Does anyone live, or know of, where they still use those old-fashioned traffic lights that have an “arm-sign” that swings out, and reads STOP, SLOW, GO in sync with the red, yellow and green lights?
I think they are kinda cool. I see them in old movies.
I don’t know if they’re still used anywhere, but I can tell you where you can find one: The Western Reserve Historical Society, in Cleveland, OH. This is because Garret Morgan (second-most patents in U.S. history; believed to have save more lives with his inventions than any other inventor in history… Sorry to brag), the inventor of the signals, was a Clevelander.
I think it’s still functional, too.
A black Clevelander.
I’m glad someone pointed that out. It would be unfortunate if Dopers came away with the impression that Garret Morgan was a normal Clevelander like anyone else. Good call, ishmintgas.
Zarathustra
Yes, Morgan was black. So what? It always seemed to me that it was an insult to say that Morgan was a great black inventor, or G. W. Carver was a great black botanist, or whatever. It sounds like you’re saying, Well, yeah, he was great for a black man. Morgan was a great inventor, by any standards. Carver was a great botanist, period.
I, for one, was pleased that somebody mentioned that Morgan was black. I’m white and I’d automatically assumed the guy was white, too. Now I know something interesting I didn’t know before.
That’s why I log on to this board.
Just my own view, but I think it’s one thing to say, “hey, we’re also proud to note that Morgan was black”, and on the other hand simply give a bold italic insertion as if the original poster had somehow erred by not including Morgan’s race. I share Chronos’s feeling that simply inserting “black” as a qualifier would imply some diminishment of the man’s achievement.
MagicalSilverKey -
I have not seen the type of traffic signal you mention, but there is an upside-down traffic signal (green on top, red on the bottom) in Syracuse, NY - an Irish section of town called Tipperary Hill, not too far from the zoo and Coleman’s (restaurant). From what I was told, it was installed with the green on top/red on the bottom as a tribute to the Irish in the area. When DOT tried to install it correctly, the neighborhood kids would throw stones and break the lenses until it was replaced with green/yellow/red, which it stays to this day. There is even a bronze monument on the corner to “the stone throwers” - three kids in patched clothes, aiming at the traffic light.
Funny thing is, there is no warning sign for people who may have red/green colorblindness, since this is so out of the ordinary. Anyone else seen a traffic light like this?
I’ll look for your light, you look for mine. Okay?
Well, we could always put it into historical context:
Morgan was frequently ignored by the press because of his color. Shortly after he had developed a working gas mask, an explosion in the tunnel being dug beneath Lake Erie for a new Cleveland water system killed several men and left several others trapped. High levels of noxious fumes prevented rescuers from reaching the trapped miners. Someone who knew that Morgan had been working on a gas mask called him. He and his brother raced down to the site, donned his (as yet unproven) masks, and went into the tunnel, bringing out everyone who had survived to that point.
The next day, Cleveland’s several newspapers, while making much of the excitement of the story, mentioned only in passing that “two colored men also helped in the rescue attempts.” No name. No reference to the gas mask. No mention that the Morgans had performed the actual rescue.
The whole issue of mentioning Morgan’s color is tricky for the reasons noted above.
On the one hand, calling him a “black inventor” seems to put him in a separate category, as if he had done little, but should be noted because, as a black man, he “at least” did something. (A poster, here, once tried to claim that Carver was glorified merely for being black, when all he did was mess around with peanuts–which, of course, ignores the salient point that there is only agriculture in the South because someone found a way to rejuvenate the soil after decades of harmful cotton and tobacco farming, and Carver was the one who saved them.)
On the other hand, it is a poignant point of U.S. history that Morgan never attained wealth despite his many inventions. His patents were often ignored, and he never had the capital to fight the infringements. As a black man, he found it extremely difficult to find a lawyer to take on his suit. When he was awarded damages, the award was lower than comparable damages awarded to white men with similar cases. His color certainly played a role in *his * life and our history.