Garrett Morgan(1877 — 1963)
Garrett A. Morgan
États-Unis
9 min read
A self-taught American inventor, Garrett Morgan designed the gas mask (1914) and the three-position traffic signal (1923). His inventions saved lives and revolutionized public safety.
Key Facts
- 1877: born in Claysville, Kentucky, into a family of formerly enslaved people
- 1914: patent filed for the safety breathing hood (forerunner of the gas mask)
- 1916: heroic use of his mask to rescue workers trapped in a flooded tunnel in Cleveland
- 1923: invention of the three-position traffic signal (stop, go, and an intermediate warning position)
- 1963: death in Cleveland, Ohio, after receiving a city medal for his contribution to public safety
Works & Achievements
Patent no. 1,090,936 granted on October 13, 1914, this breathing device revolutionized safety for firefighters and miners. Adopted by the U.S. Army during World War I, it is the forerunner of modern respiratory protective equipment.
Morgan's first major commercial success, this straightening lotion — discovered by accident — allowed him to found a profitable business serving the African American community, funding his work as an inventor.
Patent no. 1,475,024 granted on November 20, 1923, this signaling system introduced an intermediate warning phase at intersections, a direct precursor to the three-color traffic light used worldwide. Morgan sold the patent to General Electric for $40,000.
A newspaper founded by Morgan to inform and advocate for Cleveland's Black community, it would later become the *Cleveland Call & Post*. This publication reflects Morgan's civic commitment beyond his career as an inventor.
A commercial enterprise founded in Cleveland to produce and distribute his hair care products, this was Morgan's first entrepreneurial success, providing him with the financial independence needed to pursue his future inventions.
Anecdotes
In July 1916, an explosion trapped workers in tunnel no. 5 of Cleveland's water supply network, beneath Lake Erie. Garrett Morgan put on his own gas mask and entered the gas-filled tunnel multiple times, saving several lives at great personal risk. This heroic act earned him a gold medal from the city of Cleveland and national press coverage.
To sell his gas mask in the segregationist American South, Morgan had to conceal his identity. He hired a white man to pose as the inventor during demonstrations, while he played the role of his Native American assistant. When Southern buyers discovered he was Black, several canceled their orders and returned equipment that had already been delivered.
A self-taught man, Morgan left the family farm at 14 with only a sixth-grade education and a few dollars to his name. While tinkering with sewing machine needles in his Cleveland workshop, he accidentally discovered a lotion that could straighten curly hair, which allowed him to launch a thriving first business even before inventing the gas mask.
In 1923, Morgan patented his three-position traffic signal — stop, warning, and go — to make intersections safer as automobiles became increasingly common. He sold the patent to General Electric for $40,000, a considerable sum at the time, and this system is the direct ancestor of the traffic lights used around the world today.
In 1920, Morgan founded the Cleveland Call, a newspaper aimed at Cleveland's African American community. Through it, he championed civil rights and informed a population often ignored by the white press, proving that his commitment extended far beyond the field of invention.
Primary Sources
The object of the invention is to provide a portable attachment which will enable a fireman to enter a house filled with thick suffocating gases and smoke and to breathe freely for some time therein, the apparatus being of such a character that it can be adjusted for use very quickly.
This invention relates to traffic signals, and particularly to a signal for use at street crossings or intersections for directing the movement of traffic, and has for its object to provide a signal of this character which shall be simple in construction, efficient in operation.
Garrett Morgan, inventor of the safety hood, made repeated trips into the fume-filled tunnel, bringing out survivors one by one. He and his brother were among the first volunteers when rescue workers feared to enter the gas-choked passage.
The Morgan Safety Hood and Smoke Protector has been tested and approved by fire departments and recommended by the U.S. Bureau of Mines for use in mines, tunnels, and all places where noxious gases are present.
Key Places
Birthplace of Garrett Morgan in 1877. His family of formerly enslaved people lived there as sharecroppers in precarious conditions — a context that drove young Garrett to leave the South and seek his fortune in the industrial North.
The city where Morgan settled around 1895 and spent most of his working life. It was here that he founded his businesses, filed his patents, carried out the heroic rescue of 1916, and published his community newspaper.
Site of the heroic rescue of July 1916: after an underground explosion, Morgan and his brother used the gas mask to save workers trapped in this tunnel filled with toxic fumes, proving the invention under real-world conditions.
The federal institution where Morgan filed his two major patents: the gas mask (1912) and the traffic signal (1922). These official filings constituted the legal recognition of his inventions and the basis of his commercial rights.
Morgan's first stop after leaving Kentucky, around 1893–1895, where he found his first jobs in the North before settling permanently in Cleveland.