Morgan, Garrett Augustus

Source:

 African American National Biography

Morgan, Garrett Augustus

(4 Mar. 1877?–27 July 1963),

inventor and entrepreneur, was born in 1875 or 1877 in Paris, Kentucky, the seventh of eleven children to former slaves Elizabeth “Eliza” Reed, a woman of African and American Indian ancestry, and Sydney Morgan, a railroad worker of mixed race. Garrett left home for Cincinnati, Ohio, at age fourteen with only six years of education. After six years working as a handyman for a wealthy landowner, he moved to Cleveland, Ohio, where he remained until his death. Enchanted by all things mechanical, Garrett worked as a mechanic for several sewing machine shops and in 1901 sold his first invention, a sewing machine belt fastener.

Morgan opened his own sewing machine sales and repair shop in 1907. He soon earned enough money to buy a house and help support his mother, and in 1908 he married a seamstress, Mary Anne Hassek. The union lasted fifty-five years and produced three sons, John Pierpoint, Garrett Jr., and Cosmos Henry. (Morgan's first marriage in 1896 to Madge Nelson had ended in divorce after only two years.)

Morgan consistently improved the quality and sophistication of his company's sewing machines with innovations like his zigzag stitching attachment. In 1909 he expanded his business with the establishment of the Morgan Skirt Factory, a men's and women's clothes-manufacturing plant that eventually employed more than thirty workers. Morgan's next business enterprise resulted from a serendipitous discovery he made while experimenting with lubricants in an effort to reduce the damage done to wool fabrics by the fire-producing friction of fast-moving sewing machines. Coming across a concoction that appeared to straighten hair, he tested it on a neighbor's Airedale terrier and then on himself. In 1913 he formed the G. A. Morgan Hair Refining Company, offering hair-straightening cream and a complete line of hair products to an enthusiastic public.

In an effort to help firefighters, Morgan set out to create a reliable, portable, water-resistant protective mask that worked without impeding sight, hearing, or mobility. Through studying both the behavior of combustion and the activities of firefighters, Morgan learned that smoke and gases proved the most lethal dangers. By 1912 he had developed a “breathing device” that provided fifteen to twenty minutes of clean air and that could be put on or pulled off in a matter of seconds. Morgan patented his National Safety

Garrett Augustus Morgan, inventor of the gas mask, photographed in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1945. (AP Images.)

view larger image

Hood in 1914 and established the National Safety Device Company to produce and sell it. After several months of unsuccessful attempts to enlist black investors, Morgan turned to financing from outside the African American community. To drum up business, he advertised in trade journals and with direct-mail pieces that included customer testimonials and newspaper accounts. Morgan traveled nationwide, demonstrating the mask at fairs and exhibitions. Elaborate publicity stunts included spending twenty minutes wearing the hood inside tents filled with toxic fumes or mixtures of tar, sulfur, formaldehyde, and manure set on fire. For demonstrations in the South, Morgan employed white salesmen who pretended to be “Garrett Morgan” while he “played” an Indian assistant.

The Lake Erie crib disaster of July 1916 proved to be the defining moment for Morgan and his mask. Following an explosion in a tunnel under construction deep below Lake Erie, Morgan and his brother Frank donned his safety hoods and made four trips through smoke and toxic gases to rescue workers. Along with citations, including a gold medal from the city of Cleveland, came orders for Morgan Safety Hoods from fire and police departments and mining companies nationwide. Some orders, however, were rescinded after it was revealed that the mask's inventor was black. The dramatic tunnel rescues also led to a contract with the U.S. Navy to develop the hood for combat use. By World War I, Morgan had modified the mask to carry its own air supply, creating the first gas mask, which by 1917 was standard equipment for the U.S. Army.

Morgan began work on what would become his second major invention after witnessing a traffic accident between a horse carriage and a car. While the automobile had gained popularity after World War I, traffic rules and road behavior were evolving more slowly. After analyzing traffic patterns, Morgan invented the G. A. Morgan Safety System, the precursor of today's electric traffic signal. Advertised as “better protection for the pedestrian, school children, and R.R. crossings,” Morgan's device—a tall pole with “stop” and “go” flaps raised and lowered by a crank at the base—established a new system of traffic control. The mechanism also introduced a neutral position, the forerunner of the “caution” or “yellow light.” Morgan's invention was granted a patent in 1923, and patents in Canada and England followed. Concerned that the racism he would inevitably face in producing and marketing the device himself would limit the traffic signal's adoption, he sold the invention to the General Electric Company for forty thousand dollars.

Morgan was an active community and civic leader, serving as treasurer of the Cleveland Association of Colored Men and on the board of the Home for Aged Colored People. In 1920 he established, and through 1923 published, the Cleveland Call, a weekly African American newspaper today called the Cleveland Call and Post. In 1931 Morgan ran unsuccessfully for city council as an independent candidate, promising relief for the unemployed, better housing conditions, and improved policing and hospital access.

Early gas-mask testing had compromised Morgan's health, and in 1943 he was diagnosed with glaucoma. By the 1950s he was nearly blind. An inveterate innovator—smaller inventions included a women's hat fastener, a round belt sewing machine fastener, a friction drive clutch, and a curling comb—Morgan continued inventing even after he lost his sight. Several years before his death in 1963, he developed a pellet designed to extinguish a cigarette if the smoker fell asleep while smoking. Morgan received several awards, including a citation from the United States government for inventing the traffic signal, and an honorary membership in the International Association of Fire Engineers. In 1976 a public school in Harlem was named for him and in 1997 the U.S. Department of Transportation launched the Garrett A. Morgan Technology and Transportation Futures Program, which encourages students to pursue careers in engineering and transportation.

processed xml | source xml