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The Classroom | Empowering Students in Their College Journey

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Although Garrett Morgan wasn't the first person to invent the stoplight, he did come up with the idea to add another color, yellow, that gave drivers a warning that the green light was about to change to red. Kindergartners can play stop and go games using traffic light signals and take turns being the driver or the traffic light. They can also learn about the history of cars and the importance of Morgan's invention.

Roads in the Early 1900s

Roads during Garrett Morgan's time were filled with the first cars, bikes, horse-drawn carriages and wagons as well as pedestrians. Have kindergartners draw or color a picture representing each type of transportation and tell them to make their streets as busy as possible; fill them with a lot of bikes, cars and people. Alternatively, give children model cars, bikes, horse-drawn wagons and people to play with and designate one area on the floor of the classroom as the "street."

The First Traffic Light

Ask children to walk around the classroom as if they were driving a car, riding a bike, walking on the street or riding in a carriage. When you say "Go" and hold up a green sign, they should move. When you say "Stop" and hold up a red sign, they should stop. Tell them that the first traffic lights, which originated in London (point to London on a map), only told drivers whether to stop or go and didn't give them any warning, like by flashing a yellow light, as Garrett Morgan later envisioned.

Garrett Morgan's Traffic Light

Explain to kindergartners that Garrett Morgan invented a traffic light that had three lights: one for stop, one for go and a yellow light that acts as a warning. Ask children to color a photocopied, black-and-white drawing of a traffic light. Show them which lights are green, red and yellow. Have them get up and walk around the room again. This time, use yellow to indicate that they are about to stop. Ask them if it was easier to see a warning before they had to stop.

Garrett Morgan's Life

Kindergartners can learn about Garrett Morgan's life and his other contributions to society. He was born in 1877 in Kentucky (identify the state on a map). Garrett Morgan began working as sewing machine repairman and soon opened his own shop. He also sold garments and became wealthy enough to open the Cleveland Call newspaper in 1920. After witnessing a traffic accident, he decided to design a traffic light in hopes of preventing more accidents. Prompt students to think about something they would like to make safer at school or on the playground and have them think about or draw inventions that might help.

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Kindergarten Lessons on Garrett Morgan & the Traffic Light

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Although Garrett Morgan wasn't the first person to invent the stoplight, he did come up with the idea to add another color, yellow, that gave drivers a warning that the green light was about to change to red. Kindergartners can play stop and go games using traffic light signals and take turns being the driver or the traffic light.

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Leaders in Innovation

While many inventors are known primarily for one innovation, National Inventors Hall of Fame ® (NIHF) Inductee Garrett Morgan has the distinction of inventing two different technologies that continue to benefit people to this day: the safety hood, a forerunner of the gas mask, and the three-way traffic signal.

In 1891, Morgan left home for Cincinnati in search of job opportunities, and he landed one as a handyman. After four years he moved to Cleveland, where he took a job sweeping floors at the Roots and McBribe Company and eventually taught himself how to fix the company's broken sewing machines. Morgan quickly developed into a gifted machinist and tinkerer. These skills allowed him to open his own business: the Morgan Skirt Factory. There, his new wife Mary sewed clothes, and he both built and maintained the sewing machines.

Throughout his life, Morgan broke barriers and was an advocate for racial equality. In addition to forming one of the first Black fraternities in the country at Cleveland's Case Western Reserve University, he persevered during a time in America when Jim Crow era discrimination ran rampant. Fortunately, Morgan overcame all obstacles in his path, and at NIHF, we are proud to celebrate his legacy.

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The Inspiring Perseverance of Garrett Morgan

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The National Inventors Hall of Fame® honors Inductee Garrett Morgan, who invented the gas mask and the three-way traffic signal.

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Karyn Parsons dishes on new children's book

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Author and actress Karyn Parsons discusses her new children's book, "Saving the Day."

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1877, Paris, KY
1963, Cleveland, OH

Unable to sell his gas mask to fire departments in the South, Morgan hired an actor friend to pose as an inventor while he dressed up as an Indian chief. The actor would announce that Big Chief Mason would go inside a smoke-filled tent for ten minutes. When Morgan emerged after 25 minutes unharmed, people were amazed. Business boomed.

Photos: Western Reserve Historical Society

Affordable Gas Masks

The African American inventor of a life-saving device, mechanical traffic signals, and more had to fight for recognition.

Son of Freed Slaves
Garrett Morgan's safety hood saved the lives of countless firefighters and others. He was born in Kentucky during the Reconstruction era, in 1877. His father was the mixed-race son of a slave and a Confederate colonel, John Hunt Morgan. His mother, half Indian and half black, was the daughter of a Baptist minister. His race would impact Morgan's career profoundly.

Inventive Nature
Though Morgan only had a sixth-grade education, he had a mechanical genius and an entrepreneurial bent. Finding work in a textile factory, he learned how the machines worked, and became the only Negro adjuster, fixing and improving mechanical problems. In 1907 he opened his own repair shop, and soon launched a clothing business with his wife, an immigrant seamstress from Bavaria. It was an era of difficulty for African Americans, but Morgan made money, becoming the first black man in Cleveland to own a car. He branched out into cosmetic products, joined a new organization called the NAACP, and soon was donating money to Negro colleges. In 1920, he started a newspaper for African Americans, The Cleveland Call, and opened an all-black country club. In 1923, he patented a mechanical traffic signal that he sold to General Electric. It was widely used, yet Morgan earned only $40,000 for the invention.

The Safety Hood
Morgan's biggest venture was his safety hood. As a young man, he had seen firefighters struggling to withstand the suffocating smoke they encountered in the line of duty. In 1914 Morgan secured a patent for his device, a canvas hood with two tubes. Part of the device held on the back filtered smoke outward, while cooling the air inside. Morgan's safety hood won accolades and wide adoption in the North, where over 500 cities bought it, over time. He sold the hoods to the U.S. Navy, and the Army used them in World War I. But sales in the segregated South proved challenging. Morgan's hood got great press in 1916, when he used it to save workers in a collapsed tunnel under Lake Erie. But Cleveland's newspapers and city officials wrote Morgan -- who had ventured into the tunnel first -- out of the story, lauding other men and ignoring Morgan's heroism. It would take years for the city to recognize his contributions. Morgan died in 1963, vindicated as a hero of the Lake Erie rescue and restored to his place in history.

