Garret A. Morgan is emerging as a larger-than-life figure in American. International recognition fro the brilliant Cleveland entrepreneur comes a century after after his life-saving inventions helped reshape the modern world - from the battlefield to the firehouse to the family road trip.
He possessed a unique humanitarian gift for tuning tragedy into life-saving. Garret A. Morgan (1877-1963) was a Cleveland businessman who invented the modern three-way traffic signal and a breathing device that found service by both soldiers and firefighters.
A decade earlier, he patented the first gas mask in response to the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, which killed 146 garment workers, mostly young women, in New York city in 1911.
He proved the mask's merits at the risk of his own death during his heroic rescue of trapped tunnel workers following a tragic methane explosion beneath Lake Erie in 1916.
Modern version of Morgan breathing device are standard equipment today for firefighters around the world. Allied troops also relied on gas masks built on Morgan's patented technology to protect them from chemical attacks during the trench warfare of World War 1.
Modern versions of Morgan breathing device are standard equipment today for firefighters around the world..
Garret Morgan received a patent in 1923 for a new three-phase traffic signal that including a "slow" or warning phase. Previous traffic signals offered only stop or go functions, often leading to intersection chaos.
Morgan, his brother Frank and two other men donned his new masks, entered the tunnel and pulled out two survivors and four bodies. Yet The New York Times and other national newspapers of the day failed to mention Morgan in their recap of the disaster, with racism cited by historians today as the reason for the oversight.
According Bellamy the curator of this report for FOX NEWS Inc, "There's no question that he was a hero but that he was treated shabbily, too"
The Lake Erie crib disaster killed 21 men in 1916, Morgan, along with his brother Frank and two other men wearing his newly patented gas mask, descended into a methane-filled hole beneath the lake bed to find survivors and remove bodies.
Morgan is today being recognized for his creative genius, personal bravery and clear position at the sharp end of the fight for equality. The new short movie, "The Inventor," is making the film festival circuit this past summer. it was honored for the "Best Historic Short" at the Manhattan Film Festival.
Sydney Morgan the father of Garret Morgan the inventor was freed after General John Hunt Morgan a confederate Calvary officer, known for invading and attacking Ohio, was killed.
Garret A. Morgan the son of freed slaves Sydney Morgan, Sydney married another former slave, Eliza Reed, sometime after the war.
Garret Morgan proved adept at business with an incredible mechanical aptitude, despite possessing only fifth or sixth-grade level education.
He landed a job in the garment industry, inventing among other things a zigzag stitch pattern for sewing machines. He soon stopped working for others, opening his own sewing store and then a hair products company, G.A. Morgan Hair Refining Co.
It stayed in business until 1976, the family said, he also became active in civic affairs, especially those championing Africa-American success. he helped found the Cleveland Association of colored Men in 1908 and the all-Black Wakerman Country Club, on land he purchased in 1923, according to the Encyclopedia.
Garret Morgan filed a patent application for a new breathing device in 1912, which was approved in 1914. His system proved its worth as a gas mask in a 1916 Lake Erie tunnel fire and on the battlefield in World War 1.
Garret and his wife both owned a hugely successful ladies' clothing store, which employed up to 32 people, according to their family history.
After reading about the horror of the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist fire, Garret set about creating a mask to help rescue workers breath safely amid toxic conditions. As many of the 146 who was killed in the New York city fire died of smoke inhalation.
He struggled to sell the mask, however, he even enlisted a white friend to lead sales calls, hoping the color of his skin would make it an easier sell.
The business was never as successful as it could have been, Sandra Morgan told Fox News Digital.
The knock on the door came before sunrise on the morning of July 25, 1916. There was a terrible explosion on the night before at the Lake Erie crib, an offshore base where tunnel workers lived while digging beneath the lake bed to bring fresh water to Cleveland.
The blast at 9:22PM "was so powerful that it smashed and hurled the heavy concrete tunnel sections around, killing and buying the crew in a fiery holocaust of flame and dirt", Bellamy wrote in his book "They Died Crawling".
In all, 21 mean - both tunnel workers and rescuers were killed, authorities were desperate to find a way to get into the tunnel safely and search for survivors and bodies. One official recalled the Cleveland inventor Morgan has been shopping a breathing device around to fire departments.
"He rustled his brother frank", Sandra Morgan told Smithsonian . "They threw a bunch of gas masks in the car - remember, they were selling these things - and their pajamas, drove down to the lakefront."
"Goodbye", Cleveland Mayor Harry Davis said to Morgan - "so doubtful was he of the helmet effectiveness" as John Start Bellamy II recounted in his book "They died Crawling
But the mask was brilliantly effective, the national media soaked up the story - yet they failed to mention the real hero of the Lake Erie crib disaster.
"The mayor purposely left Morgan out of the story of the rescue because he was Black" That's the belief of Scott O'Con of Tours of Cleveland, who included tales of Morgan's achievements in his guided trips around the city.
"It took years for the city to actually recognize Morgan for his heroic efforts that day" O'Con told Fox News Digital. Four rescue workers received medals from the Carnegie Hero funds for their efforts that day, said O'Con . Morgan was not among them.
"He risked his life to save those men and he suffered ill effects from exposure to methane" said Bellamy. "The helmets were primitive, he suffered damaged lungs - and he couldn't get any compensation for it"
Morgan the man may have been furious at this - but Morgan the inventor was undeterred by the slight.
Morgan filed another life-saving patent, for a three-stage traffic signal with a "warning" position, after witnessing a horrifying traffic accident in a Cleveland intersection in 1923, Garret Morgan patented the first modern traffic signal with a third signal guiding people to slow down before it turned to stop.
His system, is now used to enhance traffic safely all over the world, "On the basis of his safety inventions, I imagine that Garret A. Morgan was a kind, thoughtful and community-minded individual", author Monica Killing told Fox News Digital.
Her book 2016 children's book, "To the Rescue! Garret Morgan Underground," chronicles the daring achievement of the Cleveland inventor.
"he was a mechanical genius with an entrepreneurial streak" After decades of battling poor health, glaucoma and then near-total blindness in the last years of his life, Garret A. Morgan died on July 27, 1963.
He was 86 years old, he's buried today alongside wife Mary beneath a simple gravestone at Lake View Cemetery in Cleveland. "By his deeds he shall be remembered" says the inscription beneath their names.
Those deeds live on at almost every traffic light around the world and every time a firefighter enters a burning building. In addition, his gas mask is featured at the museum of Firefighting Hall of flame in Phoenix, Arizona.
The Cleveland Call, a newspaper he founded to serve the Black community in 1916, continues to dish out news today to readers in Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati as the Cleveland Call & Post.
His achievements are taught in public school social studies courses in Ohio, Garret A. Morgan "was a complex man, a very creative, very curious man who has a strong sense of public good". grand daughter Sandra Morgan said, "family was important to him. Community was important to him, he would be thrilled and very excited to know that he was now being recognized this way"
Culled from Fox News Digital
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