Traffic Cones

[Image from Pixabay]

For those of us who like a geeky fact or three an American street painter by the name of Charles Scanlan first came up with a prototype traffic cone in 1940. His motivation was to warn motorists of the wet paint upon the road and to prevent them from driving over it. By 1943 he had patented his design and ever since it's become an important part of road safety so much so that most of us probably don't give them a passing thought. The first ones were seen in the UK in 1958 when the M6 first opened.

For a brief period as a student in Winchester way back in the 1980s I may have had a traffic cone in my room....I may have had a couple of small sweet sherries one night and dragged the dratted thing back. I do vaguely remember that it was a lot heavier than I had expected it to be and it had a yellow flashing light on top [which is what happens when you remove such items from a road working site] which kept myself and my room mate awake a lot. It wasn't that long before we returned the wretched thing to where we had taken it from and there ended my brief flirtation with cone 'ownership'.

Fast forward many decades and I got far more excited than I should have done on one tedious car journey when we were stuck in a traffic jam on the motorway for there before me were not only orange cones, but to my delight I realised that sometimes they can come in other colours...that day I saw them in purple💜, green💚  and blue💙. Mr GBT is well used to my batty self by now, but even he was a bit perplexed by my excitement on this particular occasion. There had been no more thrilling cone encounters since then until recently when I saw this.....

If I say it was outside a very famous studio and shaped like a wizard's hat that might give you a clue as to where I went for my birthday treat at the the beginning of the month. Once I've rifled through the pile of photos I'll write up a post about my visit which I'm happy to do now Halloween is looming up fast on the horizon. In the meantime I hope everyone enjoys a peaceful weekend. I have some spooky plans of my own lined up👻

Arilx