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Turn, Turn, Turn: A History of Turn Signals · Ridiculous History

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Speaker 1: Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio. Welcome back to
0:27
Speaker 1: the show, Ridiculous Historians. Thank you, as always so much
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Speaker 1: for tuning in. Let's give it up for a superproducer,
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Speaker 1: mister Max Williams. Oh oh oh. Sometimes Turn, Turn, turn, Baby.
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Speaker 1: You ever noticed that sometimes like the sound of your
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Speaker 1: windshill wipers or the sound of your turn signal will
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Speaker 1: start to kind of have the sense of synchronizing with
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Speaker 1: your music, only for it to like, you know, drift,
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Speaker 1: of course, because it's just that golden moment where everything's
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Speaker 1: in alignment. But then entropy returns right and you might be, uh,
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Speaker 1: you might be on the road waiting to take a
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Speaker 1: left at a light and notice that your turn signal
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Speaker 1: is in time with the car in front of you.
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Speaker 1: That's a neat, little bit of synchronicity, a little cloud
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Speaker 1: Atlas moment for everybody in traffic. I'm Ben your Noll,
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Speaker 1: and we're continuing our a bit of an auto theme
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Speaker 1: in recent episodes because we are going to talk about
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Speaker 1: turn signals. Noel. In an earlier episode of Stuff They
1:32
Speaker 1: Don't Want You to Know, I was I would say
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Speaker 1: pretty pretty forthright about the stereotype of BMW drivers and
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Speaker 1: you know, not using tone signal chronically. Yeah, I don't
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Speaker 1: think they know about them about I don't understand why
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Speaker 1: they in turn singles on BMW's at this point. Well, okay,
1:52
Speaker 1: Devil's advocate here. Perhaps it's installed in an inconvenient or
1:55
Speaker 1: out of the way location. Is that possible, fellas? Is
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Speaker 1: that maybe maybe I think I've been in a beam,
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Speaker 1: or it's in the same spot. It's maybe it's under
2:04
Speaker 1: the spare tire in the trunk, you know. But we're
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Speaker 1: we're going to talk about turn signals today. You know,
2:13
Speaker 1: depending on where you live in the world and what
2:16
Speaker 1: your experience with cars is like, you may say, oh,
2:20
Speaker 1: everybody uses turn signals, or you might say, hey, I
2:24
Speaker 1: don't even think they're that necessary. We have strong opinions
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Speaker 1: about this, but as some of us might be surprised
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Speaker 1: to learn, electronic turn signals did not come around until
2:36
Speaker 1: well after the invention of the actual car. People were
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Speaker 1: kind of just you know, gesturing, well, yeah, I mean
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Speaker 1: it's it's the same kind of system that cyclists use.
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Speaker 1: And I would argue, I don't know if this has
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Speaker 1: ever happened to you. You know, it is possible to
2:50
Speaker 1: get cut off by a cyclist, okay, And I know
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Speaker 1: that they get the right of way and they have
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Speaker 1: their own land and everything, And I always try to
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Speaker 1: be very courteous and respectful to cyclists, but sometimes I'll
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Speaker 1: blast in front of me with their hand out, as
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Speaker 1: though I could have registered that as a warning. Because,
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Speaker 1: after all, a signal of any kind is meant to
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Speaker 1: imply intent and to communicate intent of what you're gonna do.
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Speaker 1: So it doesn't really work if you just kind of
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Speaker 1: blast past somebody with your signal on if they didn't
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Speaker 1: have a chance to clock which direction it was pointing.
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Speaker 1: Well said, because a signal, I love that you're pointing
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Speaker 1: that out. A signal is intent. A signal is not
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Speaker 1: making reality change according to your wishes. For more than
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Speaker 1: a hundred years, drivers a bicyclists have used hand signals
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Speaker 1: to indicate where they're at in life, where they're out
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Speaker 1: on the road. So if you look back at the
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Speaker 1: early twentieth century, we can see that the hand gestures
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Speaker 1: for signaling are still pretty much the same. You know,
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Speaker 1: stuff like raising your left forearm with your elbow bent,
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Speaker 1: and that means you're going to turn right. And I
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Speaker 1: think everybody who can who drives a car today probably
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Speaker 1: recognizes those hand signals, right, what about the rude signals? Man?
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Speaker 1: How far did those date back? Oh, they're they're they're ancient.
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Speaker 1: They're ancient, and they're well beloved. Also they're serious business
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Speaker 1: in some countries. Yep, Max is doing all the dirty
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Speaker 1: hand gestures. Well, did we do an episode on those?
