7 interesting facts about traffic cones
Ah, the ubiquitous orange traffic cones. We see them almost every day, but how much do we really know about them? Here are seven fun facts about these bright cone-shaped wonders that help keep us safe on the road.
1. There are an estimated 140 million traffic cones in use worldwide.
2. Before the invention of traffic cones, dangerous points on highways were marked with wooden guardrails and wooden tripods. They are not easy to see and are often broken. They also have to be assembled for each project and are cumbersome to store.
3. In 1940, while working as a street painter in the city of Los Angeles, Charles D. Scanlon designed a hollow cone-shaped marker to keep cars from running on damp paint. In 1943 he patented a rubber traffic cone.
In his patent application, Scanlon explained that the three main goals of his invention were to provide a mark:
That's "easy to see, but no damage to the car if the car hits it"
"Can be stacked so that minimal storage space is required and easy to transport"
"It returns to an upright position after one glance and can be dropped from a moving truck and assume an upright position"
4. By 1947, rubber traffic cones were mass-produced, which meant they had been on the road for the past 73 years.
5. In 1961, British engineer David Moore built the first experimental plastic traffic cone according to the letter. He currently holds the Guinness World Record for the largest collection of unique traffic cones, which consists of 137 cones, including 2/3 of all types of cones.
6. About 1 million traffic cones are stolen each year in the United States. To help alleviate similar problems in the UK, police departments across the country occasionally hold "cone amnesties", giving citizens the opportunity to return "borrowed" traffic cones.
FYI, stealing or deliberately crossing a traffic cone is a misdemeanor, so always respect them.
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