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Who Made America? | Innovators | Garrett Augustus Morgan

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1877, Paris, KY 1963, Cleveland, OH Unable to sell his gas mask to fire departments in the South, Morgan hired an actor friend to pose as an inventor while he dressed up as an Indian chief. The actor would announce that Big Chief Mason would go inside a smoke-filled tent for ten minutes.

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Garrett Morgan was an inventor and successful businessman. Many of his inventions helped to improve public safety. These included an early form of a gas mask and a type of traffic signal.

Garrett Augustus Morgan was born on March 4, 1877, in Paris, Kentucky. His parents were freed enslaved people. Morgan left home in his teens. He moved first to Cincinnati and then to Cleveland, Ohio, where he found work repairing sewing machines. That work gave him an interest in how machines work. He later opened his own sewing equipment and repair shop. When that became successful he opened other businesses as well.

While Morgan was running his businesses he was also working on inventions. In 1914 he patented a device that he called the Morgan safety hood and smoke protector. A patent is an official document that gives an inventor control over who may use their invention. The safety hood was an early gas mask. A gas mask allows people to breathe in situations where there is a lot of smoke or dangerous chemicals in the air. In 1923 Morgan patented another safety invention. This was a T-shaped traffic signal. It had moving arms that told traffic when to stop and go. It was not the first traffic signal, but it controlled traffic better than many existing signals.

Morgan was also interested in helping his fellow African Americans. He started a newspaper to discuss issues of interest to African Americans. He was also a member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Morgan died on July 27, 1963, in Cleveland.

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Garrett Morgan was an inventor and successful businessman. Many of his inventions helped to improve public safety. These included an early form of a gas mask and a type of...

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IIHS-HLDI crash testing and highway safety

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Overview

Roundabouts are a safer alternative to traffic signals and stop signs. The tight circle of a roundabout forces drivers to slow down, and the most severe types of intersection crashes - right-angle, left-turn and head-on collisions - are unlikely.

Roundabouts improve traffic flow and are better for the environment. Research shows that traffic flow improves after traditional intersections are converted to roundabouts. Less idling reduces vehicle emissions and fuel consumption.

Roundabouts generally are safer for pedestrians. Pedestrians walk on sidewalks around the perimeter and cross only one direction of traffic at a time. Crossing distances are relatively short, and traffic speeds are lower than at traditional intersections.

Roundabouts defined

The modern roundabout is a circular intersection with design features that promote safe and efficient traffic flow. It was developed in the United Kingdom in the 1960s and now is widely used in many countries, including the United States, where its use is growing.

At roundabouts in the U.S., vehicles travel counterclockwise around a raised center island, with entering traffic yielding the right-of-way to circulating traffic. In urban settings, entering vehicles negotiate a curve sharp enough to slow speeds to about 15-20 mph; in rural settings, entering vehicles may be held to somewhat higher speeds (30-35 mph). As vehicles circulate within the roundabout, slow and consistent speeds are maintained by the deflection of traffic around the center island and the relatively tight radius of the roundabout and exit lanes.

Slow speeds help vehicles move smoothly into, around, and out of a roundabout. Drivers approaching a roundabout must reduce their speeds, look for potential conflicts with vehicles already in the circle and be prepared to stop for pedestrians and bicyclists. Once in the roundabout, drivers proceed to the exits they need.

Common traffic maneuvers at roundabouts

Modern roundabouts are much smaller than older traffic circles - also known as rotaries - and require vehicles to negotiate a sharper curve to enter. As a result, travel speeds in roundabouts slower than speeds in traffic circles.

Because of the higher speeds in older traffic circles, many are equipped with traffic signals or stop signs to help reduce potential crashes. In addition, some older traffic circles and rotaries operate according to the traditional "yield-to-the-right" rule, with circulating traffic yielding to entering traffic.

The first modern roundabouts in the United States were constructed in Nevada in 1990. Since then, many more have been built, although the precise number is unknown. Roundabouts are much more common in some other countries, including Australia, the United Kingdom and France.

Although some states and cities have been slow to build roundabouts, they are gaining more popularity in the United States. Roundabouts are one of the evidence-based safety countermeasures recommended by the Federal Highway Administration.

Some states, such as New York and Virginia, have adopted "roundabout first" policies requiring that roundabouts be considered a preferred alternative when building new intersections or upgrading older ones if feasible ( New York State Department of Transportation, 2011; Virginia State Department of Transportation, 2009).

Roundabouts are appropriate at many intersections, including high-crash locations and intersections with large traffic delays, complex geometry (more than four approach roads, for example), frequent left-turn movements, and relatively balanced traffic flows. Roundabouts can be constructed along congested arterials and at freeway exits and entrances, in lieu of traffic signals.

Sometimes space constraints or topography make it impossible to build a roundabout. Geometric design details vary from one site to another and must take into account traffic volumes, land use, topography and other factors. Roundabouts often require more space in the immediate vicinity of the intersection than comparable traditional intersections. However, because roundabouts can reduce delays and queue lengths, they require less space on the approaching roads than comparable intersections controlled by stop signs or traffic signals.

An intersection with highly unbalanced traffic flows (that is, a very high traffic volume on the main street and very light traffic on the side street) may not be an ideal candidate for a roundabout. The same is true for isolated intersections in a network of traffic signals.

While the initial construction cost of a roundabout varies site by site, its maintenance usually is cheaper than for intersections with signals. The service life of a roundabout is significantly longer, approximately 25 years, compared with 10 years for a typical traffic signal ( Rodegerdts et al., 2010).

Safety benefits

At traditional intersections with stop signs or traffic signals, some of the most common types of crashes are right-angle, left-turn, and head-on collisions. These types of collisions can be severe because vehicles may be traveling through the intersection at high speeds. With roundabouts, these types of potentially serious crashes are essentially eliminated because vehicles travel in the same direction and at low speeds.

