G.E. "command, spiderweb" traffic signal lens

Here's another of my "traffic light collection", this showing specifically for the red glass STOP lens. In the 'signal world', old and/or uniquely patterned lenses are sought after -- in the early days of such things they weren't *at all* 'standardized' like they are today and, thusly, lots of variations existed between manufacturers, jurisdictions, and whatnot. [he says, to a roomful of folks that 'collect old things' in general...?? <sigh><headdesk>] It is 8-3/8" diameter, the 'near standard' size for elderly signal equipment. The terms "command" and "spiderweb" (now) refer directly to the molded and black-filled word STOP and the sorta-crosshatch light diffusing pattern respectively, both on its backside and seen best here in pic 3.

Both those characteristics also came in amber colored CAUTION and green colored GO, and both the characteristics were often *not* found together on the same lenses. To my knowledge (at the moment anyway) the only signal company that combined the two was GENERAL ELECTRIC -- looking carefully at pic 1 their familiar GE/circle logo can be seen molded into the outer center of the lens. I believe (again, offhand) that these were produced in the 1940's or before -- not all that many have survived.

This lens did not come with the signal it is currently living in, or at least not from anybody's factory. It did come to *me* in the signal however, along with a group of other signal parts obtained from/for a fellow collector. (in its own convoluted story best left for a showing of the entire light, if I get there one of these days) I included pic 4 here showing the backside of the light itself (in my bedroom along with a couple more RYG lights that cycle) just for grins -- there's also a reason why I repainted it the odd shade of aqua green, but that really doesn't matter here either... ;-) ;-) ;-)