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Speaker 1: I think I don't know if we did a whole episode,
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Speaker 1: but it's definitely something's come up. But I'm a little
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Speaker 1: rusty and and I'm having some trouble with this hotel WiFi,
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Speaker 1: so I can't see your video. Can you walk us
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Speaker 1: through real quick? Add add to add to these hand gestures,
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Speaker 1: some of the rude ones from throughout history. I would
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Speaker 1: love that so much. Yeah, for sure. So the okay
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Speaker 1: sign in the United States is very offensive. I think
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Speaker 1: in the Mediterranean, in Greece, the thumbs up sign is
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Speaker 1: aggressively offensive in Iran, I want to say. And then
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Speaker 1: the fig where you stick your thumb between your pointer
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Speaker 1: and your index, or your pointer in your middle finger.
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Speaker 1: That's like a middle finger. Everybody knows the old school
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Speaker 1: middle finger. Let's see what else? Oh, what about the
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Speaker 1: one where you do that with your chin? Like you
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Speaker 1: you flick your chin like, yeah, hey if afan gul
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Speaker 1: right like the Sopranos a while, and then there's the
5:16
Speaker 1: old biting they're biting my thumb at you. It's just
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Speaker 1: a little less kind of lusted with lusters in Shakespeare's time,
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Speaker 1: but it's true. And I mean, you know, these early
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Speaker 1: cars were kind of open to the world, you know
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Speaker 1: that they were They were not convertible, they were just
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Speaker 1: like didn't have tops, right, so it was a lot
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Speaker 1: easier to see those kinds of hand gestures. You know,
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Speaker 1: you didn't have to you know, lean out the window
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Speaker 1: or something, right. Yeah, but these hand signals had some
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Speaker 1: problems even back when they were the main most common thing.
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Speaker 1: It's tougher to see people's hand signals at night, for instance,
5:53
Speaker 1: if traffic's really bad, you know, and there's pouring rain,
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Speaker 1: you might miss the signal. And so you still have
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Speaker 1: to know how to use them today, right, you have
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Speaker 1: to be aware of them. But most people are going
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Speaker 1: to use electronic signals instead because they're on they should
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Speaker 1: be on every car, they should be working on every car,
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Speaker 1: and you have to You're only supposed to use the
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Speaker 1: hand signals in a vehicle Now, if something is wrong
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Speaker 1: with your turn signal, then I have an idea. Why
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Speaker 1: not just give them big goofy white Mickey Mouse gloves.
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Speaker 1: Then everyone will be able to see even in the
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Speaker 1: duck of nights. Oh, Man, tell me it wasn't so, Ben,
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Speaker 1: tell me it wasn't so. It was so. No. Thanks
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Speaker 1: to our research associate Jeff Barlett, we have learned from
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Speaker 1: the Japan Times that before trains and automobiles had automatic signals,
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Speaker 1: those at the controls had to use their hands to
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Speaker 1: signal their moves, and they started wearing white gloves to
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Speaker 1: make their hands easier to see. Wow, that's like forced
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Speaker 1: fashion choices, you know, because I've always found just the
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Speaker 1: gloved hand in general to be a pretty serious commitment.
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Speaker 1: You know, if you're wearing black leather driving gloves, that's
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Speaker 1: a look for sure. And then wearing them just kind
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Speaker 1: of around, you know, with maybe a top coat or something.