The vehicle-to-vehicle conflicts that do occur at roundabouts generally involve a vehicle merging into the circular roadway. In the case of multilane roundabouts, conflicts may also occur as vehicles exit.

Studies of intersections in the United States converted from traffic signals or stop signs to roundabouts have found reductions in injury crashes of 72-80 percent and reductions in all crashes of 35-47 percent (Retting et al., 2001; Eisenman et al., 2004; Rodegerdts et al., 2007).

A study of 19 higher-speed rural intersections (speed limits of 40 mph or higher) that originally had stop signs on the minor approaches and were converted to roundabouts found a 62 percent reduction in all crashes and an 85 percent reduction in injury crashes (Isebrands & Hallmark, 2012).

Studies of intersections in Europe and Australia that were converted to roundabouts have reported 25-87 percent reductions in injury crashes and 36-61 percent reductions in all crashes (Rodegerdts et al., 2010).

Based on the results of a 2004 study (Eisenman et al., 2004), it's estimated that the conversion of 10 percent of the signalized intersections in the United States to roundabouts would have prevented approximately 51,000 crashes in 2018, including 231 fatal crashes and about 34,000 crashes involving injuries.

Most U.S. studies have focused primarily on single-lane roundabouts. When included, two-lane roundabouts have been associated with smaller reductions in crashes compared with single-lane roundabouts ( Retting et al., 2001; Eisenman et al., 2004; Rodegerdts et al., 2007) or with increases in crashes ( Isebrands & Hallmark, 2012; Wang & Cicchino, 2022).

A 2019 IIHS study, however, showed that the safety of two-lane roundabouts improves over time, as drivers become more familiar with them ( Hu & Cicchino, 2019). The researchers looked at roundabouts built in Washington state between 2009 and 2015. They found that crashes at two-lane roundabouts decreased an average of 9 percent a year. At the same time, the odds that a crash at a two-lane roundabout involved an evident or incapacitating injury decreased by nearly one-third annually.

In addition to having fewer serious conflicts between vehicles than traditional intersections, roundabouts are generally safer for pedestrians as well. In a roundabout, pedestrians walk on sidewalks around the perimeter of the circular roadway. If they need to cross the roadway, they cross only one direction of traffic at a time. In addition, crossing distances are relatively short, and vehicle speeds tend to be low.

Studies in Europe indicate that, on average, converting conventional intersections to roundabouts can reduce pedestrian crashes by about 75 percent ( Brilon et al., 1993; Schoon & van Minnen, 1994). Single-lane roundabouts, in particular, have been reported to involve substantially lower pedestrian crash rates than comparable intersections with traffic signals ( Brude & Larsson, 2000).

Crossing at multi-lane roundabouts can be more difficult for pedestrians than crossing at single-lane roundabouts. A study found that motorists failed to yield to pedestrians 2-3 times more at multi-lane roundabouts than at single-lane roundabouts ( Rodegerdts et al., 2007). Another study found that drivers exiting a roundabout were less likely to yield to pedestrians than drivers entering a roundabout ( Hourdos et al., 2012).

Safety challenges

Despite the demonstrated safety benefits of roundabouts, some crashes still occur. An IIHS study of crashes at 38 roundabouts in Maryland found that four crash types - run-off-road, rear-end, sideswipe, and entering-circulating - accounted for almost all crashes ( Mandavilli et el., 2009). Another common crash type involved a vehicle colliding with the central island. These crashes, which often involved unsafe speeds, accounted for almost half of all single-vehicle run-off-road crashes. Some drivers may not have seen the roundabout in time to slow down sufficiently.

A review of crashes at 39 roundabouts in the United States found that entering-circulating, exiting-circulating and rear-end collisions were the most common crash types ( Rodegerdts et al., 2007). A large majority of crashes at the single-lane roundabouts were entering-circulating crashes. At multi-lane roundabouts, the majority of crashes were exiting-circulating.

A review of fatal crashes at roundabouts in the United States and injury crashes at roundabouts in Washington and Wisconsin found that motorcycle crashes, fixed object crashes, and crashes involving impaired driving were overrepresented ( Schroeder et al., 2015).

Design features that encourage drivers to slow down are the key to optimizing roundabout safety.

Signs - including speed limits posted well in advance of roundabouts and larger "roundabout ahead" and yield signs - pavement markings and lighting help make sure drivers know they are approaching a roundabout and therefore need to slow down.

Center island landscaping can promote slower speeds and focus drivers' attention on the roadway close to them by limiting their through vision.

Islands separating the approach and exit lanes, known as splitter islands, should extend far enough from the roundabout to provide pedestrian refuge and to delineate the roundabout.

Other design features such as adequate curvature of approach roads far enough in advance of roundabouts and the alignment of approaching roads with the center island also may aid in reducing speeds.

Multilane roundabouts are more challenging. A study of a pair of two-lane roundabouts near Bellingham, Washington, found that confusion about some aspects of navigating the roundabouts persisted one year after the construction ended ( Hu et al., 2014). More than 40 percent of drivers said it wasn't clear from signs and pavement markings what speed to drive, which lane has the right of way when exiting or that they shouldn't drive next to large trucks in the roundabouts.

At multilane roundabouts, signs and pavement marking should remind drivers of the correct yielding patterns and help them choose the appropriate lanes. At two-lane roundabouts, for example, signs need to convey clearly that entering traffic must yield to both lanes of traffic.

The photos below show sample signs and pavement markings used at roundabouts.

Traffic flow benefits

Several studies conducted by IIHS and others have reported significant improvements in traffic flow following conversion of traditional intersections to roundabouts.

A study of three intersections in Kansas, Maryland and Nevada where roundabouts replaced stop signs found that vehicle delays were reduced 13-23 percent and the proportion of vehicles that stopped was reduced 14-37 percent (Retting et al., 2002).

