COLORADO SPRINGS, COLO. -- 
Garrett Augustus Morgan, Sr (1877-1963) originally from Paris, Ky., moved north to Cincinnati, Ohio, in search of employment at the age of 14. He quit school at a young age, as many African-Americans of the day, in order to work. He was able to hire his own tutor to help him continue in his studies.
Morgan, known for fixing things and experimenting, started his own sewing machine and shoe repair shop in 1907. In the course of several years he had grown his business to include a tailoring shop which made a variety of clothes that were sewn from machines that he had built himself.
His experiments with clothing design and creation led him to inventing a liquid that prevented sewing machine needles from scorching fabric as it sewed. Incidentally, his liquid invention was also found to straighten hair as well as fabric. He went on to start a hair company that marketed and sold his hair straightening cream along with other inventions of his to include black hair oil dye and a curved-tooth iron comb.
After the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, which has been deemed one of the largest industrial disasters in the history of New York City, Garrett decided to work on a few new inventions. In 1914 Garrett invented the "safety hood" which developed into the modern day gas mask, and also the smoke detector.
His safety hood was put to heroic use in 1916 when Garrett himself saved 32 trapped workers in a collapsed tunnel beneath Lake Erie.
Garrett's claim to fame didn't end with the safety hood and smoke detectors. One day he was witness to a tragic accident between an automobile and a horse and carriage. He set out to develop a way of signaling road-faring vehicles automatically without the need for a policeman or worker present. His most prolific invention yet, the traffic signal, was born and is used worldwide today.
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