Speed bumps were invented in 1953 by a physicist who was concerned about speeding vehicles along pedestrian-strewn areas. Speed bumps continue to be used as a form of speed control.
Arthur Holly Compton was a physicist and winner of the Nobel Prize in physics in 1927 for his discoveries contradicting the then-common belief in the electromagnetic theory. He is commonly known for his work in the Compton Effect with X-ray theories. He invented the speed bump in 1953.
Compton began designs on the speed bump after noticing the speed at which motorists passed Brookings Hall at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, where he was a chancellor.
Compton designed two variations of the original speed bump: a single bump and a double bump. The single bump is the more common of the two.
Speed bumps were a welcome solution and were popular among students and faculty, as well as the surrounding population.
In 1992, Washington University placed single-speed bumps at each end of what is now Hoyt Drive (formerly Brookings Hall) in celebration of Compton's birth 100 years before.