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Speaker 1: I can't not think of you in murdery ways, you know,
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Speaker 1: I just always think of the glove down is the
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Speaker 1: bringer of death. But white gloves makes me think of
7:23
Speaker 1: a couple of things, and makes me think of like
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Speaker 1: Disney cartoons and Mickey Mouse and stuff and also kind
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Speaker 1: of creepy, like minstrel show vibes, you know those like
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Speaker 1: white gloves and like jazz hands and stuff. I don't know,
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Speaker 1: it just there's something about it that gives me the
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Speaker 1: creeps and feels a little off. I don't know why. Yeah, yeah,
7:43
Speaker 1: you're you're hitting some really some really fascinating, kind of
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Speaker 1: disturbing tropes there. Last time I was in Japan, I
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Speaker 1: ran into several very fancy cab drivers and the white
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Speaker 1: glove thing is still a thing. Oh wow, Yeah, it
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Speaker 1: feels superficial. But also I feel like any white item
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Speaker 1: of clothing is a commitment, is a flex because it's
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Speaker 1: sort of like a guy who doesn't have it all
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Speaker 1: together himself. When I see somebody where, you know, white pants,
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Speaker 1: white gloves, I'm like, wow, it's It's the clothing version
8:17
Speaker 1: of not having a case on your cell phone. You
8:19
Speaker 1: know what I mean. You're living on the edge. You're
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Speaker 1: one puddle away. My friend and Max is also Max
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Speaker 1: is also wearing gloves today, black gloves, And I always
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Speaker 1: makes you think of the old expression. Maybe it's not old,
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Speaker 1: maybe somebody invented it more recently, but it's talking about
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Speaker 1: someone who's a real good salesman saying they could sell
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Speaker 1: a ketchup popsicle to a woman in white gloves. That
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Speaker 1: is a good one. That is a good one. Never that,
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Speaker 1: so we know it's not just in Japan. In October
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Speaker 1: of nineteen twenty, the Washington Harold said that the local
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Speaker 1: least captain requested all motorists in the city to buy
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Speaker 1: a pair of white gloves, expressly to wear them after
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Speaker 1: dark to make their hands easier to see. And you know,
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Speaker 1: it was an inexpensive solution. The captain said, these gloves
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Speaker 1: only cost ten cents a pair. For a quick inflation calculation,
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Speaker 1: that's a dollar fifty in today's money. And then they
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Speaker 1: also said, look, if you can somehow afford a car
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Speaker 1: but don't have a dime to kick in for gloves,
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Speaker 1: you can just buy one. We just need to have
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Speaker 1: one glove Michael Jackson style. That makes sense. You just
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Speaker 1: needed the one gloved signaling hands. M yeah, just the
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Speaker 1: action hand. And that is why, exactly, that's why Michael
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Speaker 1: Jackson's got is one glove. It's a shout out to
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Speaker 1: the early days of turn signals. True story, no in
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Speaker 1: fact check us and honestly, all that glitter on MJ's
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Speaker 1: glove probably just made it catch to light better and
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Speaker 1: make me mean for even more safe invisible hand signals. Right,
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Speaker 1: what if you like you favor of the other hand,
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Speaker 1: I guess you're always going to be signaling out of
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Speaker 1: the left the driver's side window no matter which hand
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Speaker 1: you favor, you would never like it wouldn't be safe
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Speaker 1: to lean over to the passenger side and do it.
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Speaker 1: So yeah, it'd be a bunch of left handed gloves,
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Speaker 1: a run on left handed gloves. Right, So how did
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Speaker 1: we get to how did we get from there to
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Speaker 1: the modern electronic turn signal? I think there's some there's
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Speaker 1: some folks we have to thank one in particular, right,
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Speaker 1: that's right? And what a what a name? This individual
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Speaker 1: hash Florence Lawrence. I don't know why. I just like rhyming.
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Speaker 1: It always makes me giggle. But that's This was an
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Speaker 1: individual whom was actually a big part of the women's
10:47
Speaker 1: liberation movement of the nineteen twenties and the way cars,
10:52
Speaker 1: oddly enough, kind of factored into that because cars were
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Speaker 1: sort of a symbol of freedom of being able to
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Speaker 1: get out there on the open road, and also a
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Speaker 1: symbol of autonomy because you could teach yourself. You know,
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Speaker 1: we know that cars of this era and more classic
11:09
Speaker 1: cars are easier to work on. I mean easier, isn't
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Speaker 1: the right word? Was certainly more possible to work on
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Speaker 1: by individuals. So not only were women out there zipping
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Speaker 1: around in cars, they were taking it upon themselves to
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Speaker 1: learn how to repair their own cars. And Florence Lawrence
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Speaker 1: told a reporter in nineteen twenty this about how driving
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Speaker 1: kind of become the symbol of liberation for women. Quote,
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Speaker 1: the average woman does her own repairing. She is curious
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Speaker 1: enough to investigate every little creek and squeak of her
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Speaker 1: car and to remedy it. Pretty cool. She actually then
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Speaker 1: very cool. She started to do a little tinkering, didn't
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Speaker 1: she She did, she did. In nineteen fourteen, she developed
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Speaker 1: an early version of the turn signal, which she called
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Speaker 1: an auto signaling arm. It's the predecessor of the modern
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Speaker 1: turn signal, but it's very different from what you have
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Speaker 1: on a car today. You place down the back of
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Speaker 1: your fender and you could raise or lower it with
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Speaker 1: the push of a button. She was telling Green Book
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Speaker 1: magazine about this in an interview. And she also put
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Speaker 1: in some early safety measures because the signal that indicated
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Speaker 1: stop would pop up automatically whenever you pushed the brake.
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Speaker 1: So brilliant stuff. And also she's from a family of inventors.
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Speaker 1: We should mention that Florence Lawrence's mother patented a cleaning
12:31
Speaker 1: device for windshields just a few years after that. So
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Speaker 1: brilliant people. Yeah, and then speysically automotively, you know. Minded.
