Garrett Morgan

"Father of the Gas Mask"

Above, left: Morgan rescueing miners. Right: The first prototype gas mask.

Garrett A. Morgan (1875-1963), inventor; born in Paris, Tenn. Morgan developed his first invention, a belt fastener for sewing machines, in 1901, and he sold it for $150. In 1914 he won the First Grand Prize gold medal at the Second International Exposition of Sanitation and Safety for his breathing helmet and smoke protector (prototype to the gas mask); in 1916 he demonstrated the use of this device in the rescue operation following an explosion in a tunnel at the Cleveland Waqterworks that trapped many men below Lake Erie (See lower left photo above). In 1923, Morgan developed an automatic stop sign to aid the movement of traffic, selling the rights to this invention to General Electric for $40,000.

References: W.A. Low, V.A. Clift, Encyclopedia of Black America, The Schomburg Library, The Smithsonian Institution.