Garrett Morgan, American Inventor
by Science Source
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Garrett Morgan, American Inventor
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Science Source
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Photograph - Photograph
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Garrett Augustus Morgan, Sr. (March 4, 1877 - July 27, 1963) was an African-American inventor and community leader. He first experimented with a liquid that gave sewing machine needles a high polish and prevented the needle from scorching fabric as it sewed. In 1905, Morgan accidentally discovered that the liquid could also straighten hair. He made the liquid into a cream and launched the G. A. Morgan Hair Refining Company to market it. He also made a black hair oil dye and invented a curved-tooth comb for hair straightening. His most notable invention was a type of protective respiratory hood (or gas mask). He is renowned for a heroic rescue in 1916 in which he and three others used the safety hood device he had developed to save workers trapped within a water intake tunnel, fifty feet beneath Lake Erie. Other inventors had experimented with, marketed, and even patented traffic signals, however, Morgan was one of the first to apply for and acquire a U.S. patent granted on November 20, 1923. He also had his invention patented in Great Britain and Canada. The Morgan traffic signal was a T-shaped pole unit that featured three positions Stop, Go and an all-directional stop position. This third position halted traffic in all directions to allow pedestrians to cross streets more safely. He was a member of the Prince Hall Freemason fraternal organization, a predominantly black Freemason group. In 1920, he helped found an all-black country club. He was a member of the NAACP and donated money to Negro colleges. He developed glaucoma in 1943, and was functionally blind and in poor health in his later life. He died in 1963 at the age of 86.
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April 18th, 2016
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