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Speaker 1: I think that's so interesting about the break feature because that,
12:44
Speaker 1: you know, it definitely makes sense, but it would have
12:47
Speaker 1: kind of, you know, gone on to be improved where
12:50
Speaker 1: instead of like hitting the brake killing the term signal,
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Speaker 1: just turning the wheel at a certain ratio, you know,
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Speaker 1: to the left or right kind of triggers the thing
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Speaker 1: to reset. But as you know, even in modern cars,
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Speaker 1: you'll sometimes have that signal on and you can't you're
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Speaker 1: on too straight of a path or like the turn
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Speaker 1: isn't isn't sharp enough and it won't reset. So even
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Speaker 1: that modern technology is imperfect almost the I guess there
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Speaker 1: could be drawbacks to having it tied to the break specifically,
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Speaker 1: but also there's some ways that I almost think that
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Speaker 1: might be better than the current system. Yeah, and Florence
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Speaker 1: was one of several people who were working on these concepts.
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Speaker 1: In nineteen oh nine, just a few years before, a
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Speaker 1: British guy named Percy Douglas Hamilton patented a literal set
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Speaker 1: of hands that were attached each side of the car
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Speaker 1: and they would light up the show when you were
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Speaker 1: moving and so like that. Why it's that creepy sounding,
13:48
Speaker 1: It just seems like it would be odd and off putting.
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Speaker 1: Why they have to be hands, just lights would do. Yeah,
13:54
Speaker 1: it's pretty weird. And according to John Heitman, a professor
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Speaker 1: at the University of Dayton who special wise, this an autohistory.
14:02
Speaker 1: Even though people cite our pal Percy as being the
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Speaker 1: first patent for turn signals, nothing ever happened with it.
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Speaker 1: You don't have wonky cartoon hands on your car today,
14:14
Speaker 1: And Professor Hyman says, it's pretty Yeah, it's pretty unlikely
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Speaker 1: that Florence Lawrence ever knew about this. She thought of
14:21
Speaker 1: it on her own. She was an independent inventor, but
14:24
Speaker 1: she didn't yet she did a little parallel thinking perhaps
14:29
Speaker 1: one yeah, one hundred percent, which happens all the time.
14:32
Speaker 1: You know, it's it's who gets to the patent first.
14:37
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, but especially with an idea where it's just
14:39
Speaker 1: kind of like the car was screaming out for something
14:42
Speaker 1: like this, you know, just a matter of time, but
14:44
Speaker 1: before somebody cracked it. But it's not in and of itself, well,
14:48
Speaker 1: you know, certainly is unique. I guess for the first
14:50
Speaker 1: person in the thought of it, it is something that
14:52
Speaker 1: kind of the mind is naturally drawn to. Okay, we
14:56
Speaker 1: need something better than these hands signals. Perhaps it'll be
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Speaker 1: a combination of a life or something there, you know
15:02
Speaker 1: what I mean, Or you know, a weird cartoon hand. Okay,
15:06
Speaker 1: maybe not that. Let's let's simplify a little bit here
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Speaker 1: and then not too far off from the modern you know,
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Speaker 1: the modern term signal at this point. Yeah, Or you know,
15:15
Speaker 1: there were other ideas. Someone's like always have five or
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Speaker 1: six small goats in the back of your car and
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Speaker 1: just throw one in the direction that you're turning in. Uh.
15:26
Speaker 1: But you know, that was a very different time. It
15:29
Speaker 1: was possibly people where people were, people were just there.
15:35
Speaker 1: There's all the excess goats, there's cluttering things up, cluttering
15:38
Speaker 1: up the joint. You know, it was a real nightmarish time.
15:42
Speaker 1: I'm really glad we got past that um again to no,
15:47
Speaker 1: it was a straight sword seahorse teeth at all is
15:49
Speaker 1: crooked seahorse teeth to the maximum. Um. But you know,
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Speaker 1: it's like I said, it wasn't too long before we
15:55
Speaker 1: got to something that definitely resembled what we know as
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Speaker 1: the modern turn signal. Yes. Yes, so now we're cooking
16:04
Speaker 1: with gas, right, or we've got high octane gas in
16:07
Speaker 1: the tank. Of turn signal history. If you go to
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Speaker 1: a December nineteen eighty five issue of Popular Mechanics, you
16:13
Speaker 1: learn about the Protects Safety Signal Company, And no, these
16:19
Speaker 1: are the folks who introduced flashing turn signals in nineteen twenty,
16:24
Speaker 1: right were they the first? Like pretty much the first ones?