A study of three locations in New Hampshire, New York and Washington state where roundabouts replaced traffic signals or stop signs found an 89 percent average reduction in vehicle delays and a 56 percent average reduction in vehicle stops (Retting et al., 2006).

A study of 11 intersections in Kansas found a 65 percent average reduction in delays and a 52 percent average reduction in vehicle stops after roundabouts were installed (Russell et al., 2004).

An Institute study of two-lane roundabout conversions at two intersections near Bellingham, Washington, found substantial declines in vehicle delays on the minor roads (33 percent and 90 percent) and the proportion of vehicles waiting in queues (35 percent and 43 percent) (Hu et al., 2014). Overall intersections delays increased (12 percent and 22 percent), due to slightly longer delays on the major approaches as vehicles slowed to enter the roundabouts.

Because roundabouts improve the efficiency of traffic flow, they also reduce vehicle emissions and fuel consumption.

Installing roundabouts in place of traffic signals or stop signs has been found to reduce carbon monoxide emissions by 15-45 percent, nitrous oxide emissions by 21-44 percent, carbon dioxide emissions by 23-34 percent and hydrocarbon emissions by 0-40 percent ( Hu et al., 2014; Várhelyi, 2002).

Constructing roundabouts in place of traffic signals or stop signs reduced fuel consumption by an estimated 23-34 percent ( Hu et al., 2014; Várhelyi, 2002; Höglund & Niittymäki, 1999).

A 2005 Institute study documented missed opportunities to improve traffic flow and safety at 10 urban intersections suitable for roundabouts where either traffic signals were installed or major modifications were made to 10 intersections with signals ( Bergh et al., 2005). It was estimated that the use of roundabouts instead of traffic signals at these intersections would have reduced vehicle delays by 62-74 percent.

Based on the results of that study, we estimate that the conversion of 10 percent of the signalized intersections in the United States to roundabouts would have reduced vehicle delays by more than 981 million hours and fuel consumption by more than 654 million gallons in 2018.

Public opinion

Drivers may be skeptical of or even opposed to roundabouts when they are proposed. However, several IIHS studies show that opinions quickly change when drivers become familiar with them.

In three communities where single-lane roundabouts replaced stop sign-controlled intersections, 31 percent of drivers supported the roundabouts before construction, compared with 63 percent shortly after (Retting et al., 2002).

In three other communities where a one- or two-lane roundabout replaced stop signs or traffic signals, 36 percent of drivers supported the roundabouts before construction compared with 50 percent shortly after (Retting et al., 2006).

Follow-up surveys conducted in these six communities after roundabouts had been in place for more than one year found the level of public support increased to about 70 percent on average (Retting et al., 2007).

When two intersections near Bellingham, Washington, were converted to two-lane roundabouts, support for the roundabouts went from 34 percent before construction to 51 percent six months after and 70 percent more than one year after (Hu et al., 2014).

Effect on older drivers

Older drivers are more likely than other drivers to be wary of roundabouts, but they also are particularly likely to benefit from them in terms of improved safety. Relative to other age groups, senior drivers are over-involved in crashes occurring at intersections. In 2021, multiple-vehicle crashes at intersections accounted for 39 percent of fatal crash involvements among drivers 80 and older, compared with 22 percent for drivers ages 16-59.

Older drivers' intersection crashes often are due to their failure to yield the right-of-way ( Mayhew et al., 2006; Braitman et al., 2007). Since all traffic flows in the same direction at roundabouts and more slowly than at traditional intersections, the consequence for failing to yield is likely less severe at roundabouts. Particular problems for older drivers at traditional intersections include left turns and entering busy thoroughfares from cross streets. Roundabouts eliminate these situations entirely.

Although safety effects of roundabouts specifically for older drivers are unknown, a 2001 IIHS study of 23 intersections converted from traffic signals or stop signs to roundabouts reported the average age of crash-involved drivers did not increase following the installation of roundabouts. This suggests roundabouts don't pose a problem for older drivers ( Retting et al., 2001).

A study in six communities where roundabouts replaced traditional intersections found that about two-thirds of drivers 65 and older supported the roundabouts ( Retting et al., 2007). A study of two intersections converted to roundabouts near Bellingham, Washington, found that about two-thirds of drivers 70 and older favored the roundabouts one year after construction ( Hu et al., 2014). In both studies, the older drivers were less likely to favor roundabouts than younger drivers.

In another study, signs and pavement markings that improve the path and operational guidance were found to increase the comfort, confidence and perception of safety for drivers ages 65 and older ( Lord et al., 2007). For example, a yield sign could have a plaque underneath reading "to traffic in circle," and an advance warning sign could have a plaque with the word "roundabout."

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Information from IIHS-HLDI on roundabouts

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Traffic Light & Garrett Morgan - Kids School Lesson , preK, Kindergarten, First, Second grade.

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Garrett Augustus Morgan, Sr. (March 4, 1877 - July 27, 1963) was an African-American inventor and community leader.

He is known for his inventions which included a type of protective respiratory hood (or gas mask), a traffic signal, and a hair-straightening chemical. He is also known for a heroic rescue in 1916 in which he and three others used the safety hood device he'd developed to save workers trapped within a water intake tunnel, fifty feet beneath Lake Erie. He is also credited as the first African American in Cleveland, Ohio, to own an automobile.

Early life and education

Morgan was born in 1877 in Claysville, Harrison County, Kentucky, an almost exclusively African American community outside Paris, Kentucky. His father was Sydney Morgan, a son and freed slave of Confederate Gen John H. Morgan of Morgan's Raiders. His mother, also a freed slave, was Elizabeth Reed, daughter of Rev. Garrett Reed; she was part Native American. He had at least one sibling, a brother named Frank, who helped in the 1916 Lake Erie tunnel rescue. Morgan received education up to sixth grade at Branch Elementary School in Claysville, then moved in search of work at the age of 14 to Cincinnati, Ohio.

