Garrett Morgan
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40 free Garrett Morgan trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Garrett Morgan left school as a boy, taught himself mechanics in a Cleveland clothing factory and went on to patent devices that saved lives in burning buildings and at busy intersections. His story is full of the kind of detail that sticks: a midnight rescue, a sales disguise and a fortune that began with an accident at the workbench. This quiz covers the fun facts people look for about Morgan: his Kentucky childhood, the safety hood and the traffic signal, the 1916 tunnel disaster that made him famous, the businesses he built and the honors that reached him late. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so you learn the story as you play. It suits students working on a Black History Month project, teachers who want a ready classroom quiz, and anyone curious about the inventor behind two everyday safety ideas.
30 of 40 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Garrett Morgan's safety hood is often called a forerunner of which piece of World War I soldiers' kit?
The gas mask
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.
Q 02What was Garrett Morgan reportedly still wearing when he reached the 1916 Cleveland tunnel disaster at night?
Pajamas
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.
Q 03Which company paid Garrett Morgan $40,000 for the rights to his 1923 traffic signal design?
General Electric
General Electric bought the rights and went on to build an electric version of Morgan's three-position signal.
Q 04A liquid Garrett Morgan was testing to stop sewing needles scorching cloth turned out to do what?
Straighten hair
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.
Q 05Whom did Garrett Morgan hire to pose as the inventor when selling his safety hood in the segregated South?
An actor
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.
Q 06Garrett Morgan's safety hood made national news in 1916 after a rescue in a tunnel beneath which Great Lake?
Erie
Lake Erie hid a water tunnel being dug for Cleveland when an explosion trapped the crew. Morgan made four trips inside wearing his hood.
Q 07Garrett Morgan is said to have called himself the Black counterpart of which celebrated American inventor?
Thomas Edison
Thomas Edison was the yardstick Morgan chose, styling himself the Black Edison as his patents ran from sewing-machine parts to road safety.
Q 08Garrett Morgan is often said to have been the first Black man in Cleveland to own what?
An automobile
An automobile was still a rare sight when Morgan bought his. Driving Cleveland's crowded streets turned his mind to traffic safety.
Q 09Which assassinated US president lies in Lake View Cemetery, the Cleveland burial place of Garrett Morgan?
James Garfield
James Garfield has a towering memorial there. Morgan shares the cemetery with him, oil baron John D. Rockefeller and lawman Eliot Ness.
Q 10Garrett Morgan was born in a Kentucky farm town that shares its name with which European capital?
Paris
Paris, Kentucky, was Morgan's birthplace. He grew up working the family farm there as the seventh of eleven children of formerly enslaved parents.
Q 11At 14, Garrett Morgan left his family's Kentucky farm to look for work in which Ohio city?
Cincinnati
Cincinnati, just across the Ohio River from Kentucky, gave Morgan four years of work before he moved north to Cleveland in 1895.
Q 12After leaving school in sixth grade, the teenage Garrett Morgan spent part of his wages hiring whom?
A private tutor
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.
Q 13What job did the teenage Garrett Morgan take with a wealthy landowner after leaving Kentucky at 14?
Handyman
Handyman work filled most of Morgan's teenage years, before repairing sewing machines in Cleveland revealed his gift for mechanics.
Q 21Garrett Morgan's safety hood demos used a tent fire of tar, sulfur, formaldehyde and which other foul fuel?
Manure
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.
Q 22Garrett Morgan's safety hood took first prize at an international safety exposition held in which American city?
New York
New York City hosted the Second International Exposition of Safety and Sanitation, and the first prize gave Morgan's new company a selling point.
Q 23Which philanthropist's hero fund passed over Garrett Morgan after his 1916 Cleveland tunnel rescue?
Andrew Carnegie
Q 14Which sewing machine part was Garrett Morgan's first invention, devised while repairing machines in Cleveland?
A belt fastener
A belt fastener came first, and a zigzag stitching attachment followed as Morgan built a reputation for fixing whatever broke.
Q 15What was Garrett Morgan's first job at Cleveland's Roots and McBride, before he mastered its sewing machines?
Sweeping floors
Sweeping floors got Morgan in the door in 1895. He then taught himself to run and repair the company's machines.
Q 16In 1909 Garrett Morgan and his wife Mary opened what kind of business, which grew to 32 employees?
A tailoring shop
A tailoring shop turned out coats, suits and dresses, with Mary sewing while Morgan built and maintained the machines.
Q 17Before trying it on himself, Garrett Morgan tested his needle-polishing liquid on the fur of which animal?
A neighbor's dog
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.
Q 18What simple item inside Garrett Morgan's safety hood filtered out smoke and cooled the air its wearer breathed?
A wet sponge
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.
Q 19Where did the long air tube on Garrett Morgan's safety hood draw its air from?
Near the ground
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.
Q 20Garrett Morgan's stage persona Big Chief Mason was billed as coming from an island reserve in which country?
Canada
Canada was the claimed home of Big Chief Mason, the disguise Morgan wore when he walked into smoke-filled tents at sales demonstrations.
Andrew Carnegie founded his Hero Fund in 1904 to reward civilian bravery, yet it never honored Morgan, an omission he believed was racially motivated.
Q 24Which relative named Frank followed Garrett Morgan into the 1916 Cleveland tunnel wearing a safety hood?
His brother
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.
Q 25What did a group of Cleveland citizens present to Garrett Morgan in 1917 for his tunnel rescue?
A diamond-studded medal
A diamond-studded medal made of gold was the citizens' answer after city officials left Morgan off their list of recommended heroes.
Q 26The Cleveland Call, founded by Garrett Morgan to serve the city's Black community, was what kind of business?
A weekly newspaper
A weekly newspaper, the Call later merged with a rival to become the Call and Post, an influential voice for Black Ohioans.
Q 27Which boxing promoter bought the Call and Post, successor to the Cleveland Call that Garrett Morgan founded?
Don King
Don King bought the paper in 1998, three years after it had filed for bankruptcy.
Q 28What did Garrett Morgan open for Black guests on farmland he bought near Wakeman, Ohio?
A country club
A country club was Morgan's answer to being shut out, since most clubs of the era refused Black members.
Q 29What kind of vehicle did Garrett Morgan see struck at a Cleveland intersection, inspiring his traffic signal?
A horse-drawn carriage
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.
Q 30One of Garrett Morgan's last inventions used a tiny water-filled pellet to make what put itself out?
A cigarette
A cigarette with a water pellet set just before the filter would douse itself, an idea Morgan pursued in old age despite failing health.