BRIAN Morton asked where the first set of traffic lights were in Huddersfield.
Austin Holroyd said, "I think they were at the bottom of High Street, because most of the south and west-bound buses had to turn right there on their way to the Holme and Colne Valleys and Meltham."
However, as I reported on Monday, Examiner librarian Stephen Carter came up with a cutting dated April 1, 1933 from the Weekly Examiner, that said the first "electrometric" robot system came into operation at the junction of Northgate and Northumberland Street.
Quite so, accepts Austin, but makes the point these were the first electrometric robot lights.
"A pad in the road controlled changing the lights as cars crossed it ... hence the name robot."
And Austin adds, "However, I'm pretty sure the lights at the bottom of High Street were not worked by a pad in the road, but by a pre-set switch, hence they were not robots when first introduced."
He undoubtedly has a point and I went in search of more information.
The first traffic lights to be used in the UK were installed outside the Houses of Parliament in 1868 to control horse drawn traffic. It was a revolving lantern with a red-lensed gas lamp on one side and green on the other and had semaphore arms. It was operated by a policeman.
Electric traffic lights were developed in America and introduced into Britain in 1927 in Wolverhampton.
The "electrometric robot" system seems to be yet a further development from the original which worked off a time switch.
