William potts hijacker
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William Potts Edit Profile
officer
William Potts, a Detroit police officer, is credited with inventing the modern, three-lens traffic light in Detroit in 1920.
Background
William Potts was born in Bad Axe, Michigan.
Career
The 1900 census lists Potts as 17 years old and a police officer By 1920, Potts had become the "superintendent, signal person police" for the city of Detroit. Charged with finding a way to control traffic and with the old system of police directing traffic increasing outmoded (there were some two-color signals, with green and red lights already), Potts invented a "yellow" or "amber" light which removed the need for police to switch the signal.
The first four-way traffic signal tower in the world was located at the Woodward and Michigan Avenue intersection in October 1920.
The tower was manually operated and had 12 lamps, three in each direction. In December 1920, signals were added along Woodward Avenue at Grand River, State, Fort and Congress, but all were controlled fro
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William Potts (inventor)
William Potts (May 1883 – 1947) was a Detroit police officer who is credited with inventing the modern, three-lens traffic light in Detroit in 1920. (A gas-powered, two-lens, red/green traffic signal was invented in London in 1868 by John Peake Knight, though after a short test installation, traffic lights were not seen again in the U.K. until 1929.)[1]
Biography
William Potts was born in Bad Axe, Michigan. The 1900 census lists Potts as 17 years old and a police officer. By 1910, he was married to Grace (Baker) Potts, and they subsequently had 4 children. Potts became the "superintendent, signal person police" for the city of Detroit.
The old system of police directing traffic had become increasingly outmoded; two-color signals, with green and red lights, already existed, but they did not leave drivers sufficient time to stop at high speeds. Some municipalities experimented with leaving the green on for a few seconds after the red was illuminated, to caution the driver that the right of way was soon to change. In 1917, Potts dev
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(Biographical Series)
William Wesley Potts (b. circa 1816 - d. 1875)
MSA SC 5496-930
Escaped from Baltimore City, Maryland, 1850
Biography:
William Wesley Potts escaped from slavery in 1850. When Dr. William J. Williams advertised for Potts's capture, he stated that the fugitive was likely trying to get back to his native Queen Anne's County. Williams also added that Potts was supposed to be freed in six years.1
Potts's fate after his escape remains uncertain. However, the 1870 census for Queen Anne's County recorded an African American farmer named William Potts, who owned $1,000 in real estate. The census recorded William Potts's age as fifty-three, making his birth year about 1817.2 He lived with his wife, Sarah A. Duckery,3 and their children, William, James, John E., Joseph, Abraham, Thomas, Caroline, Emma, Henrietta, and Charlott. Their oldest child, William, was born in 1851,4 the year after William Wesley Potts had escaped from slavery. William Potts' birth year, his residence in Queen Anne's County, and the birth year of his
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