The story of Florence Lawrence the movie star who invented the turn signal

Florence Lawrence was very fond of motoring and fixed and improved the cars she owned in a time where the world was changing the way it moved. It wasn’t an easy road for the silent movie star turned automotive inventor though, here’s the story of Florence Lawrence, the movie star that invented the turn signal.

Lawrence was born Florence Annie Bridgwood in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada on January 2, 1886. Her mother was a vaudeville actress who changed her name from Charlotte Bridgwood to Lotta Lawrence and later changed her daughter’s surname, too. They travelled together across the country and young Florence became known as ‘Baby Flo, The Child Wonder Whistler’.

Lawrence got her first film role in 1907 in 'Daniel Boone' and went on to make more than 250 films in her career initially short, small-time silent films known as one-reelers. During this period of cinema, credits were not commonplace and Lawrence worked anonymously earning around $500 a week from Biograph Studios. She did, however, became widely known for her face with moviegoers knowing her as ‘The Biograph Girl’, named after the film studio she worked for. In 1910 Lawrence became the first actress to headline a film by name.

With so many films under her belt, Lawrence became a very successful actress and was able to buy her own car, a rarity in the early 20th century for not only women but for the wider population as they were still considered luxury items. She loved driving as well as learning all she could about how the mechanics of how the motor vehicle functioned.

"A car to me is something that is almost human, something that responds to kindness and understanding and care, just as people do,” Lawrence told a reporter in 1920 when driving had become a symbol of women’s liberation. "The average woman does her own repairing. She is curious enough to investigate every little creak and squak of her car, and to remedy it."

It was with this independence, passion and technical interest that saw Lawrence practice what she preached and dived into the world of automotive technology. In 1914 Lawrence developed an early version of the vehicle turn signal we use today.

She developed a mechanical signalling arm that at a press of a button, raised or lowered a flag on the car’s rear bumper that told other drivers which way the car was going to turn. At the time, turn signals, brake lights and windscreen wipers were not part of many or any motor vehicle's offering.

Not only did Lawrence create this indicating signalling system, but she also built a brake signal that when the brake pedal was pushed, a STOP sign flipped up from the car’s rear bumper. A standard and expected feature in today’s vehicles but at the time, these were truly unique and groundbreaking.

Unfortunately for Lawrence though, the true recognition of her imaginative and problem-solving ways were never fully recognised. Patents for both the signalling arms and the STOP sign were never filed, with other automotive thinkers building similar types of technologies and patenting them for big brands to purchase.

Lawrence was at the peak of her career but in 1915 she suffered series injuries while rescuing an actor from a studio fire. A few years later her first husband died and Lawrence began to drop out of the film scene and found herself in less demand. She married again and lost her second husband in 1930 while a third marriage lasted less than a year.

She also had a rare bone-marrow disease that caused her a great deal of pain. On December 28 1938, Lawrence died by suicide in Beverly Hills, she was 52-years-old.

The following year, American carmaker Buick began installing turn signals as a standard feature on their vehicles. The fancy new feature was advertised as the "Flash-Way Directional Signal" operated from a switch on the new "Handi-shift" column-mounted shifter. The flashing signals only operated on the rear lights. In 1940 Buick enhanced the directional indicators by extending the signals to front lights and adding a self-cancelling mechanism.

Related: How seven car technologies we take for granted came to be

Related: Automotive style fads that are well and truly consigned to history

Related: Awesome road technology you might not know exists