16:27
Speaker 1: I think that's right. The Protexts Safety Signal Company introduced
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Speaker 1: flashing turn signals in nineteen twenty. Really the first modern
16:38
Speaker 1: turn signal, however, can be attributed to somebody else, So
16:42
Speaker 1: not quite. I mean again, this is kind of like
16:44
Speaker 1: a parallel thinking situation. A guy named Edgar A. Wals
16:48
Speaker 1: Junior who in nineteen twenty five actually did get a
16:52
Speaker 1: patent for one, and he tried to market it, but
16:56
Speaker 1: I guess it just didn't take off because a lot
16:58
Speaker 1: of times the marketing is just as if not more
17:01
Speaker 1: important than the technology of the invention themselves. How do
17:03
Speaker 1: you sell this thing to people? How do you convince
17:05
Speaker 1: them and they need this in their lives? Folks just
17:08
Speaker 1: weren't having it. So the patent actually expired after fourteen years,
17:12
Speaker 1: and all the while inventors were trying to figure out
17:16
Speaker 1: something that was a little more streamline perhaps, And the
17:20
Speaker 1: Smithsonian actually in their collection has a handmade, one of
17:25
Speaker 1: a kind signal that Oscar j similar created in nineteen
17:29
Speaker 1: twenty nine. So this actually allowed for communication of several
17:35
Speaker 1: types of moves right, not just the turning direction, but
17:39
Speaker 1: also slowing down. You know. Essentially what we I guess
17:43
Speaker 1: not today is like a break light and a signal
17:46
Speaker 1: of a stop. I guess when the break in the
17:49
Speaker 1: clutchroom of pressed at the same time. Yeah, cool stuff,
17:52
Speaker 1: but still not on every car. Turn signals were not
17:57
Speaker 1: offered to consumers until nineteen thirty nine, and they became
18:02
Speaker 1: more and more widespread as the years wound on, Like
18:05
Speaker 1: through the nineteen forties and back in this time, if
18:10
Speaker 1: you had a car, you were far more likely to
18:13
Speaker 1: be tinkering with it on your own time to add
18:16
Speaker 1: your own kind of improvements, the stuff that you like
18:19
Speaker 1: and a lot of times people had to do this
18:22
Speaker 1: because the technology was still kind of new. It was
18:25
Speaker 1: a little wonky to a lot of folks. So you
18:27
Speaker 1: would have these kits that could convert different parts of
18:30
Speaker 1: your automobile. And not all of them worked, not all
18:35
Speaker 1: of them were successful, but some of these kits would
18:37
Speaker 1: become standard features on later cars. And just like you said,
18:41
Speaker 1: with the marketing, that's one of the key pieces here.
18:45
Speaker 1: If we look at the nineteen thirty eight Buick, then
18:49
Speaker 1: we see the first flashing turn signals sold to customers,
18:53
Speaker 1: and it was called the flashway directional signal because it flash,
18:58
Speaker 1: it was different directions. That sounds like a lot of fun.
19:01
Speaker 1: I gotta have that in my life. I love this
19:03
Speaker 1: idea of kits and about how like what we know
19:05
Speaker 1: today is standard safety features, being kind of like you know,
19:09
Speaker 1: accessories at the time. It's just it does make you
19:13
Speaker 1: laugh and think a little bit and be grateful. In general,
19:16
Speaker 1: as screwed up as things are in many parts of
19:18
Speaker 1: American life, there are some standardizations of safety that we
19:22
Speaker 1: can at least rely on. And those flashway directional signals
19:27
Speaker 1: that you mentioned, Ben worked only on the backlights of
19:31
Speaker 1: the cars. You can only really see it if you
19:32
Speaker 1: were directly behind somebody. In nineteen forty, Buick changed around
19:35
Speaker 1: the directional lights by extending it to the front lights
19:40
Speaker 1: as well. Yeah, that would make sense. You know, if
19:43
Speaker 1: someone's behind you and signaling and wanting to pass, you
19:46
Speaker 1: would need to be able to see that from the
19:48
Speaker 1: front and the back. Oh man, snail's pace. This stuff
19:52
Speaker 1: is advancing out, but still we're getting there. This also
19:55
Speaker 1: had kind of what we know of the modern self
19:57
Speaker 1: canceling mechanism that I was describing, where you know, when
20:00
Speaker 1: the wheel turns into a certain degree, the blinker will
20:05
Speaker 1: just go off on. It's almost sure as hell. Doesn't
20:07
Speaker 1: stop Honda Odyssees from riding in front of Ben for
20:10
Speaker 1: miles at a time with their blinkers on interminably. No,
20:15
Speaker 1: it does not. So what happens next We've got now
20:21
Speaker 1: kind of stock, We've got kind of stock blinkers on,
20:26
Speaker 1: you know, with the front and the back. Does it
20:29
Speaker 1: start to spread to other brands? Yeah, yeah, it does,
20:34
Speaker 1: like any other innovation, right, you don't want other cars.
