Garrett Augustus Morgan

Morgan's design for an automatic traffic signal. This was the predesesor for the modern traffic signal.

Portia P. James. The Real McCoy: African-American Invention and Innovation, 1619-1930. Washington, D.C.: Published for the Anacostia Museum of the Smithsonian Institution by the Smithsonian Institution Press, 1989.

Garrett Augustus Morgan (1877-1963): The Traffic Signal

Morgan, the son of freed slaves, learned to support himself at an early age. He began work in a sewing machine repair shop, eventually owning it. Elaborating on the invention of Singer’s pressure foot for sewing machines, Morgan invented the zig-zag stitching attachment for sewing machines. His most renowned invention was the traffic signal, necessary in the growing automobile age. He was also known for his 1912 invention of the gas mask, which became essential military equipment in World War I. He has been credited with owning the first automobile in Cincinnati. Always an entrepreneur, he created a company in 1913 to manufacture another invention: a hair-straightening chemical.