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Garrett Morgan

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Garrett Morgan
Born(1877-03-04)March 4, 1877
Paris, Kentucky
DiedAugust 27, 1963(1963-08-27) (aged 86)
Cleveland, Ohio, USA
Other namesBig Chief Mason
Occupation(s)Inventor, Entrepreneur
Known forInventor of a type of traffic signal and a respiratory protective hood

Garrett Augustus Morgan, Sr. (March 4, 1877 – August 27, 1963) was an African-American inventor. His most notable creations were a type of respiratory protective hood, a traffic signal, and a hair-straightening preparation. He is renowned for a heroic rescue in 1917 at Lake Erie in which he used his hood to save workers trapped in a tunnel system filled with fumes, after other rescue attempts had failed. He is credited as the first African American in Cleveland, Ohio, to own an automobile.[1]

Early life

Born in Paris, Kentucky, Morgan moved at the age of fifteen to Cincinnati, Ohio in search of employment. Most of his teenage years were spent working as a handyman for a wealthy Cincinnati landowner. Like many African Americans of his day, he had to quit school at a young age in order to work. However, the teen-aged Morgan was able to hire his own tutor and continued his studies while living in Cincinnati. In 1895, he moved to Cleveland, Ohio, where he worked repairing sewing machines for a clothing manufacturer. In 1916 he helped to found the Cleveland Call newspaper, and subsequently participated in a 1928 merger that created the Call and Post newspaper.[2] He married his first wife, Madge Nelson, in 1896, but that marriage ended in divorce. Word of his skill at fixing things and experimenting spread quickly throughout Cleveland, opening up various opportunities for him.

In 1907, Morgan opened his own sewing machine and shoe repair shop. It was the first of several businesses he would own. In 1908, Morgan helped found the Cleveland Association of Colored Men. That same year, he married his second wife, Mary Anne Hassek, and together they had three sons. In 1909, he expanded his business to include a tailoring shop. The company made coats, suits, dresses, and other clothing. Morgan experimented with a liquid that gave sewing machine needles a high polish and prevented the needle from scorching fabric as it sewed. Accidentally, Morgan discovered that this liquid not only straightened fabric but also hair. He made the liquid into a cream and began the G. A. Morgan Hair Refining Company. He also made a black hair oil dye and a curved-tooth iron comb in 1910, to straighten hair.

Safety hood

Newspaper photograph of Morgan's rescue in 1916

Garrett Morgan patented a safety hood and smoke protector after seeing firefighters struggling from the smoke they encountered in the line of duty[3] and hearing about the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire.[citation needed] His device used a wet sponge to filter out smoke and cool the air.[4] He was able to sell his invention around the country, sometimes using the tactic of having a hired white actor take credit rather than revealing himself as its inventor.[3] For demonstrations of the device, he sometimes adopted the disguise of "Big Chief Mason", a purported full-blooded Indian from the Walpole Island Indian Reservation in Canada.[5] His invention became known nationally when he and three other men used it to save several men after a 1916 tunnel explosion under Lake Erie.[6] Cleveland's newspapers and city officials initially ignored Morgan's personal acts of heroism as the first to rush into the tunnel for the rescue, and it took years for the city to recognize his contributions.[3] Eventually, Morgan was awarded a gold Medal of Bravery by prominent citizens of Cleveland and a gold medal for bravery from the International Association of Fire Chiefs.[6]

Morgan's invention of the safety hood was featured on the television show Inventions that Shook the World.[7]

Traffic signal

See also: Traffic signal
Patent drawing of Morgan's signal

The first American-made automobiles were introduced to consumers just before the turn of the 20th century, and pedestrians, bicycles, animal-drawn wagons and motor vehicles all had to share the same roads. Between 1913 and 1921, a number of versions of traffic signaling devices, both mechanical and automated, were patented by various inventors. Of these, only a few saw production or implementation on public roads. Morgan's device, first patented in 1923, was a hand-cranked, manually operated mechanical semaphore signal.[6] His device had two key safety features: having an intermediate "all stop" signal state to give moving traffic time to stop before signaling cross traffic to proceed, and having a "half mast" position to indicate general caution at times when the device operator was not present.[6]

There is no evidence to support the claim that Morgan's traffic signal was ever put into service.[8][failed verification] Despite claims on various websites[9][10][11][12][13] as well as in print[14][15] that Morgan's invention was used "throughout North America", the absence of his signal in 1920s photographs[citation needed] and news articles[citation needed] suggests[citation needed] that it was not installed in large numbers, if at all.[citation needed] Notably, it did not merit[citation needed] a single mention in the book-length historical study by Gordon M. Sessions,[16] which covers a wide variety of devices in tracing the development of traffic-control devices throughout history.

