World's Oldest Traffic Light

Ashville, Ohio, has laid claim to being the home of the world’s oldest working traffic light, although a few other towns are arguing that theirs is older.

The light, designed by Ashville resident Teddy Boor, was originally installed in 1932 at the corner of Main and Long Streets. It served until 1982, a total of 50 years when it was retired because color-blind people could not decide whether it was red or green. It has a unique, futuristic design, looking somewhat like a silver football.

Since it was retired, it has been directing foot traffic at the Small Town Museum in Ashville. Until 2005, it was taken outside every year during the town’s annual 4^th of July celebrations. But fears that it might be stolen ended that tradition and it has not left the Museum building since. It is still operating continuously in its Museum home, which also features the world’s largest scrap book.

The Museum’s director, Charlie Morrison, says that while other claimants have come forward to dispute Ashville’s claim for their traffic light as the world’s oldest continuously working example, they have not been able to prove their cases. So for now, at least, the Ashville traffic light is on record as the oldest working traffic light.

The World’s Oldest Message in a Bottle

Captain Andrew Leaper was fishing off Scotland’s Shetland Islands when he found a glass bottle in his nets. There was a paper inside dated from 1914. The find has now been confirmed as the oldest known message in a bottle by the Guinness World Records. The bottle had survived at sea for nearly 98 years.

It turns out that the bottle was released in 1914 as part of a research project tracking sea currents around Scotland. The finder was asked to write down the date and location of its discovery and to send a postcard in return for a small reward. Of the 1,890 bottles released, 315 have since been found to date.

This new find eclipses the previous record-holder, which had been found in 2006. Oddly, that bottle was found by the same fishing boat. The fishing grounds where the bottle was found is very popular, with literally hundreds of boats plying the same waters. It appears that the boat, called Copious, is a lucky little vessel.

There’s more information on this story here

The Oldest Settlement in Europe

The oldest settlement in Europe, so far at least, may present more questions than answers.

A team led by Vasil Nikolov of Bulgaria’s National Institute of Archaeology discovered thick stone walls near the town of Provadia, Bulgaria and have estimated that they were built somewhere between 6300 to 6800 years ago. These walls are 10 feet (3 meters) high and more than 6 feet (2 meters) thick, with a diameter of about 328 feet (100 meters). They enclosed a settlement of two-story houses and obviously served as a fortification, much like the walls of later castles and walled towns.

The team also discovered parts of a gate and a series of pits apparently constructed for ritual use. The walls and other artifacts were dated by radiocarbon testing.

Nikolev believes the settlement housed about 350 people who produced salt by boiling brine from nearby salt springs which was used for trade. During the town’s lifetime, salt was a valuable commodity and anyone who could produce it in any quantity found a ready market for it. Copper needles and pottery found in graves at the site indicate that the people of the town were relatively wealthy, which supports Nikolev’s theory.

Bulgaria is an archaeological hotspot with many prehistoric settlement mounds in addition to the remains of Greek, Roman and Byzantine settlements.
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The Provadia site does present some interesting problems, however. The houses were two stories high. Were there earlier settlements built of one-story dwellings which may have predated the two-story houses of Provadia? It would be a little odd if two-story buildings, which are much more difficult to build, actually were constructed before single-story homes.

The second question revolves around the wall itself. Was this location so dangerous that the people who lived there felt the need to construct that protective wall?

Nikolev’s team has been working at the site since 2005. Perhaps, as they expand their excavations, some of these questions will be answered.

There is a detailed report here