Garrett Augustus MorganBorn 4 Mar 1877; died 27 Jul 1963 at age 86.Black-American inventor and businessman who established the Cleveland Call newspaper (1920), invented a hair straightening cream, woman's hat fastener, an automobile clutch, a safety hood breathing device (1912) which he improved as a gas mask used by some soldiers in WW I, and a traffic signal. By age 30, he had spent time working as a handyman and taught himself enough about repairing sewing machines to start a repair business. Two years later, he started a tailoring shop with 32 employees. He developed and was successful selling G.A. Morgan Hair Refining Cream to straighten hair. When he invented a traffic signal in 1922 (not the red-yellow-green lights type), several other traffic signals had already been previously patented by other inventors. He was nearly blind from 1943 due to glaucoma.« |
