Who invented the first traffic light?
We’d often heard Ohio boast of being home to the first traffic light (as well as numerous U.S. presidents), but we drew a blank when it came to the name of the inventor. Luckily, a search on “traffic light inventor” provided the details. As it turns out, Ohio’s claim is only partially true. The very first traffic light was a revolving gas lantern with red and green lights installed in a London intersection in 1868, before the advent of automobiles. A later version of the traffic light based on railroad signals was installed in Detroit, Michigan, in 1920. But we have Garrett Augustus Morgan to thank for the modern version and first patent of this traffic-stopping invention. The son of former slaves, Morgan was born in 1877 in Kentucky. He later moved to Cincinnati and then Clevel