He spent most of his teenage years working as a handyman for a Cincinnati landowner. Like many American children growing up at the turn of the century, Morgan had to quit school at a young age to work full-time. Morgan was able to hire a tutor and continue his studies while working in Cincinnati. In 1895, he moved to Cleveland, where he began repairing sewing machines for a clothing manufacturer. This experience sparked Morgan's interest in how things worked, and he built a reputation for fixing them. His first invention, developed during this period, was a belt fastener for sewing machines.

In 1907, Morgan opened a sewing machine shop. One year late, more conscious of his heritage, he helped start the Cleveland Association of Colored Men in 1908. One year later, he and his wife Mary Anne opened Morgan's Cut Rate Ladies Clothing Store. The shop, which made coats, suits, dresses, and other clothing, ultimately had 32 employees.

Around 1910, his interest in repairing other people's inventions waned, and he became interested in developing some of his own. He received his first patent in 1912.

In 1916, Morgan rescued workers trapped in a water intake tunnel 50 ft (15 m) beneath Lake Erie, using a hood fashioned to protect his eyes from smoke and featuring a series of air tubes that hung near the ground to draw clean air beneath the rising smoke.

He received a patent for his smoke hood design in 1914, the year he launched the National Safety Device Company. It is unknown whether the smoke hood brought him any commercial success. No sales figures have been found but his use of guerrilla marketing, going to different venues and demonstrating his smoke hood by strapping it on and entering a smoke-filled teepee, certainly demonstrated his faith in his own invention.

In 1913 he incorporated hair care products into his growing list of patents and launched the G. A. Morgan Hair Refining Company, which sold hair care products, including his patented hair straightening cream, a hair coloring, and a hair straightening comb invented by Morgan.

Later in life he developed glaucoma and by 1943 was functionally blind. He had poor health the rest of his life, but continued to work on his inventions. One of his last was a self-extinguishing cigarette, which used a small plastic pellet filled with water placed just before the filter. He died on July 27, 1963, at age 86 and was buried at the Lake View Cemetery in Cleveland.

Products and inventions

Hair care products

Morgan experimented with a liquid that gave sewing machine needles a high polish that prevented the needle from burning fabric as it sewed. In 1905, Morgan accidentally discovered that the liquid could also straighten hair. He made the liquid into a cream and launched the G. A. Morgan Hair Refining Company to market it. He also made a black hair oil dye and invented a curved-tooth comb for hair straightening in 1910.

Garrett Morgan invented a safety hood smoke protection device after seeing firefighters struggling from the smoke they encountered in the line of duty. His device used a wet sponge to filter out smoke and cool the air. It also took advantage of the way smoke and fumes tend to rise to higher positions while leaving a layer of more breathable air below, by using an air intake tube that dangled near the floor. The safety hood used a series of tubes to draw clean air of the lowest level the tubes could extend to. Smoke, being hotter than the air around it, rises, and by drawing air from the ground, the Safety Hood provided the user with a way to perform emergency respiration. He filed for a patent on the device in 1912, and founded a company called the National Safety Device Company in 1914 to market it. 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 to its inventor. For demonstrations of the device, he sometimes adopted the disguise of "Big Chief Mason", a purported full-blooded Indian from the Walpole Island Indian Reserve in Canada. He would demonstrate the device by building a noxious fire fueled by tar, sulfur, formaldehyde and manure inside an enclosed tent. Disguised as Big Chief Mason, he would enter the tent full of black smoke, and would remain there for 20 minutes before emerging unharmed.

His safety hood device was simple and effective, whereas the other devices in use at the time were generally difficult to put on, excessively complex, unreliable, or ineffective. It was patented and awarded a gold medal two years later by the International Association of Fire Chiefs. Morgan's safety hood was used to save many lives during the period of its use. By World War I, his breathing device was refined to carry its own air supply, making it a gas mask. However, upon their entry into the First World War, the United States Army adopted the British Small Box Respirator and French M2 Respirator as their standard anti-gas equipment, the former invented by Newfoundlander Cluny MacPherson.

He also developed later models that incorporated an airbag that could hold about 15 minutes of fresh air.

His invention became known nationally when he led a rescue that saved several men's lives after a July 24, 1916 tunnel explosion under Lake Erie. Before Morgan arrived, two previous rescue attempts had failed. The attempted rescuers had become victims themselves by entering the tunnel and not returning. Morgan was roused in the middle of the night after one of the members of the rescue team who had seen a demonstration of his device sent a messenger to convince him to come and to bring as many of his hoods as he could. He arrived on the scene still wearing his pajamas, and brought his brother Frank and four of the hoods with him. Most of the rescuers on the scene were initially skeptical of his device, so he and his brother went into the tunnel along with two other volunteers, and succeeded in pulling out two men from the previous rescue attempts. He emerged carrying a victim on his back, and his brother followed just behind with another. Others joined in after his team succeeded, and rescued several more. His device was also used to retrieve the bodies of the rescuers that did not survive. Morgan personally made four trips into the tunnel during the rescue, and his health was affected for years afterward from the fumes he encountered there. Cleveland's newspapers and city officials initially ignored Morgan's act of heroism as the first to rush into the tunnel for the rescue and his key role as the provider of the equipment that made the rescue possible, and it took years for the city to recognize his contributions. City officials requested the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission to issue medals to several of the men involved in the rescue, but excluded Morgan from their request. He believed that the omission was racially motivated. Later, in 1917, a group of citizens of Cleveland tried to correct for the omission by presenting him with a diamond-studded gold medal. After the heroic rescue Morgan's company received order requests from fire departments all over the country. However, the national news contained photographs of him, and officials in a number of southern cities canceled their existing orders when they discovered he was black.

He was also given a medal from the International Association of Fire Engineers, which made him an honorary member.

Morgan's invention of the safety hood was featured on the television show Inventions that Shook the World and Mysteries at the Museum (S08E05).

Traffic signal

The first American-made automobiles were introduced to consumers just before the turn of the twentieth century, and pedestrians, bicycles, animal-drawn wagons and motor vehicles all had to share the same roads. To deal with the growing problem of traffic accidents, a number of different versions of traffic signaling devices began to be developed simultaneously, starting around 1913.

