40 Fun Facts About Garrett Morgan

Garrett Morgan's safety hood is often called a forerunner of which piece of World War I soldiers' kit?

The gas mask that soldiers carried in World War I had a forerunner in Morgan's hood, which he patented in 1914 and first sold to fire departments.

What was Garrett Morgan reportedly still wearing when he reached the 1916 Cleveland tunnel disaster at night?

Pajamas were all Morgan had on after a messenger woke him in the middle of the night. He still arrived carrying four of his safety hoods.

Which company paid Garrett Morgan $40,000 for the rights to his 1923 traffic signal design?

General Electric bought the rights and went on to build an electric version of Morgan's three-position signal.

A liquid Garrett Morgan was testing to stop sewing needles scorching cloth turned out to do what?

Straighten hair is what the liquid did, by accident. Morgan turned it into a cream and built a hair-care company whose profits paid for his later inventions.

Whom did Garrett Morgan hire to pose as the inventor when selling his safety hood in the segregated South?

An actor who was white fronted the sales pitch, because many buyers would not purchase from a Black inventor. Morgan played the assistant who walked into the smoke.

Garrett Morgan's safety hood made national news in 1916 after a rescue in a tunnel beneath which Great Lake?

Lake Erie hid a water tunnel being dug for Cleveland when an explosion trapped the crew. Morgan made four trips inside wearing his hood.

Garrett Morgan is said to have called himself the Black counterpart of which celebrated American inventor?

Thomas Edison was the yardstick Morgan chose, styling himself the Black Edison as his patents ran from sewing-machine parts to road safety.

Garrett Morgan is often said to have been the first Black man in Cleveland to own what?

An automobile was still a rare sight when Morgan bought his. Driving Cleveland's crowded streets turned his mind to traffic safety.

Which assassinated US president lies in Lake View Cemetery, the Cleveland burial place of Garrett Morgan?

James Garfield has a towering memorial there. Morgan shares the cemetery with him, oil baron John D. Rockefeller and lawman Eliot Ness.

Garrett Morgan was born in a Kentucky farm town that shares its name with which European capital?

Paris, Kentucky, was Morgan's birthplace. He grew up working the family farm there as the seventh of eleven children of formerly enslaved parents.

At 14, Garrett Morgan left his family's Kentucky farm to look for work in which Ohio city?

Cincinnati, just across the Ohio River from Kentucky, gave Morgan four years of work before he moved north to Cleveland in 1895.

After leaving school in sixth grade, the teenage Garrett Morgan spent part of his wages hiring whom?

A private tutor kept Morgan's education going while he worked full-time, since he had been forced to quit school young to earn a living.

What job did the teenage Garrett Morgan take with a wealthy landowner after leaving Kentucky at 14?

Handyman work filled most of Morgan's teenage years, before repairing sewing machines in Cleveland revealed his gift for mechanics.

Which sewing machine part was Garrett Morgan's first invention, devised while repairing machines in Cleveland?

A belt fastener came first, and a zigzag stitching attachment followed as Morgan built a reputation for fixing whatever broke.

What was Garrett Morgan's first job at Cleveland's Roots and McBride, before he mastered its sewing machines?

Sweeping floors got Morgan in the door in 1895. He then taught himself to run and repair the company's machines.

In 1909 Garrett Morgan and his wife Mary opened what kind of business, which grew to 32 employees?

A tailoring shop turned out coats, suits and dresses, with Mary sewing while Morgan built and maintained the machines.

Before trying it on himself, Garrett Morgan tested his needle-polishing liquid on the fur of which animal?

A neighbor's dog was the first living test subject. Before that, Morgan had wiped the liquid on a scrap of pony-fur cloth and watched the fibers change.

What simple item inside Garrett Morgan's safety hood filtered out smoke and cooled the air its wearer breathed?

A wet sponge sat at the open end of the breathing tube, a design one fire chief judged cheaper and simpler than the oxygen equipment of the day.

Where did the long air tube on Garrett Morgan's safety hood draw its air from?

Near the ground is where the cleanest air sits in a fire, so Morgan let the intake tube dangle low. Later models added a bag holding about 15 minutes of fresh air.

Garrett Morgan's stage persona Big Chief Mason was billed as coming from an island reserve in which country?

