Garrett Morgan

Early life

Garrett Augustus Morgan was born in Paris, Kentucky, in 1877; the National Inventors Hall of Fame gives March 4 as the date, while the USPTO describes the year as approximate. He had roughly six years of formal schooling, moved to Cincinnati as a teenager, and settled in Cleveland in 1895, where he built a career in sewing-machine repair and small manufacturing.

The safety hood

Morgan's first patented invention was a breathing device, covered by two U.S. patents in 1914 (Nos. 1,090,936 and 1,113,675). The hood drew air through a tube from near the floor, where air in a smoky room is cleaner, and released exhaled air through a valve. Lemelson-MIT describes a sponge at the tube's end that filtered and cooled incoming air. The Hall of Fame calls it a forerunner of the gas mask. He marketed it through the National Safety Device Company and, facing buyers unwilling to deal with a Black inventor, used white salespeople and an alias in demonstrations.

In July 1916 an explosion trapped workers in a waterworks tunnel under Lake Erie. Morgan, his brother Frank and volunteers wore his hoods to bring out survivors. Sources differ on details, including the death toll. Morgan received medals, but the USPTO notes that he was passed over for the recognition and compensation given to white rescuers, and that some Southern buyers cancelled orders once they learned his race.

The traffic signal

Morgan is often said to have invented "the" traffic signal. That is not what his patent claims. U.S. Patent 1,475,024, filed in 1922 and granted November 20, 1923, covers a hand-cranked, semaphore-style signal on a revolving post. Turning the crank first raised the arms so that "Stop" showed to traffic in every direction, and then turned the indicator and lowered the arms to give the right of way to the cross street. Lamps lit the Stop and Go lettering. The USPTO presents it as a significant improvement on earlier signals, and credits the all-stop phase as a precursor of today's amber interval. It was not the first traffic signal.

General Electric bought the rights for $40,000, according to both the USPTO and the Hall of Fame. The USPTO adds that the mechanical design saw limited use before electric signals replaced such devices.

Other work and legacy

While experimenting with a liquid to keep sewing needles from scorching fabric, Morgan found that it straightened hair. He sold it for decades through the G. A. Morgan Hair Refining Company. In 1920 he founded the Cleveland Call, a weekly newspaper, and in 1956 he received his last patent, for a de-curling comb. He died in Cleveland on July 27, 1963, and was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2005.