Breathing Through Barriers: The Legacy of Garrett Morgan

Elle
4 days ago
4 min read

Imagine you’re a firefighter charging into a burning building. Or a worker descending into a gas-filled tunnel 200 feet beneath a lake. In all these situations, your life depends on a simple device: a breathing mask.

But here’s what most people don’t know: a Black inventor named Garrett Augustus Morgan created one of the earliest and most practical breathing protection devices, a design that paved the way for modern gas masks. For decades, he received little credit for one of the most important safety innovations in history.

This is a story about innovation, racism, and one man’s determination to save lives in a world determined to overlook him.

From Kentucky to Innovation

Garrett Augustus Morgan was born on March 4, 1877, in Claysville, Kentucky, to formerly enslaved parents. His mother was of Native American, Black, and white descent, and his father was of mixed Black and white ancestry. Morgan was the seventh of eleven children and worked on the family farm while attending school.

As a teenager, he moved north to Cincinnati and later to Cleveland, Ohio, seeking better opportunities. He began his career as a sewing machine mechanic, a trade that inspired his early inventions, including an improved sewing machine design and a hair-straightening product that became commercially successful.

But his biggest and most life-saving invention was still to come.

The Birth of the Safety Hood

In the early 1900s, industrial and mining accidents were frequent and often deadly. Firefighters and workers had almost no protection from smoke and toxic gases. Morgan set out to solve this problem.

In 1912, he introduced his “Safety Hood and Smoke Protector” and was granted U.S. Patent No. 1,090,936 in 1914. He later founded the National Safety Device Company to produce and market the hood.

The invention was clever and practical: a hood that covered the head and shoulders, with long intake tubes extending toward the ground, where the air was cleaner. Inside, filters and moist sponges trapped smoke and harmful particles.

While Morgan was not the first to create a respirator (earlier versions existed in the 19th century), his design was among the first affordable and widely used breathing protection devices for firefighters and rescue workers. It would later influence the development of modern gas masks used in both industry and warfare.

In 1914, Morgan received a gold medal from the International Association of Fire Chiefs for his life-saving invention.

Racism and Reinvention

When Morgan tried to sell his invention, he discovered that many fire departments, particularly in the South, refused to buy a product from a Black inventor.

So he got creative. Morgan hired a white actor to pose as the inventor while he dressed as a Native American “Chief Mason.” In public demonstrations, “Chief Mason” would enter a tent filled with dense smoke and emerge unharmed after twenty minutes. The stunt worked, sales took off, and the Safety Hood gained national attention.

It is telling that Morgan had to disguise himself to sell his own invention. It was a powerful example of how racism limited opportunity, even for those saving lives.

The Lake Erie Tunnel Rescue That Changed Everything

On the night of July 24, 1916, a disaster struck beneath Lake Erie, four miles offshore from Cleveland. A crew digging a water intake tunnel accidentally hit a pocket of natural gas, triggering an explosion that trapped dozens of workers. When rescuers descended into the tunnel, many were overcome by toxic fumes. Hearing of the accident, Garrett Morgan, his brother Frank, and several others grabbed Morgan’s Safety Hoods and rushed to the site.

Morgan and his team descended into the tunnel multiple times, pulling injured workers and would-be rescuers to safety. His device worked exactly as intended, filtering the air and keeping him alive in conditions that killed others. The local newspapers initially celebrated the rescue but downplayed or omitted Morgan’s name once his race became known. Despite risking his life, he was denied the recognition he deserved.

From Local Hero to National Influence

Even racism could not completely erase Morgan’s impact. His breathing hood gained respect from safety organizations and was purchased by fire departments across the country.

While Morgan’s invention was not the same as the military gas masks later developed for World War I, it inspired awareness and research into portable breathing protection that influenced subsequent designs.

Morgan’s company continued producing and improving safety devices for years after.

The Black Edison and the Traffic Light

Morgan’s inventive streak did not end there. He created a fastener for women’s hats, an improved hair curler, and a clutch system for automobiles.

But his second most famous invention came in 1923, when he patented a three-position traffic signal (U.S. Patent No. 1,475,024). Earlier traffic signals only had “stop” and “go.” Morgan’s design introduced a warning position, the basis for today’s yellow light. He sold the patent to General Electric for $40,000, roughly $610,000 in today’s dollars, and was nicknamed The Black Edison.

Why His Story Matters

Garrett Morgan’s story is about more than invention. It is about perseverance, ingenuity, and the cost of racism in America’s history of innovation.

For decades, his contributions were minimized or omitted from textbooks. Students learned about Edison and Bell but rarely about the man whose inventions helped save lives in burning buildings, on the battlefield, and at every busy intersection.

Morgan’s story reminds us that brilliance is not limited by race, but recognition often has been.

The Legacy

Morgan lived from 1877 to 1963, spending 86 years creating, building businesses, and serving his community. He purchased land in Ohio for an African American settlement, founded a newspaper, and remained active in civic affairs.

Today, every time a firefighter puts on a respirator or you stop at a yellow light, you are seeing the legacy of Garrett Morgan, the self-taught Black inventor who made the world safer.

It is time his name stands alongside the great innovators of history.

Sources

Britannica – “Garrett Morgan: Biography, Invention, Traffic Light, Gas Mask, & Facts.”
National Inventors Hall of Fame – “Garrett Morgan | Inductee.”
PBS Learning Media – “Who Made America? | Garrett Augustus Morgan.”
Smithsonian Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation – “Diverse Voices: Garrett Morgan.”
Case Western Reserve University, Encyclopedia of Cleveland History – “Morgan, Garrett A.”
Cleveland Historical – “The 1916 Waterworks Tunnel Disaster” and “Demonstrating His Gas Mask.”
Ohio Memory Project – “Garrett Morgan Saves the Day.”
Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) – “Safer Stop and Go: Garrett Morgan’s Traffic Signal Legacy.”
Scientific American – “Black Inventor Garrett Morgan Saved Countless Lives with Gas Mask and Improved Traffic Lights.”
U.S. Patent and Trademark Office – U.S. Patent No. 1,090,936 (Safety Hood and Smoke Protector) and No. 1,475,024 (Traffic Signal).