Garrett Morgan: The Inventor of the Traffic Signal
Garrett Morgan was the seventh of eleven children, and he was born in Paris, Kentucky in 1877. When he was 14 he moved North to find employment. He found work as a handyman, and still continued with his education by hiring a tutor. He opened his own sewing machine and repair shop in Cleveland, Ohio, in the year 1895. He manufactured clothes from his shop with equipment that he had made himself. In 1910 he also made a curved toothed comb, and black oil dye for straightening hair. In 1920 he began publishing The Cleveland Call when he moved on to the newspaper business.
His invention of the safety hood won him gold medals from the International Association of Fire Chiefs, and the International Exposition of Sanitation and safety. He was also awarded a gold medal of bravery from the citizens of Cleveland. However, he was denied the Carnegie medal, thought to be because of his race. Morgan and his supporters have tried to rectify this decision over the year's, but have not been able to thus far.
He later revised the design of the safety hood, and it was used in the Erie Crib Disaster to help trapped worker's, in 1917. The safety hood later evolved further to become a type of gas mask.
Although other inventors had built, marketed, and patented traffic signals, Garrett Morgan was the first person to patent them in the US. The patent was accepted in 1923 when he also patented his invention in the UK and Canada. During the 1920's many traffic accidents occurred due to the numbers of horses, wagons, cars, and other vehicles on the road. It was while witnessing a major road accident in Cleveland, Ohio when Garrett came upon the idea of the traffic signal. Garrett Morgan is also known to be the first African American to own an automobile.
The traffic signal started as a T-shaped pole with three directional indicators. One to signal stop, one for go, and the final was to stop all traffic to enable pedestrians to cross the road safely. The lights were operated manually until they were changed to the more modern automatic, red, green, and yellow lights seen today. Shortly before his death in 1963 Garrett Morgan sold the rights to his invention to the General Electric Corporation for $40,000.
Published by Pauline Abreu
I like writing, reading, listening to music, antiques, and painting. View profile
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4 Comments
Post a CommentThis was a gud man i mean i learn something cause i didnt know that a afican american invent traffic signals i mean didnt know HOW GREAT IS THANX U SO MUCH FOR THE TRAFFIC SINGALS GARETT!!!!!!
Waka flak flame!
im doing a report on him and this was very helpful
Pauline, glad I STOPped by to read this interesting article. Another in a series of "gee, I did not know that" pieces. Its always an education to read your work. Thank you. Well, now I have to GO! LOL!! Well done. (And just think, if Garrett never patented his invention, we wouldn't have the game "Red Light, Green Light! One, Two, Three!")