Morgan had witnessed a serious accident at an intersection, and he filed a patent for a traffic control device having a third "warning" position in 1922. The patent was granted in 1923, though this was not the first system with a warning, a three-signal system being invented in 1920 by William Potts, and several other previous systems some of which had audible warnings.

Community leadership

In 1908, he co-founded the Cleveland Association of Colored Men, which later merged with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Morgan served as its treasurer. He was a member of the NAACP and donated money to Historically Black Colleges and Universities colleges.

Morgan, in 1920, founded the Cleveland Call, a weekly newspaper and, in 1938, subsequently participated in its merger that created the Cleveland Call and Post newspaper. Morgan purchased a farm near Wakeman, Ohio, and upon that land build the Wakeman Country Club, open to Blacks, unlike most country clubs then.

Morgan was a member of the Prince Hall Freemasons, in Excelsior Lodge No. 11 of Cleveland, Ohio. He belonged to Antioch Baptist Church.

In 1931, seeing that the city was neither properly addressing the needs of its African American citizens, he ran for a seat on the Cleveland City Council as an independent, but was not elected.

Personal life

He married Madge Nelson in 1896, only to divorce in 1898. In 1908 he and Mary Hasek were married and together, they had three children: John P.; Garrett A., Jr. and Cosmo.

Morgan died in Cleveland in 1963, where he was interred in Lake View Cemetery.

Awards and recognitions

At the Emancipation Centennial Celebration in Chicago, Illinois, in August 1963 (one month after his death), Morgan was nationally recognized.

In the Cleveland, Ohio area, the Garrett A. Morgan Cleveland School of Science and the Garrett A. Morgan Water Treatment Plant have been named in his honor. An elementary school in Chicago was also named after him. An elementary school bearing his name opened in the fall of 2016 in Lexington, Kentucky. In Prince George's County, Maryland, there is a street named Garrett A. Morgan Boulevard (formerly Summerfield Boulevard until 2002) and the adjacent Metro stop (Morgan Boulevard) also bears his name.

Morgan was included in the 2002 book 100 Greatest African Americans by Molefi Kete Asante.

Morgan is an honorary member of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity.

Documentary

Morgan is featured in Bayer Mack's 2019 documentary, No Lye: An American Beauty Story, that chronicles the rise and decline of the black-owned ethnic beauty industry.

In Spanish: Garrett Augustus Morgan para niños

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Saving the Day: Garrett Morgan’s Life-Changing Invention of the Traffic Light read aloud

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Employers report 2.8 million injury and illness cases in 2022, up 7.5% from 2021

In 2022, employers reported 2.8 million injury and illness cases in private industry, up 7.5 percent from 2021. Injury cases increased 4.5 percent to 2.3 million, while illness cases increased by 26.1 percent to 460,700 cases in 2022.

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The Bureau of Labor Statistics is the principal fact-finding agency for the Federal Government in the broad field of labor economics and statistics.

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Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation

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I would like to share the fascinating story of arguably one of the most famous, prolific, and well-documented African American inventors, Garrett A. Morgan. Yet, it's likely that most readers don't know much, if anything, about him.

Garrett Morgan was born in Kentucky on March 4, 1877, about a decade after the end of the American Civil War. His father, Sydney Morgan, had been enslaved and was probably the son of his enslaver, Confederate Colonel John Hunt Morgan. Garrett Morgan's mother was Eliza Reed, who was the daughter of a Baptist minister and had both Native American and Black heritage. He attended a segregated school for six years before leaving home at age 14 to move to Cincinnati, Ohio. There he worked as a handyman for a wealthy White landowner and used some of his earnings to hire a tutor to continue his education. In 1895, he moved to Cleveland, where he built a reputation for repairing sewing machines for a clothing manufacturer. This experience sparked Morgan's interest in how things worked and fueled the development of his first invention-a belt fastener for sewing machines.

Morgan went into business for himself in 1907, establishing a shop to repair and sell sewing machines. Two years later, he opened a tailoring shop. During this time, Morgan experimented with a liquid that gave sewing machine needles a high polish to prevent them from burning fabric as they sewed. This led him to discover accidentally that the liquid could also straighten Black hair. He made the liquid into a cream and launched the G. A. Morgan Hair Refining Company to market it. He also made a Black hair oil dye and invented a curved-tooth comb for hair straightening. His company offered a complete line of hair-care products and he invested his profits into creating other inventions.

Inspired by the dangers that firefighters faced with smoke inhalation, Morgan invented a safety helmet to protect the wearer from smoke and ammonia. He introduced his "Breathing Device" in 1912, received US Patent 1,090,036 two years later, and then established the National Safety Device Company. He famously wore the safety helmet to descend into a gas-filled tunnel under Lake Erie to rescue workers and retrieve bodies after an explosion at the Cleveland Waterworks on July 25, 1916.

Despite the demonstrated need, Morgan had troubling selling the potentially life-saving equipment-many White people did not want to buy a product made by a Black inventor. So Morgan sought the advice of the incredibly wealthy and famous White financier J. P. Morgan (no relation), with whom he struck up a surprising friendship. J. P. suggested removing "Garrett A." and calling it simply the "Morgan Safety Hood." Garrett Morgan also tried other ways to increase sales, like hiring White actors to conduct demonstrations and make sales at firefighter conventions. Occasionally, Morgan himself put on a Native American costume and called himself "Big Chief Mason," perhaps in a nod to his mother's ancestry. These sales tactics worked. Not only did Morgan sell the hood to fire departments throughout the country, but he also won a contract with the US Navy. By 1917, a year after the Lake Erie disaster, this type of hood was standard equipment (along with British and French designs) for the US Army during World War I.

