The First GPS...In 1912

I write this for all those who are traveling over the holidays who will be using your GPS to find your way about. This is the story of the first GPS.

In the early 1900s, there were barely any markings for roads or street signs. Drivers found themselves hopelessly lost without a reliable navigation system. In New York City engineer J.W. Jones invented a turn-by-turn navigation system he named the Jones Live Map. A small circular contraption would sit on your car's dashboard, connected to the odometer. The driver would place a 9 1/2 inch in diameter disk with step by step directions from one predetermined place to another onto the device at the start of the drive.  The driver reads the first set of instructions from the disk. As the car moves forward the arrow on the directions change according to the odometer. The driver follows the directions on the disk until he gets to his destination. Each disk can provide directions for up to one hundred miles. Then you would have to change disks. He began selling his invention in 1912 for $75 and drivers loved it and bought them up. They were a miracle device.

Then in the 1920s city governments began to install road signs at intersections and in 1926 the U.S. government organized roadways even further with a system of numbers we know as highways.  For drivers, this was a godsend. Then companies started printing maps of the nation's highways and byways and instead of paying top dollar for a complicated navigational device motorists preferred the convenience and cheap price of maps. Jones was forced to shut down. But his idea did not die. In the 2000s Global Positioning System (GPS) which is based on twenty-four linked satelites, came along and it is based on the Jones Live Map, in that it is a turn-by-turn navigation system. Now people started throwing out their maps in favor of the easier GPS method. Oddly enough, the some of the GPSs have cost around $75 just like Jones's Live Map.  I think Jones would feel vindicated.