Garrett Augustus Morgan
Traffic Signal | Buillth — Never Forget
ARCHIVE NO. 001
At a busy intersection, the change from stop to go matters. Garrett Augustus Morgan saw the danger in that transition and patented a traffic signal with a third position: a moment when traffic in every direction stopped so the intersection could clear.
His signal was not the modern red–amber–green light. His contribution was a practical way to make the change between traffic movements safer. He also developed a safety hood and used it during a dangerous rescue beneath Lake Erie.
Morgan’s name belongs alongside those achievements.
Who Was Garrett Augustus Morgan?
Morgan was born in 1877 in Paris, Kentucky, to formerly enslaved parents. He had limited formal schooling, but continued learning after moving north as a teenager. In Cleveland, he worked with sewing machines, became skilled at repairing them, and built businesses in clothing and hair care.
He approached invention as a problem solver and an entrepreneur: identify a need, make something useful, and find a way to bring it to people. As a Black businessman in the early twentieth century, he also faced customers and institutions that did not always give him a fair chance.
The Safety Hood And Tunnel Rescue
Morgan developed a breathing device he called a safety hood to help people work in smoke and dangerous air. In 1916, an explosion in a waterworks tunnel beneath Lake Erie left workers trapped and earlier rescue parties in danger.
Morgan brought safety hoods to the scene. He, his brother Frank, and other rescuers went into the tunnel; their efforts helped bring survivors out. It was a demonstration of both his invention and his willingness to use it when lives were at stake.
The response exposed the prejudice he faced. Some fire departments ordered the hood after the rescue, while others canceled orders when they learned its inventor was Black. Black newspapers documented his work, even when other coverage failed to give him comparable recognition.
The Three-Position Traffic Signal
As cars, bicycles, pedestrians, and horse-drawn vehicles shared city streets, intersections became harder to manage. Morgan developed a hand-operated traffic signal with movable arms and received a U.S. patent for it in 1923.
Alongside stop and go, his design included an intermediate position that stopped traffic in all directions. That pause allowed an intersection to clear before another direction received permission to move. Morgan later sold the patent rights to General Electric.
Today’s yellow light serves a caution function, but Morgan did not invent the illuminated amber lamp at every intersection. His patented device was a different, mechanical design. Understanding that difference makes his actual contribution clearer.
Remember The Inventor
Morgan’s original signal did not become the standard traffic light used everywhere today. His patented approach to a safer change in traffic flow remains an important part of the history of road safety.
He received recognition during his life and was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2005. He also faced documented discrimination that affected how his work was marketed and credited. Both parts of that history deserve to be told.
You know the signal. Now you know Garrett Augustus Morgan.
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