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                        Safety Reflectors

History

The history of safety reflectors started in the 1950’s when the very first article about safety reflectors came out into the public. After that, people started to make tin plates with a reflective material coating it to make road reflectors, and after that people started to make clothing with reflective material so they would be seen better at night by passing cars. The purpose of these safety reflector was to prevent night time vehicle accidents by having these reflectors placed on various places that let the driver see where they were going and what was ahead of them by reflecting the light from their hear lights from the car reflect to the drivers eye. Safety reflectors also started to gain popularity in the work place. For example when there are road workers, the workers have reflective vests on therefor making them visible. Also reflective vests are used in construction because many times, these workers work into the night and it is very important to see people when others are working with machinery, much like while driving, you don’t want to hit anyone. The most common type of safety reflector used today are the little yellow or blue ones glued to the streets that are almost on every road. These are called cat eyes because the inventor of them got the idea while driving at night and saw the reflection of cat eyes on his right, which made him realize that he was on the wrong side of the road, therefor giving him the idea of putting reflectors in the middle of the road so at night drivers can see which side of the road they are on. Since the creation of these, head on collisions at night have decreased significantly.

Uses

            Safety reflectors have many uses in today’s world. They are used in everyday life and even in technical scenarios. They are used in scientific experiments too. For example, scientist used safety reflectors to determine whether or not they actually make driving at night more efficient. They started their experiment by posting reflective signs warning of dear crossings to prevent deer-vehicle collisions. The data proved that the reflective signs decreased the amount of accidents. They also posted reflective signs on roads with a rougher drive, like a road with a lot of curves and turns. The results proved that there were less accidents when the signs were posted. Another thing that they found with these postings was that the drivers would drive closer to the speed limit, whereas before at night the drivers would drive slower than the speed limit. One of the obvious uses for safety reflectors is posting signs along the road showing when the road ends, if theres a stop sign or street light, or anything that needs to be warned about. Another use of safety reflectors, or reflectors in general, is that they are used in underwater arming systems where they are actually the trigger of the weaponry when something goes by it. Another place where reflectors are used are in the airline industry and it can be used as a means of communication in emergency. Another use is in the military. In 1877 someone created a heliograph which was a mirror on a tripod that could be used to reflect the suns light to communicate from a range of distances.            

How they work

           The way a safety reflectors works is that a source of light hits a reflective material and bounces the light back to the light source. How there made can vary depending on the uses of the particular reflector. A reflector can also be made by different types of materials, including plastic, fabric, or a vinyl film. The technology for safety reflectors is a range from a shiny material all the way to precision cut material to produce the perfect reflection. For example, the first safety reflectors were just pieces of aluminum that was like a mirror. Also there are reflectors that are laser etched that are used in underwater weaponry and safety that cause a trigger when anything blocks the reflectors light, almost like a light trigger. To use it in a real life example, imagine a underwater passage that uses reflectors to see if anything goes through it, say a submarine goes through the passage, the light that shines across will get blocked by the submarine and the sensors on the other side will be able to tell because there is no light shining across. This is just an example of one of the more complex ways a safety reflector works. Normal safety reflector’s are often not as complex as that one. Most safety reflectors today are made of a hard plastic with a reflective vinyl inlayed inside of it. They are normally in the shape of a trapezoid, with the sided having the reflective vinyl so that drivers can see it from both sides, so if there driving and see it on their right side of the car they will know that they are on the wrong side of the road.

Training ship Golden Bear life buoy with safety reflectors

A stop sign is a street sign that will reflect light at night