Canada was the claimed home of Big Chief Mason, the disguise Morgan wore when he walked into smoke-filled tents at sales demonstrations.

Garrett Morgan's safety hood demos used a tent fire of tar, sulfur, formaldehyde and which other foul fuel?

Manure helped make the smoke as noxious as possible. Morgan would stay inside the sealed tent for 20 minutes or more, then stroll out unharmed.

Garrett Morgan's safety hood took first prize at an international safety exposition held in which American city?

New York City hosted the Second International Exposition of Safety and Sanitation, and the first prize gave Morgan's new company a selling point.

Which philanthropist's hero fund passed over Garrett Morgan after his 1916 Cleveland tunnel rescue?

Andrew Carnegie founded his Hero Fund in 1904 to reward civilian bravery, yet it never honored Morgan, an omission he believed was racially motivated.

Which relative named Frank followed Garrett Morgan into the 1916 Cleveland tunnel wearing a safety hood?

His brother Frank came out just behind him, each man carrying a victim. Their success persuaded skeptical onlookers to put on hoods and join in.

What did a group of Cleveland citizens present to Garrett Morgan in 1917 for his tunnel rescue?

A diamond-studded medal made of gold was the citizens' answer after city officials left Morgan off their list of recommended heroes.

The Cleveland Call, founded by Garrett Morgan to serve the city's Black community, was what kind of business?

A weekly newspaper, the Call later merged with a rival to become the Call and Post, an influential voice for Black Ohioans.

Which boxing promoter bought the Call and Post, successor to the Cleveland Call that Garrett Morgan founded?

Don King bought the paper in 1998, three years after it had filed for bankruptcy.

What did Garrett Morgan open for Black guests on farmland he bought near Wakeman, Ohio?

A country club was Morgan's answer to being shut out, since most clubs of the era refused Black members.

What kind of vehicle did Garrett Morgan see struck at a Cleveland intersection, inspiring his traffic signal?

A horse-drawn carriage was hit in the crash Morgan witnessed in 1922. The few signals of the day switched straight from stop to go with no pause between.

One of Garrett Morgan's last inventions used a tiny water-filled pellet to make what put itself out?

A cigarette with a water pellet set just before the filter would douse itself, an idea Morgan pursued in old age despite failing health.

Which eye disease left Garrett Morgan with little sight in his final decades, though he kept inventing?

Glaucoma took most of Morgan's sight from the 1940s. He blamed his other health troubles on the fumes he breathed during the 1916 tunnel rescue.

For which office did Garrett Morgan run as an independent in 1931, saying Cleveland neglected its Black citizens?

City council was the seat Morgan sought, two decades after he helped found a civic association for the city's Black men, but he was not elected.

The Cleveland Association of Colored Men, which Garrett Morgan helped found, later merged into which group?

The NAACP absorbed the local association, and Morgan stayed a member while also giving money to historically Black colleges.

The National Inventors Hall of Fame inducted Garrett Morgan in 2005 at its home in which Ohio city?

Akron housed the hall when it honored Morgan, more than four decades after his death, for his breathing device and his three-position traffic signal.

Morgan Boulevard station, named in memory of Garrett Morgan, is a stop on which American rapid transit system?

Washington Metro opened the Maryland station in 2004, two years after the county renamed the road outside for the inventor.

Which piece of Cleveland fire department equipment carries Garrett Morgan's name?

A fireboat now carries the name of the inventor whose smoke hood the city's own fire chief once recommended buying for his crews.

Which Kentucky city, near Garrett Morgan's birthplace, opened an elementary school bearing his name in 2016?

Lexington named the school for Morgan as a model of the innovation and diligence it hopes to instill in its pupils.

Garrett Morgan's 1923 traffic signal stood on a pole whose arms gave it the shape of which letter?

T is the letter the signal resembled, with arms that swung to show stop or go and could halt every direction at once.

How did a traffic attendant work Garrett Morgan's 1923 signal to raise and lower its stop and go arms?

With a hand crank on the post, an attendant could set the arms to stop, go or a half-raised position that told drivers to proceed carefully.

Weeks after his death in 1963, Garrett Morgan was honored at a Chicago celebration marking the centennial of what?

The Emancipation Proclamation centennial drew a national audience in August 1963, a month after Morgan died, and he was recognized there as a pioneering citizen.