20:38
Speaker 1: You don't want a competitor's car to seem like it's
20:41
Speaker 1: safer or cooler than yours. So in nineteen forty, these
20:46
Speaker 1: things become standard on Cadillacs, Buicks, Hudson's, you name it, Chevrolet's, Ouldsmobile,
20:52
Speaker 1: all the hits, all the good ones. And if you
20:55
Speaker 1: had an older vehicle that did not have turn signals,
20:59
Speaker 1: then you would go to places like the Lester Company
21:02
Speaker 1: in Illinois that would have a kit and you could
21:05
Speaker 1: take this kit and you could put it on whatever
21:09
Speaker 1: vehicle you had, and it was guaranteed to work, quote
21:13
Speaker 1: like factory installed models on those expensive cars. But Ben,
21:18
Speaker 1: I mean nowadays you can get a ticket for just
21:20
Speaker 1: having a break light out. At this point, the stuff
21:23
Speaker 1: wouldn't have been legally you know, required, would it. Yeah,
21:34
Speaker 1: the laws get a little bit unclear or you know,
21:39
Speaker 1: they don't all occur at the same time. Like we
21:42
Speaker 1: were talking about with crash test dummies. There was this
21:45
Speaker 1: huge need to make the laws uniform so that you know,
21:49
Speaker 1: driving in New York is hopefully the same legally speaking
21:53
Speaker 1: as driving in Nevada. And to do that, you know,
21:57
Speaker 1: ideally everybody has the same equipment. And blinkers do become
22:01
Speaker 1: mandatory in the sixties, I think, right, I think that's right.
22:05
Speaker 1: But that's also like, I mean, yes, yes, that's correct.
22:09
Speaker 1: But also, I mean, we talked about this on a
22:11
Speaker 1: recent episode in our Kind of Car series. I don't
22:14
Speaker 1: think it was until the It wasn't until like the
22:17
Speaker 1: fifties or maybe even the earliest. When was it the
22:20
Speaker 1: driver's licenses were even required across the board? It was
22:24
Speaker 1: shocking it was the thirties, but like twenty plus years
22:28
Speaker 1: after the medal, two twenty plus years into the whole game. Yeah, exactly.
22:32
Speaker 1: So it would not surprise me one bit if it
22:34
Speaker 1: wasn't ntil the sixties that turn signals were legally, you know, required.
22:39
Speaker 1: M Yeah, that makes sense, I mean, and even driver's
22:42
Speaker 1: licenses were kind of state by state. I think the
22:45
Speaker 1: first ones were Missouri Massachusetts in nineteen o three. They
22:48
Speaker 1: were like, Okay, somebody's got to be qualified to do this.
22:53
Speaker 1: But who knows, maybe it was maybe it started out
22:55
Speaker 1: as a grift and they were like, hey, now we
22:58
Speaker 1: can make a little more money off some folks. But
23:01
Speaker 1: it's good that people have driver's licenses. You should have
23:04
Speaker 1: to take a test to get behind the wheel of
23:06
Speaker 1: a car, and it's good that these things are mandatory too.
23:11
Speaker 1: We can go into the weeds on some of the
23:14
Speaker 1: different types of approaches people took with turn signals. But
23:19
Speaker 1: what you need to know is legislatures across the country.
23:25
Speaker 1: We're kind on the fence in the sixties just for
23:27
Speaker 1: a minute about whether or not you should have turn signals,
23:32
Speaker 1: what kind of turn signals you should have, And eventually,
23:37
Speaker 1: thankfully they aired on the side of caution and said, hey,
23:41
Speaker 1: while we're moving at tremendous speeds, we should let each
23:47
Speaker 1: other know where we're going. And I feel like that's
23:51
Speaker 1: pretty reasonable, right, Yeah, And it's weird because what's being
23:54
Speaker 1: touted is like a kind of a further innovation in
23:57
Speaker 1: this you know, blinker tech Forward in twenty eleven introduced
24:01
Speaker 1: something called the three blink function, which I guess it
24:04
Speaker 1: is just like you click the blinker and it clicks
24:07
Speaker 1: three times and then automatically turns off. But I mean
24:10
Speaker 1: to me, that seems, you know, yeah, you don't want
24:12
Speaker 1: someone writing with their blinker on all day, but you
24:15
Speaker 1: also don't want it to be so hat so quick
24:18
Speaker 1: that you missed it. Yeah, and that seems like three blinks.
