Even if you ’ve never hear his name , you ’ve likely benefited from Garrett Morgan ’s most famous invention . In 1923 Morgan patent his three - post traffic signal , a twist that inspire route prophylactic . His traffic sign of the zodiac was just one of many accomplishments Morgan achieved during his 86 - year life-time . In addition to being a prolific inventor , he also solidify a lasting bequest as a local wedge , businessman , and activist , all with only a 6th - grade education .
Garrett Morgan was born in Claysville , Kentucky on March 4 , 1877 to parent Eliza Reed Morgan and Sydney Reed Morgan — both former slaves . Garrett educate a warmth for see at a young age . Though he would have pass most of the year working on his family ’s sharecropping farm , Garrett preferred his time at school . Unfortunately , his formal education finish with his graduation from the sixth gradation .
Morgan knew there was n’t much opportunity for him on his parent ’ farm in Kentucky , so at the old age of 14 he move northward to Cincinnati in hunting of employment . He found his first job in Ohio function as a jack of all trades for a local landlord . It was at this degree that he had the chance to advance his education , and he hired a coach to improve his grammar attainment . While his jack of all trades job was definitely a dance step up from sharecropping , it still lack the way for maturation and creativity he want . After four long time in Cincinnati , Morgan run to Cleveland with no place to persist and only 10 cents to his name .
life-time in Cleveland was bouldered at first . During his first few days , he slept in boxcar in an industrial part of township and searched for work during the 24-hour interval . Even up northerly , he detect that most white people were n’t unforced to hire a black man . His first caper in the city was span the floors of a ironical good store for $ 5 a week . From there , he move on to work out as a stitching machine adjuster for women ’s clothing manufacturer . This was the first problem Morgan had that appeal to his hang for tinkering and problem - resolution . He shortly became the go - to somebody whenever a sewing car was on the fritz , and he even formulate new parts for the equipment to help them run more swimmingly .
This experience gave Morgan the skills he needed to open his own sewing machine sales and hangout shop in 1907 . A year later , he married a white sempstress by the name of Mary Anne Hasek . ( She was Morgan ’s 2d wife ; he had first married at historic period 19 and divorced two years later . ) Even though his mixed union to Mary Anne was n’t met heartily by either of their family , his 2d spousal relationship twist out to be much well-chosen and more successful than his first . Life was good for Morgan : his business was so popular that by 1909 he had enough money to open his own tailoring mill . He purchased a menage in Cleveland ’s garment district and became the first black man in the city to own a car . Despite all his success , Morgan never stopped thinking of new elbow room to ameliorate the existence around him .
In 1912 he develop his first major invention : the safety thug . As a young piece he had witness firefighters sputter to breathe in smoking - fill blank . He noticed that smoke tended to come up , so the equipment he invented drew and filtered unobjectionable air from the ground ( or from a bag of sportsmanlike air ) through a long subway and up to a high temperature - resistant hood around the wearer ’s head . After securing a patent of invention for the product in 1914 , Morgan took his excogitation on the road .
He traveled from state to state demonstrating the gadget ’s effectiveness to various flaming section around the country . It was purchased by over500 citiesin the North , but Morgan had a tougher sentence sell his safety exhaust hood to southerly consultation . He find a manner around this by occasionally hiring white player to pose as the product ’s inventor in his seat . Morgan was even know to fit out up as an Amerind chief named " Big Chief Mason " during these demonstrations . After being introduced by the white histrion , his character would stand inside a smoke - meet tent for up to 25 minute at a time . When he in the end stepped out unharmed , the crowds were stunned .
His invention garnered even more attention in 1916 following a Cleveland grammatical construction catastrophe . A burrow that was being build 250 feet below Lake Erie collapsed after an explosion , leaving oodles of workers pin and choked by harmful exhaust fumes . The local law were fresh enough to call Morgan and request he lend his safety hoods to the site . He arrived at the scene with his brother and they descended into the tunnel along with two other volunteers , all of whom were equip with the mask . Thanks to his invention , they were able to successfully retrieve workers and bodies from the rubble , but it was one of the blank Tennessean who had been with him who received all the aureole . It was only after years of fighting for proper recognition that Morgan was in the end awarded his due accolades from the urban center . Today , a Cleveland lakefront water intervention works isnamed for him .
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In the meantime , Morgan ’s invention was making chronicle overseas . World War I introduce a deadly new eccentric of weapon to the battlefield : toxic accelerator pedal . Morgan sold his safety hoods to the U.S. Navy , and they were also bust by Army soldiers to protect against atomic number 17 and Indian mustard gas attacks deploy by German forces . Future gun masks manufacture for British and American troops reflected aspects find in Morgan ’s original design .
The refuge hood was just one of several innovation Morgan would recrudesce . While experimenting with solutions to help stitchery needles sew more smoothly , he inadvertently created a chemical pilus straightener he dubbed the G.A. Morgan Refining Cream . This launch the doorway for him to start his own hair’s-breadth guardianship line , whose product include blackened hairsbreadth dyestuff for aging men , a hair - pressing cockscomb for women , hair oil , and hair grower . Then , in 1920 , Morgan switched gear . He used the money he had realise from hisentrepreneurialendeavors to foundThe Cleveland Call , a newspaper dedicate to reporting events concern to the African American community . The case of stories featured inTheCallwere often insufferable to incur in mainstream vent of the time , and the paper presently became one of the most crucial black publications in the nation .
Three years later , Garrett Morgan filed the patent for what would become his most influential invention . After see a hit between an automobile and a Equus caballus - draw carriage , Morgan was instigate to devise a more good traffic signal for busy intersections . The existing poser were allmanually operated , and they swap suddenly between stop and go without allowing dealings any time to slow down . Morgan solved this issue by introducing a third sign of the zodiac to the mechanism that would signal the transition . When General Electric catch wind of the innovation , they offered to buy his patent of invention for $ 40,000 . sleep with that the company could do more for his estimation than he had the means to , Morgan sold it . The innovation would pave the way for the crimson - yellow - and - fleeceable traffic lighting that are used on roads around the world today .
On top of his industrious calling as an artificer , Morgan left a vivacious bequest as a societal activist and drawing card in the black residential district . He aid form the Cleveland Association of Colored Men and establish anall - smuggled country clubon his farm in Wakeman , Ohio . He also dabbled concisely in political sympathies when he run for the Cleveland City Council in 1931 , but his campaign was stillborn .
Even after developing glaucoma in his old eld , Morgan did n’t cease devise . He designed a pellet for cigarette that would automatically extinguish them if a smoking carriage shine asleep , and he invented and patented a de - curled comb at the age of 79 . Garrett Morgan died in Cleveland on July 27 , 1963 at the age of 86 . He is buried in the metropolis ’s Lakeview Cemetery , among fellow historical heavyweightsEliot Ness , John D. Rockefeller , and president James Garfield . Additional Sources : Garret Augustus Morgan : Businessman , Inventor , Good Citizen