The theme of safety runs through other inventions by Morgan. American city streets of the 1910s-1920s, for example, were a chaotic mess of pedestrians, carriages, wagons, horses, bicycles, and early cars. Safety measures were nearly nonexistent, and accidents were common. Although traffic lights did exist at the time, Morgan saw a way to make them better. In 1923, he received US Patent 1,475,024 for his T-shaped, manually operated traffic signal that "stopped vehicles in both directions before changing the direction of traffic flow. This brief pause reduced the possibility of a collision caused by a vehicle continuing in motion after the STOP signal was displayed" [" Automobile Safety," America on the Move website]. The pause in traffic flow also provided a safe interval for pedestrians to cross the street. We are fortunate to have one of Morgan's traffic signals in the National Museum of American History's collections. Eventually, however, "the safety interval was standardized in a different traffic signal that superseded Morgan's design: the three-position signal with red, amber and green lenses" [" Automobile Safety," America on the Move website]. Apparently concerned that racism against Blacks would again dissuade potential buyers, evidence suggests that Morgan sold the patent to the General Electric Company for $40,000 (about $612,000 today); General Electric installed three-armed traffic signals in cities across the country.

In addition to his inventive achievements, Morgan co-founded the Cleveland Call, a weekly newspaper that was a predecessor of what became the city's major African American newspaper, the Call and Post. Morgan also helped found the Cleveland Association of Colored Men, where he served as treasurer until it merged with the NAACP; he remained a lifetime member. Using earnings from the sale of his traffic signal patent, he bought a farm near Wakeman, Ohio, and, in an age of segregated clubs, established the all-Black Wakeman Country Club. In addition, Morgan was a member of Excelsior Lodge #11 of the Prince Hall Freemasons, a branch of North American Freemasonry for African Americans founded by Prince Hall in 1784 when he was denied membership in a White Masonic Lodge in Boston.

Morgan married Madge Nelson in 1896; they divorced apparently only two years later. In 1908, he married a White woman, Mary Hasek (1884-1968), with whom he had three sons: John, Garrett Jr., and Cosmo. Later in life, Morgan developed glaucoma and lost most of his sight as a result. The accomplished inventor-sometimes dubbed "The Black Edison"-died in Cleveland on July 27 (not August 27, as reported in some sources) in 1963, shortly before the celebration of the Emancipation Proclamation centennial-an event at which he was honored as a pioneering citizen. In 2005, Morgan was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame for both his gas mask and three-way traffic signal.

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Garrett Morgan, called the "Black Edison," invented safety devices in the early 20th century and was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.

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Black Inventor Garrett Morgan Saved Countless Lives with Gas Mask and Improved Traffic Lights

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In 1916 he strapped on his “safety hood” and dragged rescuers to safety, but racism prevented him from being hailed as a hero 

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Finally. FINALLY I have the answer. For years I've been calling municipalities, bothering utility workers servicing stop lamps, and - more recently - yelling at people on crosswalks. "Why are these traffic lights vertical while the ones in Texas are horizontal?!" I implore in a deranged tone pointing up at the lights with a trembling index finger, my eyes unfocused and bloodshot. "I need to know this! Please!" And for years, all I've received from these sources is hung-up phone calls and strange stares. But that ends today.

I'd reached out to various safety organizations over the years, I'd called DOTs from multiple states, and for the most part, people only had guesses as to why some traffic signals look like this:

While others look like this:

But recently, with the launch of The Autopian, a number of brilliant engineers have reached out to me offering to act as sources for stories. One civil engineer named Joe Eberle introduced himself in his email as a Transportation Engineer. Upon reading his note, my heart pounded; I felt like maybe, just maybe, I could get the definitive answer to the question that has haunted me for far too long. I decided to shoot my shot:

Joe's initial response was short:

Yeah definitely! The short boring answer is it's mostly whatever the state agency's preference is. But I know you guys like the details so I'll get some references and highlight some special use cases and send them this weekend. (Replacing the front suspension on my buddy's truck tonight/tomorrow morning, so might not be until Sunday or Monday)

But then, presumably after some new struts and control arms had been installed into a truck, came the Big Kahuna; I was not prepared for the nerdiness that Mr. Eberle would impart upon me. Buckle up, folks. It's about to get real.

Answers From A Transportation Enginerd

"To start, the best resource for anything traffic signal or sign related is the MUTCD (Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices)," he began. "This document is the foundation for many state codes regarding traffic control, and if a state wants to deviate from it, the state will need to get approval from the FHWA (Federal Highway Administration). It states all of the requirements for traffic signal mounting height, what can be displayed on traffic signals, how many signals per intersection approach, etc."

"Section 4 deals with traffic signals specifically and states that traffic signals can be mounted vertically or horizontally and what order the red, yellow and green need to be in for both cases. It does not have any explanation as to why you might mount a signal vertically or horizontally though."

He continued: "The next source would be to reference any state DOT's standard plans for construction. These typically show how an ideal traffic signal should be built in that state, and is the basis for design for any new traffic signal."

Wind, Some Notes About New 'Backplates' On Traffic Signals, Tethers

Here's the good part; Eberle mentions wind as a main impetus for going to horizontal signals over vertical ones:

Now to the vertical vs. Horizontal signals. The standard arrangement for a traffic signal is to hang them vertically with red on top, green on bottom, but I think there are a few reasons for why a traffic signal would be mounted horizontally. First, mounting a signal horizontally allows two points of attachment to a span wire rather than only one at the top, which should secure the signal better and prevent them from swinging parallel to the road during high wind events. A recent safety improvement on new signals that you may have noticed is installing backplates with a reflective border that helps the signals stand out against the horizon during the day, and light them up with the reflective border at night.

While these safety benefits are great, they also largely increase the surface area of a signal with no significant weight gain, essentially acting as a sail and tossing the signals around with much lighter wind than before. This would be a good reason to mount them horizontally with two attachment points, however most DOT's have started to require tethers on all span wire mounted signals to combat this. These tethers are basically just another wire running on the bottom of the signals to provide a second attachment point and anchor them in place. You may have also noticed many mast arms (heavy steel poles) at intersections with the signals mounted directly to them. These hard mounts would also eliminate any swaying caused by high winds, yet you still see horizontal signals mounted on them.

