Vehicle collisions were around long before motor vehicles took over the roads in the early 1900s. Horse-drawn carriage collisions usually resulted in severe injury to the occupants and the horses. Imagine navigating the roads before traffic lights, or even turn signals--chaos! Even with all the technology we have today, around 2 million vehicle collisions occurred at intersections with a traffic light in 2020. Who knows what number that would be without the traffic light.
The first traffic signaling system was invented by John Peake Knight in 1866, and it was installed in London in 1868. A police officer operated the traffic light using a visual system during the day and red and green gas-powered lamps at night. This worked well until a police officer was injured by an exploding light during a gas leak, which made Knight’s light go out of style.
Meanwhile, in the United States, Lester Wire developed the first electric traffic light in 1912. It was similar to Knight’s light but instead of gas-powered red and green lamps, the red and green lights were electric, making them much safer for the police officer who manually controlled the direction of the lights using a switch.
The two-way electric traffic light was definitely helpful in making intersections safer for drivers, but there was still a problem: there was no time for drivers to react when the signal changed, causing confusion as to who had the right-of-way. This resulted in many collisions between vehicles and endangered pedestrians who were still crossing the street as the signal changed. That’s where Garrett Morgan comes in.
Garrett Morgan, an inventor often referred to as "the Black Edison," was born in 1877. His father, Sydney, was the son of a confederate officer and an enslaved Black woman--Sydney himself was enslaved until 1863. Morgan’s mother, Elizabeth Reed, was Indian and Black and the daughter of a minister.
Morgan moved to Ohio as a teenager and worked as a handyman before shifting to the sewing machine business. His ingenuity led to the invention that earned him his first patent, for an improved sewing machine. His success with his sewing machine invention paved the way for a lucrative business career, which allowed him to focus on other inventions.
His next business was born when Morgan created a hair cream that quickly became popular with Black people who wanted to straighten their hair without causing too much damage to it. Morgan also had success in the newspaper industry and eventually started the Cleveland Call and Post.
After hearing about the horrific fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist factory in New York that left 146 workers dead within 30 minutes, Morgan invented the "safety hood," a device that covered the user’s head and used long tubes to pull in clean air. This made it much safer to enter areas with toxic fumes. The safety hood went on to save countless lives, including those of workers in his hometown after a tunnel exploded under Lake Erie. Workers trapped in the tunnel were exposed to fumes from a natural gas leak, and rescue teams were unable to enter the tunnel safely.
When Morgan and his brother heard about the explosion, they hurried to the scene with safety hoods. Because of these hoods, they were able to save the lives of some of the workers. Despite their heroic efforts and the effectiveness of Morgan’s safety hood, most reports of the accident didn’t mention Morgan and his brother at all. Prior to the tunnel explosion, Morgan hired a white man to be the face of the product while Morgan himself posed as an assistant, but when word got out that the inventor was Black, sales of the safety hood plummeted. They soon picked back up, though, when his design became a blueprint for gas masks used in World War I.
Even though he wasn’t recognized for his role in the tunnel rescue until much later (thanks in part to his own letters to Cleveland’s mayor), Morgan continued to solve problems he saw in the world by inventing his own solutions. This leads us back to the traffic light.
After witnessing a horrible traffic collision at an intersection controlled by the standard two signal traffic light of the time, Morgan realized there was much room for improvement.
In 1923, Morgan patented his own traffic signal. It was similar to Wire’s traffic signal, but with one crucial difference: a pause between the green light and red light, giving roadway users time to react to the changing signal. Sound familiar? That’s because Morgan’s invention became the first three-way traffic light. Morgan’s "all hold" signal eventually turned into the yellow light we use to this day.
Morgan’s improved traffic signal quickly got the attention of manufacturers, and he sold his patent to General Electric for the equivalent of around $654,000 in today’s money.
Morgan used the money for another creation, though a bit different than his previous inventions. Morgan was passionate about the Black community and used much of his time and resources to support his community. He opened the Wakeman Country Club, an all-Black "village" of sorts outside of Cleveland, complete with a dance hall, horse stables, training facilities, and restaurants. The Wakeman Country Club hosted celebrations, parades, boxing tournaments, and dances, and quickly became a safe haven for Black people during a time when racism and discrimination were the norm.
Garrett Morgan’s safety hood and traffic light have saved countless lives since their invention. His legacy as an inventor and an activist for the Black community will live on for generations to come.
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