Traffic Signal – Gas Mask Inventor – Garrett Morgan

Garrett Morgan was born in Paris, Kentucky on March 4, 1877 son of former slaves.  He moved to Cleveland, Ohio in 1895 and went to work as a sewing machine repair man for a clothing manufacturer.

In 1916, Garrett Morgan made national news for using his gas mask to rescue 32 men trapped in an underground tunnel 250-feet beneath Lake Erie after an explosion.  After the rescue, Morgan’s company (an enterprise opened in 1907 that employed 32-people tailoring coats, suits and dresses, all sewn with equipment he had made himself) received requests from fire departments around the country to purchase his new masks.

Morgan’s mask was later refined for use by the U.S. Army during World War I. Garrett Morgan was awarded a patent for a Safety Hood and Smoke Protector and won a gold medal at the International Exposition of Sanitation and Safety.

John Hunt Morgan, his father was the mixed-race son of a slave and a Confederate colonel. His mother, half Indian and half black, was the daughter of a Baptist minister. Morgan’s race would impact his career profoundly.

Did you know? Garrett Morgan was unable to sell his mask to fire departments in the South and had to hire an actor friend to pose as an inventor while he dressed up as an Indian Chief. The skit they played was the Big Chief Mason, Morgan would go inside a smoke-filled tent for 10-minutes.  When Morgan emerged some 25-minutes later unharmed, people were amazed and his business boomed.

Garrett Morgan was also one of the first to apply for and acquire a U.S. patent to produce a traffic signal which was granted on November 20, 1923 and it was also patented in Great Britain and Canada.

Thisinventionisblack, black inventor Garrett Morgan, died on August 27, 1963 at age 86.