24:21
Speaker 1: I don't know if that if that really does the trick, agreed, Agreed.
24:25
Speaker 1: And it's also weird when you think about people having
24:28
Speaker 1: a turn signal on while you're waiting in traffic. This
24:32
Speaker 1: is really a three blink and you miss it kind
24:34
Speaker 1: of thing. So how much of an innovation is it?
24:43
Speaker 1: Thank you that womp womp. I know you, I know
24:46
Speaker 1: you're putting in. But but what what we're saying here,
24:52
Speaker 1: what Nolan Maxiner're saying, is that this kind of research continues.
24:57
Speaker 1: There's still improvements being made in pretty much any safety
25:01
Speaker 1: oriented aspect of any automobile. Some cars now have turn
25:06
Speaker 1: signals on their side mirrors, which is great for visibility.
25:10
Speaker 1: And some cars have the side view camera and that's
25:14
Speaker 1: that's neat, But that one takes them getting used to.
25:17
Speaker 1: On my part, you know, I don't know if I
25:18
Speaker 1: can trust the camera. I just I gotta get over it. Yeah,
25:21
Speaker 1: I mean I have gotten to the point where, like
25:23
Speaker 1: my my backup camera has like a solid line which
25:25
Speaker 1: is like a good you know, maybe six inches of
25:28
Speaker 1: clearance let's say, on the bumper. And then there's the
25:31
Speaker 1: dotted line which I have measured and I have, you know,
25:34
Speaker 1: I once you get comfortable with it, it it kind of
25:36
Speaker 1: opens up some you know, superpowers in a way, because
25:39
Speaker 1: I know that dotted line is Yeah, I can't go
25:42
Speaker 1: any further than that, not even not even a click.
25:44
Speaker 1: So once you get comfortable with those lines and that
25:47
Speaker 1: feedback you're getting from those cameras, it can be really powerful.
25:50
Speaker 1: But I know it definitely kind of weird some people out. Yeah. Yeah,
25:54
Speaker 1: and I've got I've got you know, backup cameras that
25:56
Speaker 1: I'm slowly learning to trust. But I'm still you know,
26:00
Speaker 1: a turnaround, look over your shoulder, guy, which is probably
26:03
Speaker 1: gonna make me look very old in about a decade.
26:07
Speaker 1: No wait, who am I kidding? In a decade, people
26:09
Speaker 1: won't be driving cars right all, be autonomous. Maybe you'll
26:13
Speaker 1: still be turning over your shoulder and looking back while
26:15
Speaker 1: your heart does it for you. Yeah, well that's because
26:18
Speaker 1: he's look, he's looking for the guy in the in
26:20
Speaker 1: the black suit is after him. Yes, yes, with the
26:23
Speaker 1: gloves and uh and so it looks like does it?
26:26
Speaker 1: Don't Gloves make your They make your fingers look creepy,
26:29
Speaker 1: like white gloves. When you when you noodle your fingers
26:31
Speaker 1: around like that, wearing white gloves, there's no way for
26:33
Speaker 1: you not to look like a creep If I see
26:36
Speaker 1: anybody wearing gloves in general, and it's not very cold outside.
26:42
Speaker 1: I'm making some assumptions. I am man, I'm with you.
26:45
Speaker 1: We're on the same page. Ree gloves, It's gonna be
26:47
Speaker 1: the middle of July when I have my black leather
26:49
Speaker 1: gloves on. It's gonna be so ridiculously hot. But for
26:51
Speaker 1: this bit, I shall to do it. Yeah, especially if
26:54
Speaker 1: you have a T shirt on, like just a T
26:57
Speaker 1: shirt in the sleeve of shirts short shorts one. Yeah, Ben,
27:01
Speaker 1: you might have you might have an answer to this.
27:03
Speaker 1: And in terms of car innovations, how the hell do
27:07
Speaker 1: those like high end cars have a view that lets
27:10
Speaker 1: you have a bird's eye view down from above the car?
27:14
Speaker 1: Is it? Is it magnets? It is its triangulation of stuff?