Vertical Clearance

Eberle continues to the next benefit of horizontal signals - increased vertical clearance:

Another reason signals could be mounted horizontally is to give better vertical clearance for the road below. Signals need to be an absolute minimum of 14′ above a roadway, ideally 17′-19′. But if for some reason the signals dipped too low, mounting them horizontally could potentially give an extra 2′-3′ of clearance. This seems like a pretty good reason, but typically if you have a long span that is sagging the signals too low, you just mount the span wire higher up on a pole or increase tension before you flip the signals around. If you were mounting traffic signals in a tunnel I suppose this would be a valid reason.

Aesthetics Matter

So vertical clearance and wind are important, but don't think cities always put function first; the way traffic signals look also matters, with Eberle giving an example of counties in Michigan who willingly gave up a visibility advantage to ensure that their traffic signals are black:

Lastly (and i think this is the real reason), people have preferences of how things look, even when it comes down to traffic signals. While horizontally mounted traffic signals may have originally been installed to combat swinging in the wind or for additional vertical clearance, modern signals have many other design elements to counter act these problems. Perhaps a city started mounting signals horizontally 50 years ago for a legitimate reason (like hurricane force winds), and then citizens became used to seeing all signals that way and wouldn't want to see a vertical signal, so the city keeps tradition and all signals stay horizontal.

A great example of this that i'm currently involved in is painting signals black instead of yellow. Typically signals have always been yellow for the same reasons that school buses are yellow, to make them stand out. But several years ago a few county's in Michigan started to install black traffic signals at all of their intersections. Now when we design new signals in the county there is almost always a fight between the local municipality and the county over whether the signals should be yellow or black for no reason other than it's how someone prefers them to look.

So these are some reasons behind going to a horizontal figure, per the transportation engineer who included the images you see above from the Michigan and Florida Departments of Transportation. As for sticking with vertical ones? "I would assume its because it's the easiest way to hang a signal, one fastener (or astro-bracket) per signal rather than two," he says.

I Reach Out To The Feds

Just as I sent my email to Eberle, I did a bit more digging to try once again to get to the bottom of the Horizontal versus Vertical traffic signal issue. I found myself reading a research paper about traffic lights, and saw at the top that it had been penned as part of a program called "Intersection Safety." It turns out, the Federal Highway Administration (which falls under the Department of Transportation umbrella) has what's called an "Office of Safety." It's an organization whose goal is - well, I'll just let the Office of Safety break it down:

"Together with...other US Department of Transportation (USDOT) agencies, the Office of Safety is committed to the vision of zero deaths and serious injuries on the Nation's roadways. Within the broad highway safety mission, the Office of Safety's mission is to exercise leadership throughout the multidisciplinary highway community to make the Nation's roadways safer for all users."

That sounds fluffy, I realize that. But stay with me, here. This Office of Safety has a Washington, DC-based staff broken up into two main program "area units." The organization breaks those units down:

"Office of Safety Technologies is responsible for highway designs and technologies that improve safety performance."

"The Office of Safety Programs is responsible for comprehensive Federal and State highway safety programs and activities that improve safety for all road users."

Okay, things are still a little fluffy, but here's the main point. That first bullet point about "highway designs and technologies that improve safety performance" has under its management a program called "Intersection Safety":

That's right, it's an entire program and team whose job is to improve safety where roads cross one another. And you know what one tends to find at such locations? Stoplights!

Shortly after learning of this "intersection safety" group, I found the group's webpage, which discusses why the team exists in the first place: Road intersections are among the most dangerous spaces in motoring, it turns out:

...where roads intersect and paths cross, the resulting conflict points create circumstances where crashes can occur. In fact, each year roughly one-quarter of traffic fatalities and about one-half of all traffic injuries in the United States are attributed to intersections. That is why intersections are a national, state and local road safety priority, and a program focus area for FHWA.

Anyway, the webpage includes contact information for members of the Intersection Safety program. I sent an email, and heard back. What did I learn? Well, for one, I learned that Eberle is a genius, because he was right-on about MUTCD (which you can read here) being the relevant standard. From the feds at the DOT:

On background, I can clarify that basically - MUTCD Section 4D.08 through 4D.10 address this topic. Basically, the signal sections in a signal face shall be arranged in a vertical or horizontal straight line,...Essentially, the MUTCD allows both vertical and horizontal signal displays and does not indicate a preference for one over the other. It is up to each transportation agency to choose, but most agencies use vertical displays. With both options, it is important to note the colors are displayed in a standardized manner so motorists who are color-blind can distinguish the red from the green based on its position within the display.

I then asked what considerations would lead a transportation agency to go one way or the other. The DOT rep echoed Eberle's notes about vertical clearance, wind, and aesthetics, but also added visibility as another factor:

On background - there may be design considerations that are at the agency's discretion. For example-

Vertical clearance concerns

Wind load issues

Better sight distance at locations with vertical obstructions

Aesthetic preference/uniformity

Generally, horizontal displays are used at specific locations where it is challenging to achieve the required vertical clearance above the roadway. In coastal areas or other locations with high wind speeds, horizontal displays can provide more stability and minimize the swaying of the signal displays. In some cases, horizontal signals provide a better line of sight for motorists such as when exiting a tunnel or a bridge. Some agencies may just prefer the visual appearance of one over the other and the consistency of having all of the signals in a jurisdiction with the same design.

Finally! We Have A Definitive Answer

I realize that I could have Googled this and perhaps obtained similar answers, but the fact is that whom the information comes from is as important as the information itself; I was never satisfied with what I found in my Google search results, but now I have the definitive answers. Directly from experts. I can sleep now knowing that Texas's horizontal traffic signals are a choice, not a requirement, and that wind, visibility, aesthetics/historical precedence, and vertical clearance are the main factors that may have played a role in their presence over the ubiquitous vertical signals found in most other states.

Images from government agencies or David Tracy

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Here's The Official Reason Why Some Traffic Lights Are Horizontal And Some Are Vertical - The Autopian

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Have you ever wondered why some traffic lights hang vertically while others hang horizontally? David Tracy investigated and found an interesting answer.

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Traffic Lights design around the world and different designs.

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Traffic lights design and lighting systems from around the world. Vegas, Cadiz, La Coruna and Cardiff and the magic world of traffic lights.