An Ode To The Turn Signal

Is there another part of the car more taken for granted than the turn signal? Without giving them a second thought, you push the lever up to signal a right turn and down for left. After your turn, the signal cancels itself – simple and foolproof. Every car has them, and almost all work in the same manner. But I remember an Opel we rented in Germany had a signal lever that worked differently, much to my chagrin. Opel’s better idea was to have the lever pop back to the neutral position after the driver had activated it. If the signal didn’t cancel (which seemed to happen quite regularly), when I tried to manually cancel I would invariably move the lever too far, thus initiating a signal in the opposite direction – then when I tried to cancel THAT, I’d activate an opposite signal. I can just imagine a German driver following behind watching one signal then the other blinking on and off, thinking, “Make up your mind you crazy Canadian!” A surgeon’s touch was needed to get the lever back to the neutral position. 

The First Flashing Electric Signal
According to RLP Engineering’s website, the first application of a flashing electric turn signal was used on the 1938 Buick as a new safety feature. It was advertised by Buick as the “Flash-Way Directional Signal”, and by 1940, they had added a self-cancelling mechanism. That technology more or less has stayed the same for seventy years. But now, RLP have developed a new turn signal system that is quite interesting, check out: http://www.rlpengineering.com/index.htm 

Mechanical Signals 

Going way back, there were mechanical turn signals. As a kid, I often rode with my dad in the old Canadian National Railway delivery truck, it had a pivoting "arm" that swung out from behind the left side of the cab. There was a chain strung into the cab, which when pulled, raised the "arm" to horizontal to indicate a left turn, and up nearly vertical for a right – pretty fancy eh? 

Trafficators 
Some European cars from the forties and fifties had another turn signal idea, which we called “semaphores.” A quick google check revealed the proper name is “Trafficators” – furthermore wikipedia's description of it is quite clear: “Trafficators are semaphore signals which, when operated, protrude from the bodywork of a motor vehicle to indicate its intention to turn in the direction indicated by the pointing signal. Trafficators are often located at the door pillar.”

My 1951 Anglia had these, they were operated by a flip switch mounted above the horn button in the steering wheel hub. Amazingly, the hub didn’t turn with the wheel, so the flip switch stayed upright. Admittedly, my car was pretty old and tired when I got it, but I never got both semaphores to work properly. The one on the left would extend but not light up, the right side wouldn’t extend but you could peek in its slot and see the bulb burning brightly.

Hand Signals 
Everyone who takes “Driver Ed” learns the three standard hand signals: arm straight out is a left, arm bent up at elbow means right, arm bent down at elbow signals slowing or stopping. After passing their driver's test, most people never use them again. When I was little, I remember my mother had a fourth hand signal. Perhaps it was her own invention as I NEVER saw anyone else use it. Kelowna, BC, was then a much smaller town, and it was common for folks driving east on Bernard Avenue (the main street), to make a U-turn at Bertram Street, the end of the business district. Before starting her U-turn, she’d put her arm out, bent down at the elbow and wave her hand in little circles, this meant, at least to her, “Watch out, I’m making a U-turn.” 

The Winnipeg Winter Option 
As a young boy back in the forties, my brother Jim remembers most older cars didn’t have electric signals, so drivers used hand signals extensively. In the harsh Winnipeg winters people would add little oval-shaped plastic “storm windows” to their car's side windows to stop the glass from frosting up. But this meant you couldn’t roll down the window far enough to put your arm out, he claims drivers wanting to signal a left turn would do so by opening their door! “How did they indicate a right turn?” I asked. “They didn’t.” was his reply. 

When I started to write this post, I was thinking I'd have a tough time getting more than a few lines about turn signals – I had no idea there was so much to say on this topic. In closing, I have one more note to pass on: if your signal starts to flash at twice its normal speed, don't ignore it. That's a "signal" one of your signal bulbs has burnt out!