Many of these sources also claim that the patent rights for Morgan's designs were sold at about that time to General Electric (GE) for $40,000. However, no record of this transaction appears[citation needed] either in the U.S. patent assignment records at the National Archives, the GE historical business records at the Schenectady Museum in New York, or in Morgan's own legal and business papers at the Western Reserve Historical Society in Cleveland. Advertisements and photos from the 1920s indicate that GE's early traffic signal products were of the more modern electric variety, not manually operated semaphores.[citation needed] Several GE patent acquisitions from the early-to-mid 1920s[17][18][19][20] show that the company was investing heavily in solid-state electronic circuitry and automated traffic signaling devices during that time. By the end of 1926, GE had begun experimenting with traffic-controlled systems[21] (as opposed to timer-controlled devices); it is highly implausible[citation needed] that GE would consider investing $40,000 (over $500,000 USD inflation-adjusted to 2011) in a manual, crank-driven signaling device during an era when the company was researching, developing and producing solid-state analog circuitry and actively implementing these technologies into their signals.[citation needed]

Awards and recognitions

Grave of Garrett A. Morgan

At the Emancipation Centennial Celebration in Chicago, Illinois, in August 1963, Morgan was nationally recognized. Although in ill-health, and nearly blind, he continued to work on his inventions; one of his last was a self-extinguishing cigarette, which employed a small plastic pellet filled with water, placed just before the filter.

In Prince George's County, Maryland, the Prince George's County Board renamed Summerfield Boulevard to Garrett A. Morgan Boulevard in his honor. The adjacent Washington Metro's Morgan Boulevard Station was going to be named Summerfield, but was consequently renamed as well. Also named in his honor is the Garrett A. Morgan Cleveland School of Science in Cleveland, Ohio. In 2002, scholar Molefi Kete Asante included Morgan on his list of 100 Greatest African Americans.[22]

Morgan was a Prince Hall Freemason (Excelsior Lodge No. 11 of Cleveland, Ohio)[23] and an honorary member of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity.

Morgan died on August 27, 1963, at the age of 86, and is buried at Lake View Cemetery in Cleveland, Ohio.

References

  1. ^ "Encyclopedia of World Biography on Garrett A. Morgan". Bookrags.com. Retrieved 2009-05-19.
  2. ^ "The Encyclopedia of Cleveland History". The CLEVELAND CALL & POST. Case Western Reserve University. Retrieved 09/03/11. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  3. ^ a b c Who Made America? Pioneers: Garrett Augustus Morgan PBS.org.
  4. ^ Inventor of the Week: Garrett A. Morgan: The Safety Hood, MIT, February 1997.
  5. ^ Editors, Time-Life (1991). Inventive Genius. New York: Time-Life Books. p. 40. ISBN 0-8094-7699-1. {{cite book}}: |last= has generic name (help)
  6. ^ a b c d "An American Inventor, Federal Highway Administration". Fhwa.dot.gov. Retrieved 2009-05-19.
  7. ^ Discovery Channel.
  8. ^ Edward A. Mueller, "Aspects of the History of Traffic Signals", IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology, vol. VT-19, no. 1, pp. 6-17 (1970).
  9. ^ ("...Garrett Morgan invented gas mask, traffic signal...")
  10. ^ ("...he invented what would become the traffic light.")
  11. ^ ("...[Morgan's traffic signal became the standard across the country. Today's modern traffic lights are based upon Morgan's original design.")]
  12. ^ ("...The traffic signals we use today are based on Garrett Morgan's invention...")
  13. ^ ("...Garrett Morgan invented the traffic signal and is recognized as the father of our safe transportation technology program...")
  14. ^ Inventing Modern America: from the Microwave to the Mouse (2002), David E. Brown, The MIT Press: Cambridge MA, London ("...In 1922, after Morgan witnessed a horrible traffic accident, he turned his inventive mind to automobile safety. A year later, he was awarded the first patent for a traffic signal...)"
  15. ^ USA Today, November 14, 2001, Wednesday FINAL EDITION, MONEY; P. 3B (Headline: Inventor didn't stop at gas mask: He created traffic signal, too)
  16. ^ Gordon Sessions, Traffic Devices: Historical Aspects Thereof (Washington DC: Institute of Traffic Engineers, c. 1971).
  17. ^ U.S. Patent No. 1,725,635.
  18. ^ U.S. Patent No. 1,711,480.
  19. ^ U.S. Patent No. 1,835,916.
  20. ^ U.S. Patent No. 1,835,917.
  21. ^ Drawing of T. Tone, "Traffic Signal Controlled by Vehicles", Filed Aug. 4, 1926, Patented Aug. 11 1936.
  22. ^ Asante, Molefi Kete (2002), 100 Greatest African Americans: A Biographical Encyclopedia. Amherst, New York: Prometheus Books. ISBN 1-57392-963-8.
  23. ^ Proceedings of the 129th Communication of the Most Worshipful Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Ohio F&AM. Columbus, Ohio: The Most Worshipful Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Ohio. 1978. p. 70.
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