor. Something about Mr Fox frightened Greg, who hid behind his mother's dress under the sewing machine. Finally, his mom got tired of having him underfoot all the time and told him a secret. The secret was whispered in his ear over lunch so that Mr Fox cannot hear it. The mystery was that Mr Fox was afraid of anything green - so if he saw anything green, that was a signal to mean to he could cross the aisle. And similarly, if he saw anything red, he had to stop and wait until he spotted green colour.

Greg's creative spark

It was a silly tale that his mom made up to get him out of her hair literally, but a whole new world of colours had opened up for Greg. He and his wooden car were able to go on adventures ranging from the entrance to the closets at the end of the hallway. Mr Fox never said anything as long as he spotted green colour.

A FEW YEARS LATER

Greg was a successful businessman in Cleveland, Ohio. Thanks to his mother, who had spent all her savings and most meals to educate him. And Greg had managed to impress his teachers with his keen eye for details and creative talent. He developed a knack for figuring out things which made him valuable in the eyes of business people and gave him prestige in society. And the first business he bought was the sewing shop his mom had worked in and revamped it with an automatic needle. Instead of manually moving the needle, electricity now ran through the machine lifting the needle up and down. With this slight improvement, he made a lot of money, acquired other businesses, and created more innovations.

But in his busy life, he kept ignoring his mom, who implored him to come and visit her. She was old and had trouble moving or seeing. Greg had all intentions of going, but she lived on the other side of Cleveland, and the traffic jams were a nightmare. With so many people getting motor cars and only a traffic operator with a STOP/GO hand sign was inefficient. So, he kept putting away the task to see his mother despite her urgent pleas.

After a strongly worded message from her that she was on her deathbed, he decided to visit her. Just as he had expected, there was an accident, and he was stuck at a crossroad for hours. Usually, it did not take this long, so he got out of his car to investigate so that he could see his mother. And he did see his mother - sprawled on the road in front of a motor car - the driver was arguing with the policeman on whose fault it was. His mother must have gotten fed up waiting for him and decided to travel across town to meet her son. He ran over to his mom and cradled her head in his lap, mumbling sorry. Tears were running down his eyes, making everything blurry. There were loud noises around him, but all he could hear was the thumping of his heart as he felt the cold, lifeless body of his mom.

He must have fainted because he woke up to dim soothing green lights in the hospital. And for some reason, his mother's words, 'Green is for go,' kept repeating in his mind in a loop. And at that moment - Green light, his wooden car, dash across the aisle and his mother all flashed through his eyes. And he knew how he could make up for not meeting his mother when she was alive. He was going to invent a device that prevented such mindless deaths. He was so energized by the idea that he pushed the nurse who tried to restrain him to his bed, stating the doctor had not seen him yet.

Semaphore traffic light system

He ran out of the hospital to his home in his hospital gown. And for weeks, he tried all sorts of devices, read about how railways used signal flags. He finally stumbled on an article about a British railway engineer who invented the first gas-fueled traffic lights based on the railway system of flags called - the semaphore method. However, gas lights were prone to injuries, and his method was soon retired as it was considered too dangerous. From his experience with the sewing machines, Greg came up with the design that used electricity to light up the signals and timed them automatically. And given his place in society, he pitched his idea to General Electric, who loved it so much that they bought his rights for a whopping $40,000. His only condition was that the first traffic light should honour his mother.

In 1914, the world's first electric traffic signal was placed on Euclid Avenue and East 105th Street in Cleveland, Ohio – giving safety the green light.

Short Story
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About the Creator

Anu Sundaram

My vision in life is to be a Better Version Of Myself Every Day. And my purpose in life is ‘Learn, Grow, Inspire and Contribute’.

Everything that I do ties into this vision - including my writing. Check out anumorris.com for more info!

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