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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

American traffic light inventor (1887–1958)

Lester Wire<br>Wire at his high school graduation, circa 1908<br>BornLester Farnsworth Wire

(1887-09-03)September 3, 1887<br>Salt Lake City, Utah, U.S.<br>DiedApril 14, 1958(1958-04-14) (aged 70)<br>Salt Lake City, Utah, U.S.<br>Resting place<br>Salt Lake City Cemetery<br>40°46′37.92″N 111°51′28.8″W / 40.7772000°N 111.858000°W / 40.7772000; -111.858000Known forInventor of the electric traffic light

Lester Farnsworth Wire (September 3, 1887 – April 14, 1958) was an American police officer and inventor. He is credited with the invention of the electric traffic light in 1912.

A native of Salt Lake City, Utah, Wire worked as a traffic officer and later as a detective for the Salt Lake City Police Department (SLCPD). His first traffic light, a manually operated wooden model, was built while he was head of the SLCPD's Traffic Bureau and installed in downtown Salt Lake City in 1912. Though Wire's traffic light was originally viewed with curiosity and disapproval, the public gradually accepted it over time, and by the 1920s Salt Lake City had developed an automated traffic light system inspired by Wire's invention. Wire continued to work on traffic light designs throughout his life, and later fully redesigned his traffic light using a metal frame.

Wire never patented his traffic lights, and by the 1960s both of the original models had been lost. However, his work played a significant role in the development and adoption of the traffic light in the United States. Replicas of Wire's traffic lights have been built since the loss of the originals, and his contributions to traffic management are memorialized by the Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT).

Early life<br>[edit]

Lester Wire was born on September 3, 1887, in Salt Lake City, Utah, to Frank and Lida Wire. He had three sisters: Ora, Zelta, and Edith.[1] He and his family were Mormons.[2] In 1897, Lester and his sisters became sick with diphtheria, but Frank and Lida, believers in Christian Science, believed the best treatment for their children's illness was prayer, and did not have them seek treatment or self-quarantine; Frank would also later claim he believed they were only stricken with mumps. When 4-year-old Ora and 8-year-old Zelta died of their illnesses, a controversy erupted, and Frank was ultimately charged with manslaughter.[1]

Wire attended Salt Lake High School, where he was a football star and helped create the first high school men's and women's basketball teams.[3] In 1909, he was enrolled in the University of Utah as a law student, but found it too expensive and quit to become a police officer like his father.[1][3][4]

Career and invention<br>[edit]

Wire joined the Salt Lake City Police Department in 1910. An expert marksman, he competed in marksmanship competitions as part of the SLCPD's "revolver team", and was well-regarded by his fellow officers.[1]

In 1912, Wire was appointed as sergeant of the SLCPD's Traffic Bureau, the department's first traffic enforcement unit, at the age of 24 by Chief B. F. Grant.[3] In that position, Wire created the first traffic codes in Salt Lake City, although the public was divided on accepting them.[3] He also managed the officers sent to respond to traffic incidents and direct traffic at the city's busy intersections. The officers would stand on small platforms in the middle of each intersection, and would direct and time traffic each way. However, automobile traffic in this era was very chaotic and dangerous: motorists could drive however they pleased and could turn or stop wherever they wanted, and pedestrians in the street were "fair game" if they did not move out of their way fast enough.[3] Though the traffic light had been invented decades earlier in 1868 by J. P. Knight in London, England, that semaphore-based system was not a success and had actually killed the police officers operating it in an explosion,[5][6] and no cities in Utah, if not the entire United States, had any operating traffic light systems. Concerned about his officers' working conditions (they would have to stand in the middle of the road for long hours even in inclement weather), and realizing traffic and intersections in the city would continue to outnumber and overwhelm anyone trying to manage them alone, Wire sought to devise a better and safer way to control traffic.[3][4][7] With Matthew 5:15 as his inspiration ("Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all"), Wire envisioned the electric traffic signal.[1]

Wire's first prototype was a yellow wooden box with a pitched roof that contained red and green lights on all four sides. Wire dipped the bulbs in red and green paint to get their color as opposed to using colored...