27:19
Speaker 1: What is it? It's witchcraft, is what it is. I
27:21
Speaker 1: don't like it. I like how we went in saying
27:24
Speaker 1: cloud posse for a second though, Is it magnets? Maybe
27:26
Speaker 1: it's magnets. The you know what I'm talking about. I
27:31
Speaker 1: know what you're talking about, but I don't know how
27:33
Speaker 1: it works well, and I would love I would love
27:36
Speaker 1: to learn more about it. I also love for us
27:38
Speaker 1: to do some more weird, ridiculous car history stories and
27:43
Speaker 1: can't wait to get digging on those there's all sorts
27:47
Speaker 1: of stuff we can talk about, like the way turn
27:49
Speaker 1: signals evolved in Europe, and all sorts of weird names
27:54
Speaker 1: for different devices like trafficators, which is just a more
27:58
Speaker 1: primitive version of what Florence Laurence was doing. But but
28:01
Speaker 1: I think we can. I think we can call it
28:03
Speaker 1: a day today. I think in Atlanta we're all traffic haters,
28:08
Speaker 1: Am I right? Gampwamp Yeah. And honestly, I mean the
28:15
Speaker 1: name is really the funniest part about that innovation because
28:18
Speaker 1: it really was kind of uh, just didn't quite hit
28:21
Speaker 1: the mark as close to what Florence Lawrence came up with.
28:24
Speaker 1: So thank you, Florence Lawrence. And now we're on the
28:26
Speaker 1: heels of International Women's Day, so, you know, retroactively, happy
28:31
Speaker 1: International Women's Day to you and yours, Florence Lawrence from
28:35
Speaker 1: from beyond um. You know, a lot of times, it's
28:38
Speaker 1: true women don't get credit that they deserve for innovations
28:40
Speaker 1: like this, And it was certainly first for me hearing
28:43
Speaker 1: the name Florence Lawrence, which is just still so funny
28:46
Speaker 1: to say Florence Lawrence. It is, you know what I mean,
28:48
Speaker 1: It's like a theater kid warm up Florence, Lawrence Florence,
28:54
Speaker 1: New York, New York exactly. Yeah, wow, Yeah, that's a
29:00
Speaker 1: shout out to our wonderful friends of the show and
29:03
Speaker 1: guestos Laura Vogelbaum and Michael Alder June who did an
29:07
Speaker 1: episode on Whether with You Max on whether a house
29:10
Speaker 1: can be legally haunted? Do check that out and do
29:15
Speaker 1: let us know what's on your mind with ghosts, with
29:18
Speaker 1: turn signals, with weird auto history and folks. You can
29:24
Speaker 1: find us on Ridiculous Historians on Facebook, but you can
29:27
Speaker 1: find us online not just as a show, but as individuals.
29:31
Speaker 1: It's true. You can find me. I'm pretty much exclusively
29:34
Speaker 1: on Instagram at how Now Noel brown Man. I think
29:38
Speaker 1: there's a couple of social media watering holes people can
29:42
Speaker 1: find you in. Yeah, for sure, Farmers only. My space
29:48
Speaker 1: zanga I'm just man Zanga is the best one. So
29:56
Speaker 1: if you can't find the Zega page, you can follow
29:58
Speaker 1: me on Instagram and a creativity I call myself at
30:01
Speaker 1: Ben Boland Bowli in there. You can also find me
30:04
Speaker 1: on Twitter at Ben Boland HSW and if you are
30:08
Speaker 1: on Twitter right now, per Alon Musk. The most exciting
30:12
Speaker 1: thing about that that whole platform is that you might
30:14
Speaker 1: have a chance to find our own superproducer, mister Max Williams. Yes,
30:19
Speaker 1: I am still technically on Twitter. You can find me
30:21
Speaker 1: at at L underscore Max Williams. There will be a
30:25
Speaker 1: Twitter page that technically exists until you get until you
30:29
Speaker 1: get stripped of your your blue check mark you purchased,
30:33
Speaker 1: you faker, your phony, your fraud. I'm thinking about king
30:37
Speaker 1: at geospace. Oh yeah, bring it back, bring it back.
30:41
Speaker 1: And then I don't know what's a good turn signal joke?
30:43
Speaker 1: Do we want to end on a turn signal joke?
30:45
Speaker 1: Did we already see turn? Turn? Turn? And we did
30:48
Speaker 1: at the beginning? Okay, we turn, We'll see you turn
30:55
Speaker 1: turn yourselves in. Okay, wait, here's a terrible one. Full disclosure.
31:00
Speaker 1: We didn't write this, but let's see what you think.
31:03
Speaker 1: It's really bad. Noel, if I was a cop, I
31:07
Speaker 1: would be ticketing people for not using their turn signals
31:11
Speaker 1: left and right. That's so bad. I just died a
31:16
Speaker 1: little inside. But it wasn't yourself, Ben, I blame the Internet.
31:21
Speaker 1: We'll see you next time, folks. For more podcasts from
31:30
Speaker 1: my Heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or
31:33
Speaker 1: wherever you listen to your favorite shows,