MISummerFun23 - MI Inventions - Traffic Lights Traditional Cache

Welcome to the second MI_SUMMER_FUN series. The 2023 season focuses on Michigan Inventions. Hopefully you enjoy our series. This year, we have 16 total caches; 15 traditional hides plus a bonus cache. To find the bonus cache, be sure to take note of the bonus information at each of the stops. Be sure to record the punctuation and capitalization correctly. At the end, plug everything into the phrase shown below and the bonus coordinates should be revealed!

This cache is located in the Wittenbach Center. The trails are open daily from dawn to dusk. Please stay on the trail until you are near the cache - we don't want to disturb a nature area and we don't want you to end up in one of the swamps that are out here.

Was the traffic light invented in Michigan? Well....the answer is kind of a long one! In 1868, a system to regulate traffic was needed around the houses of Parliament in England. Gas-powered lights were used by police officers who would manually light up the red or green light. It was used for about a month and then the gas line under the city street exploded, injuring a policeman and the system was abandoned. The system was tried again in the 20th century in the US. A police officer would blow his whistle to alert people that he was about to change the light. The red light has the word “STOP” on it and the green light contained the word “GO”. In 1912, a Salt Lake City policeman, Lester Wire, invented the first electric traffic light. The light, however, still needed to be changed manually.

Hmm, so far, this doesn't involve Michigan at all! Well, meet Detroit police officer William Potts. He invented the first three-color, four-sided traffic light. He placed timers in the lights so that they would all change at the same time and he mounted his lights on a tower. So, in 1920, Michigan was at the forefront of the traffic signal and Officer Potts timeless design (with some modern tweaks) is in use to this day. How cool that when we teach little ones their colors by observing the color on the traffic light we're using a Michigan invention!