When I first saw this photo of the intersection of East Colorado Blvd and South Marengo Ave, Pasadena in 1936, I didn’t think there was much of interest to talk about. But then I spotted that lollipop-shaped contraption in the lower-right-hand corner and investigated further. Turns out it was a ‘banjo traffic signal’ and was used in LA county in several towns. It worked by rotating a disk inside a double-sided sleeve where the upside-down other direction (the STOP or GO) was covered until it rotated into view.
A banjo traffic signal in “GO” mode:
Susan M says: “That little horizontal bar below the circle had red and green lights in them as well as the red/green flipping go and stop signs in the circle part of the signal. I think the lights only worked at nighttime on most of them. They had a clang type of bell as well when the signal changed from go to stop.“
When I first saw this photo of the intersection of East Colorado Blvd and South Marengo Ave, Pasadena in 1936, I didn’t think there was much of interest to talk about. But then I spotted that lollipop-shaped contraption in the lower-right-hand corner and investigated further. Turns out it was a ‘banjo traffic signal’ and was used in LA county in several towns. It worked by rotating a disk inside a double-sided sleeve where the upside-down other direction (the STOP or GO) was covered until it rotated into view.
Thanks for sharing. That’s new to me also.
In the rectangular box below the disk do you think that they were lights?
in the lower photo one appears to he illuminated.
I’m not sure, Jerry, but that would be my guess.