Thread Number: 76696
/ Tag: Other Home Products or Autos
How traffic signals work (1937) |
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Post# 1005569   8/30/2018 at 23:29 (2,036 days old) by Supersuds (Knoxville, Tenn.)   |   | |
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This is a fun, short (9 minute) promotional film made by Chevrolet in 1937 about modern traffic signaling. Traffic lights hadn't been standardized, and there are pictures of two-, three-, and even four-light systems, as well as the ones with semaphores and even pointers and rotating faces rather like a clock!
It seems to have been normal then for the yellow light to come on before the red as well as before the green. I think this is still done in England, but I haven't seen it in the U.S. |
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Post# 1005578 , Reply# 1   8/31/2018 at 07:23 (2,036 days old) by washman (o)   |   | |
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There's tons of them on youtube, including the classic Signal 30. Another neat-o one is "a date with your family" A rather dark, almost film noir is "Habit Patterns", a fav of mine. |
Post# 1005579 , Reply# 2   8/31/2018 at 07:35 (2,036 days old) by Frigilux (The Minnesota Prairie)   |   | |
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Post# 1005766 , Reply# 4   9/1/2018 at 13:38 (2,034 days old) by ea56 (Cotati, Calif.)   |   | |
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I’ve seen this film before on You Tube. I really enjoy all of these old Jam Handy informational films. They are a real window to history. One thing I noticed was that there were no lines to designate the lanes where there were two or three lanes of moving traffic. I don’t recall ever seeing this anywhere before, even in the early 50’s when I was a kid. Can you even begin to imagine the pandemonium this would cause with todays aggressive drivers! Holy Mackerel, it would be a hot mess!
Eddie |
Post# 1005773 , Reply# 5   9/1/2018 at 14:51 (2,034 days old) by CircleW (NE Cincinnati OH area)   |   | |
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& her family in their '54 Chevrolet. I was surprised to see that Chevy had power adjusting seats by then. My Aunt Doris had a '54 Bel Air in green and white. I'm pretty sure the closing scene was filmed on US 66 in the Cajon Pass, CA area. CLICK HERE TO GO TO CircleW's LINK |
Post# 1005793 , Reply# 6   9/1/2018 at 17:52 (2,034 days old) by ea56 (Cotati, Calif.)   |   | |
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It surprises me that Gale Storm did a commercial film for Chevrolet at this time, as one of her show, “My Little Margie’s” sponsers was Ford I believe. But that may have been in 1955, after this Chevy film was made. In one of the episodes that I recall she was trying to get her father, Vern, played by Charles Farrell to buy her a new 55’ Thunderbird.
Watching this film also reminded me of the family car trips my family used to take around this time. There sure was a lot more room in those cars from the 50’s. And another thing I remember, is that my Dad always tied a Desert Bag to the front bumper, in case the car were to ever overheat in a remote area where there was no water. A Desert Bag was made out of burlap and canvas, with a screw top. You filled it with water and the wind hitting it while driving helped to keep the water cool. Eddie This post was last edited 09/01/2018 at 20:39 |
Post# 1005800 , Reply# 7   9/1/2018 at 19:52 (2,034 days old) by wayupnorth (On a lake between Bangor and Bar Harbor, Maine)   |   | |
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I wish all traffic signals had sensors in the road to know when a vehicle is trying to get out of a busy street. Around here, they are all on a sequence that every emergency vehicle screws up and its stop, etc and then green into an empty parking lot. They swapped ours over to LED and everytime it snows you have no idea who has the right of way as they wont melt.
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Post# 1005810 , Reply# 8   9/1/2018 at 23:52 (2,034 days old) by Supersuds (Knoxville, Tenn.)   |   | |
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According to this 1941 Chevrolet film (featuring a fairly rare 1942 Chevy), they did have sensors in the road even back then. Quite a complicated control box, all mechanical, of course, which is probably why they weren't very common!
Although much of the video is about marionettes and the notorious Chevy vacuum gearshift.;) |
Post# 1006632 , Reply# 9   9/10/2018 at 04:28 (2,026 days old) by speedqueen (Metro-Detroit)   |   | |
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That "magic-box" uses a rudimentary form of computer based on relay logic. If you think this is complicated, even into the 1990s much of the long-distance telephone switching here in the US was done by Western Electric #4A toll crossbar eXchanges, these machines used relay logic and devices called card translators to figure out how to route the call based on trunk availability, eXchange rank, and destination, even just setting up the route through the internal crossbar network was a complicated act. Then with more relays, it had to store and send forward the called number so the next office down the line could do the same.
