Stop Light

Alfred has only one traffic light where Alfred University and Alfred Tech meet. Traffic lights became something society needed in big cities. Several people had invented a three position traffic light but Garrett Morgan was the first to apply for a patent and receive one. William L. Potts of Detroit, Michigan invented the one of the first traffic light which only cost him about thirty seven dollars in materials. Because Potts was a government employee and because of this he could not patent his invention of the traffic light. Around the same time Garret Morgan invented a electric traffic light in Cleveland, Ohio. Morgan sold his patent for the invention to General Electric Corporation which has become a major manufacturing company.

Morgan left his family farm while he was still a teenager. In Cincinnati, Ohio Morgan hired a tutor in English grammar because his education had till that point ended after elementary school. Morgan moved to Cleveland, Ohio and worked as a sewing machine repair man. Because of this Morgan opened his own sewing machine repair and equipment shop and two years later a tailoring shop with machines he made himself. He also started a newspaper called the Cleveland Call. With Morgan's success he was able to purchase a home and an automobile.

Traffic lights where a way for police to keep track of traffic without having to be standing on the corner. This made the roads for pedestrians, vehicles, and wagons more orderly and reduced crashes.

Work-cited:

"An American Inventor." The Garrett A. Morgan Technology And Transportation Futures

Program. Federal Highway Administration. Web. 14 Feb. 2010.