Garrett Morgan | OtterKnow Kids Encyclopedia

Early Life

Garrett Augustus Morgan was born on March 4, 1877, in Paris, Kentucky. He was the seventh of eleven children, and his parents were formerly enslaved people. Morgan only had an elementary school education, but he was endlessly curious and loved tinkering with machines. As a teenager, he moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, and then to Cleveland, looking for better opportunities. He taught himself how sewing machines worked and got a job repairing them, which sparked his lifelong career as an inventor.

The Safety Hood

In 1914, Morgan patented a device he called the “safety hood,” an early version of the gas mask. The hood fit over a person’s head and had a long tube that reached down to the floor, where the air was cleaner during a fire or gas leak. Morgan demonstrated his invention at fairs and exhibitions, sometimes walking into rooms filled with thick smoke to prove it worked. In 1916, he got the chance to show the world just how important his invention was. When an explosion trapped workers in a tunnel being dug under Lake Erie in Cleveland, Morgan personally wore his safety hood and entered the dangerous tunnel to rescue survivors.

Facing Prejudice

Despite his heroic rescue at the Lake Erie tunnel, Morgan faced terrible discrimination because he was Black. When Southern fire departments discovered that the inventor of the safety hood was African American, many canceled their orders. Morgan sometimes hired a white man to pretend to be the inventor during sales demonstrations in the South. The newspapers in Cleveland initially gave credit for the tunnel rescue to others before finally recognizing Morgan’s bravery. Throughout his life, Morgan fought against racial prejudice while continuing to invent and serve his community.

The Traffic Signal

In 1923, Morgan patented a three-position traffic signal that added a warning position between “stop” and “go.” Before his invention, intersections only had two signals, which meant cars and horse-drawn wagons had to stop or go with no time to slow down. Morgan’s design included a “caution” signal that warned drivers a change was coming, making intersections much safer. He sold the patent to General Electric for forty thousand dollars, a large sum at the time. His three-position concept became the basis for the modern traffic lights that hang at nearly every busy intersection today.

Legacy

Garrett Morgan died on July 27, 1963, in Cleveland, Ohio. Beyond his famous inventions, he was a successful businessman who owned a sewing equipment company and a newspaper called the Cleveland Call. He also served on the Cleveland City Council and was active in the civil rights movement. Morgan proved that brilliant ideas can come from anyone, no matter their background or the obstacles they face. His gas mask saved countless lives during World War I and in fire departments around the world, and his traffic signal continues to keep people safe every single day.