Jewish Invention Myths: The Traffic Light
One of the more unusual jewish invention claims that I have come across is the claim that jews invented the ‘traffic light’. (1)
Digging into this I found a reference from the ‘Jewish Museum of Maryland’ that is likely the origin of the claim:
‘Charles Adler, Jr. invented the world's first traffic-actuated traffic signal in 1928.
Inventor of transportation safety devices including the sound-activated traffic signal; telegrapher and assistant station agent for the Maryland and Pennsylvania Railroad.’ (2)
Now it is obvious that Charles Adler Jr. didn’t ‘invent’ traffic lights but rather invented an improvement on the electric traffic light given that Lester Wire in 1912 in Salt Lake City, Utah and these were first installed in Cleveland, Ohio later that year (3) with traffic-actuated traffic light systems and lights being invented in the mid-1920s and first installed for use on 16th Street in Washington D.C. in 1926. (4)
I eventually figured out that Charles Adler Jr. invented was a ‘sonically actuated traffic light. To operate it, drivers pulled up to a red light and honked their horns to make the light change.’ (5)
So, Charles Adler Jr. actually invented a traffic light people honked at to make their presence known: he didn’t actually invent the traffic light.
There goes another ‘jewish invention’ myth!
References
(1) https://boulderjewishnews.org/2009/an-informal-list-of-jewish-inventions-innovations-and-radical-ideas/
(2) https://jewishmuseummd.pastperfectonline.com/byperson?keyword=Adler%2C+Charles%2C+Jr.
(3) https://theinventors.org/library/inventors/blasphalt.htm
(4) Clay McShane, 1999, ‘The Origins of Globalization of Traffic Control Signals’, Journal of Urban History, Vol. 25, No. 3, p. 388
(5) https://magazine.wsu.edu/web-extra/traffic-signals-a-brief-history/