The development of modern traffic is very closely linked with the development of lighting. Petroleum and in particular carbide lamps ushered in the era of widespread use of car and motorbike headlights, bicycle lamps and train lights.
The history of traffic as we know it today is shaped crucially by the traffic light. The first traffic lights, invented by J. P. Knight, were set up on the junction of George Street and Bridge Street near the Houses of Parliament in London on 10 December 1868. They were equipped with railway signal arms and operated by hand by a traffic policeman. A gas light on top of the lights displayed a red or green light at night, depending on the position of the signal arms. It remained in use for four years. The first electrical lights to use red and green lamps were installed in Salt Lake City, USA in 1912. The world’s first regular traffic lights are said to be the ones installed in Cleveland, USA on 5 August 1914. And the first three-coloured traffic lights appeared in the USA too, in New York and Detroit in 1920.
In Europe, the first three-coloured traffic lights were installed in Paris and Hamburg in 1922. They spread quickly through the major cities and even Moscow and Leningrad had their own traffic lights in 1930. Smaller cities and towns did not catch up until much later. Basel, for example, did not have its first traffic light until 1952 (and in the same year the first parking meter in Europe).
Pedestrian lights have existed in Europe since 1933 (Copenhagen). In 1952 the first automatic pedestrian lights were installed in New York. The modern pedestrian lights with their pictograms first appeared in East Berlin in 1961, with the “little traffic light man”.
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The DR. FISCHER Group is a renowned specialist for traffic signal lamps. We manufacture and sell lamps for stationary and mobile traffic lights and variable message signs for road traffic, but also lamps for vehicles.
Because of the high safety requirements involved, the highest quality demands are made on materials and manufacture. The lamps must be resistant to temperature variations and vibrations and a high, constant luminous flux must be guaranteed throughout their lives. Another important criterion is economic viability. The lamps must have a long life, work efficiently in terms of energy and be easy to change.
DR. FISCHER traffic signal lamps fulfil these requirements.
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