Today’s Black Fact:
Garrett Augustus Morgan, Sr. was an inventor who invented a type of respiratory protective hood (conceptually similar to modern gas masks and a type of traffic signal. Garrett Morgan patented a safety hood and smoke protector after seeing firefighters struggling from the smoke they encountered in the line of duty and hearing about the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire. His device used a wet sponge to filter out smoke and cool the air. He was able to sell his invention around the country, sometimes using the tactic of having a hired white actor take credit rather than revealing himself as its inventor. Between 1913 and 1921, a number of versions of traffic signaling devices, both mechanical and automated, were patented by various inventors. Of these, only a few saw production or implementation on public roads. Morgan’s device, first patented in 1923, was a hand-cranked, manually operated mechanical semaphore signal. His device had two key safety features: having an intermediate “all stop” signal state to give moving traffic time to stop before signaling cross traffic to proceed, and having a “half mast” position to indicate general caution at times when the device operator was not present.
