Quick Facts
- NAME: Garrett Augustus Morgan
- OCCUPATION: Entrepreneur, Inventor, Publisher
- BIRTH DATE: March 04, 1877
- DEATH DATE: August 27, 1963
- PLACE OF BIRTH: Paris, Kentucky
- PLACE OF DEATH: Cleveland, Ohio
Best Known For
Inventor Garrett Morgan blazed a trail for African American innovators with his patents for hair straightening, a gas mask, and automated traffic signals.
Garrett Morgan. (2012). Biography.com. Retrieved 08:20, May 25, 2012 from http://www.biography.com/people/garrett-morgan-9414691
Garrett Morgan [Internet]. 2012. http://www.biography.com/people/garrett-morgan-9414691, May 25
" Garrett Morgan." 2012. Biography.com 25 May 2012, 08:20 http://www.biography.com/people/garrett-morgan-9414691
' Garrett Morgan', Biography.com,(2012) http://www.biography.com/people/garrett-morgan-9414691 [accessed May 25, 2012]
" Garrett Morgan," Biography.com, http://www.biography.com/people/garrett-morgan-9414691 (accessed May 25, 2012).
Garrett Morgan [Internet]. Biography.com; 2012 [cited 2012 May 25]. Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/garrett-morgan-9414691.
Garrett Morgan, http://www.biography.com/people/garrett-morgan-9414691 (last visited May 25, 2012).
Garrett Morgan, http://www.biography.com/people/garrett-morgan-9414691 (last visited May 25, 2012).
Synopsis
With only a fifth-grade education, Garrett Morgan (born March 4, 1877) began his career as a sewing-machine mechanic. During the innovative early days of manufacturing, Morgan patented his own sewing machine, a hair-straightening process, a rudimentary
Profile
Inventor, born in Paris, Kentucky, USA. Born into poverty and with only a fifth-grade education, he moved to Cleveland, OH and worked as a sewing-machine mechanic. By 1907 he had a patent for an improved sewing machine and began his own sewing machine business. In 1909 he discovered a substance that straightened hair (temporarily) and by selling it to African-Americans through his own G A Morgan Hair Refining Co, he achieved the financial security to allow him to pursue his other interests. He patented a ‘breathing device’ (1914), a hood that allowed the wearer to breathe safely in the presence of smoke, gases, and other pollutants. He worked hard to market this device, especially to fire departments, and often himself demonstrated its reliability in fires. In the South, where there was resistance to buying such a device made by an African-American, he demonstrated as an Indian, Big Chief Mason, and in a famous tunnel accident in Cleveland (1916), where he rescued several men, he was denied a medal from the Carnegie Hero Fund. In World War 1 his hood was adopted and then adapted to serve as a gas mask. He patented his automatic traffic signal (1923) and sold it to the General Electric Co. In the 1920s he collaborated in starting a newspaper for African-Americans, the Cleveland Call (later the Call and Post). He was also active in the Cleveland Association of Colored Men and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
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