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Post# 1006637 , Reply# 10   9/10/2018 at 10:14 (2,025 days old) by firedome (Binghamton NY & Lake Champlain VT)   |   | |
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As a small time signal collector, in all the signals we've restored we've used small IC-run controllers mounted inside the signal, though some collectors do rehab & use the original mechanical-cam controllers mounted in an authentic cabinet. A major signal maker was Crouse-Hinds, made in neighboring Syracuse. Here's a couple C-H signals, one a Model DT 4-way Beacon, one a "Deco" DT 3 light 3-way signal, both now operating in our garage and basement. Also had a big C-H DT 12 light 4-way, recently sold. All 1940s vintage. It's a fun hobby.
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Post# 1006728 , Reply# 11   9/11/2018 at 00:00 (2,025 days old) by Supersuds (Knoxville, Tenn.)   |   | |
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I thought there was a traffic light collector here! Those are very cool to see, thanks. And is that a 1970 Caprice in your garage?
Thanks for the info about the phone exchanges, Richard. They are fascinating but I've never known much about them. It used to be very noticeable when calling some exchanges out in the country how slow the connections were -- I assume they were using non-Western Electric equipment of some kind. |
Post# 1006729 , Reply# 12   9/11/2018 at 00:13 (2,025 days old) by ea56 (Cotati, Calif.)   |   | |
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When I went to work for PT&T in June of 1976, the first day of orientation they took us on a tour of the 6 story building in Santa Rosa, Calif. that housed not only the operator serivices, which I was hired to do, but also the equipment rooms that housed the switching eqiupment. The switching equipment looked just like this photo.
They showed us how a call went thru the equipment to be connected to the number dialed by the customer. And as I recall the switching equipment was pretty loud. The office I worked in handled all the calls for Sonoma Co.and most of the 707 area code. There were two other smaller toll offices further north in Fort Bragg and Eureka that also had switchboards, but we handled all the directory assistance for the 707 area code. Eddie |
Post# 1006735 , Reply# 14   9/11/2018 at 00:49 (2,025 days old) by speedqueen (Metro-Detroit)   |   | |
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Eddie, was your office a #1 Crossbar Tandem or a #4A Crossbar tandem? I remember you saying it handled CAMA (Centralized Automatic Message Accounting) likely from #1 and #355A step by step offices, as well as independent, non-Bell System offices. Rural offices needed an operator at the tandem to key in their number for billing, called ONI(Operator Number Identification) as opposed to larger better equipped offices that had ANI(Automatic Number Identification).
John, the reason for some calls to especially rural eXchanges taking longer than urban areas comes from the fact that more intermediate long-distance offices(tandems) were required to string together the connection as well as, in rural areas, and even some urban areas like Los Angeles, were primarily used with step-by-step equipment that was directly controlled by rotary dial pulses, no relay logic, no route translation, no support for TouchTone unless a pulse converter was added. These offices could only take dial pulse on inbound trunks from other offices as well, so in many cases the last 4, 5, or 7 digits of the phone number would be rotary dialed by a toll tandem office into the last office. This could be after a longer than usual route, too.
Non-Western Electric equipment was generally just as fast, Northern Electric NX1 crossbar offices were comparable, step was step, no speeding up or slowing it down. |
Post# 1006736 , Reply# 15   9/11/2018 at 01:21 (2,025 days old) by ea56 (Cotati, Calif.)   |   | |
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Richard, we had some direct dialed numbers that went thru the CAMA board and others that didn’t, so I’m not completely sure just what went thru the switch banks that they showed us, but I suspect they were the calls that by passed CAMA, and were automatically connected and billed. But, then again, the calls that went thru CAMA would have also needed to go thru the switching equipment too, but probably only to the point that they reached the CAMA operator, who keyed in the callers number for billing the call. Shortly after I left the company in late 1978, all the calls were direct dialed and by passed both CAMA and the cord board, I think this was around 1980.
When I worked in the toll office we connected all the coin phone calls, collect, person to person, overseas, mobile and marine, and hotel/motel calls, as well as the County Jail. It was quite and interesting job, and you really needed to be on your toes! Eddie |
Post# 1006741 , Reply# 16   9/11/2018 at 03:04 (2,025 days old) by speedqueen (Metro-Detroit)   |   | |
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Post# 1006774 , Reply# 17   9/11/2018 at 08:56 (2,024 days old) by firedome (Binghamton NY & Lake Champlain VT)   |   | |
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Post# 1006814 , Reply# 19   9/11/2018 at 17:28 (2,024 days old) by DaveAMKrayoGuy (Oak Park, MI)   |   | |
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I thought that the video was interesting... And you're right: driving habits have changed enough (for worst) that what can ANY signal device or devices do?
Last of all, are we forgetting to give proper credit for where this standardization for this device came from? (Detroit) And above all, and most importantly, let's also remember its inventor, or the one who perfected the device to look and perform as we know it: -- Dave CLICK HERE TO GO TO DaveAMKrayoGuy's LINK |
Post# 1006859 , Reply# 20   9/12/2018 at 00:21 (2,024 days old) by Supersuds (Knoxville, Tenn.)   |   | |
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