The first recorded mention of the traffic cone was in the bible, the old testement in genesis. "And God did say to Adam, do not eat the apple as it is guarded by a vicious traffic cone", of course one musn't read much into the bible as it is full of stories which make no sense, but the fact that the traffic cone was there says something. That is not the only before christ mentioning of the traffic cone. In 9bc the Roman Emperor ordered the making of 25 such cones to stop people walking on a road he was constructing. Of course the plastic used to make modern day ones wasn't around in them days so instead they were made of stone. There were great problems in the roman empire some 500 years later and the empire, together with the traffic cone, crumbled into nothingness. The next civilization to live in Rome, ignored the traffic cone and it eventually became obsolete. In North France however cones were still used but only on a small scale, many scholars do not believe this but the evidence is there on the bayeaux tapestry from 1066, which shows William the Conqueror on the Norman conquest with traffic cones, this was probably intended to confuse the British as they had probably never seen one before. This was proven when as an arrow came Harolds way, he said "what is that strange cone shaped rock?" and his question was never answered as he died straight away. By this time the traffic cone had become an everyday part of British Life, in fact in the domesday book of 1086 it was discovered that all but 39 villages in Britain had at least one traffic cone, strangely enough the bubonic plagues, which happened some years later, totally wiped these 39 villages out. William Shakespeare is another to have mentioned the cone, in his play Macbeth, the main character utters the line "Is this a traffic cone I see before me?". Imagine the Spanish Armada on its way to conquer the britons, now imagine their disgust as on the way they saw a huge line of traffic cones forcing them around the british isles to a bloody death on the rocks, this just shows one of the many uses traffic cones had in the middle ages. The cones were also used to stop cattle going where they shouldn't, Britain lead the way in cone development, and probably explains the begining of the industrial revolution. The cones flourished as more were needed for trains, barges and other uses, but in 1914 war broke out and traffic cone production stopped, the traffic cones corporation switched to the US stock exchange so the war wouldn't affect them too much, even so the cones were still a useful part of the war effort, and even prompted a mention from Lord Kitchener who said "Britons we want traffic cones", and as you would expect Britain won the war with the help of traffic cones. Then in 1929 disaster happened The US stock exchange on Wall Street crashed, and the traffic cones corporation crashed with it, they went into liquidation and the traffic cone was gone. Another war started in 1939 but without the help of the traffic cones, Britain and Germany were put into a deadly war of attrition until in 1942 the traffic cone corporation reformed, and with a little help from the USA the war was won. The traffic cone flourished again, as new technology meant plastic cones could be used, and in 1966 the new style cone was introduced to the delight of the general public. 3 months later was the world cup where an orange ball was used to commerate the cone, and obviously England won, but only with the help of traffic cones. Today the traffic cone can be seen all over the country, blocking off motorway lanes and sometimes whole roads, but please remember what traffic cones have done for this great nation of ours, don't get angry, remember if we didn't have traffic cones we wouldn't be here today.
Links to other sites on the Web
© 1997 kl1b4048@lmu.ac.uk
Get your own Free Home Page