Some inventions that play crucial roles in the current day-to-day engagements were ideas that ancient scientists and researchers came up with and transform into reality. Ancient scientists and philosophers spent time on several pieces of research, intending to shape the world. Some of them got their monuments pinned in famous cities and others have their stories documented in papers. Inventions seem to have started in times of the agrarian revolution, basic agricultural mechanics like plows, seed drills, and threshing machines were produced in this era to expedite the rate of farm productions. This invention appears to be basic but it enlightens the minds of the scientists who came after to work on making improvements up to the automated acrobats we now see.
Powerful inventors, whose details are documented, are the ones who invented around the 16th century onwards. It happens that Garret Augustus Morgan falls inside this age bracket. Who was Garret Morgan?
Garret Morgan was born in Paris in March 1984, his mother was Elizabeth Reed (she was of Indian and African descent), and his father Sydney was an ex-slave who was freed around 1963. Garret Morgan didn’t spend most of his time in school, knowledge of elementary school was enough for him. When he was a teenager, Morgan looks for menial jobs from rich landowners in Cincinnati. Morgan was a fast learner and when he was exposed to the inner working of machines, it took less time for him to ascertain full operations and even made repairs. He was obsessed with improving the performance of sewing machines and he decided to open his workshop where he carries out repairs.
Garret Morgan is one of the inventors whose names are not regularly recognized but their work remains helpful even in the 21st century. Garret Morgan is one of the exceptional inventors who invented more than two items that remain in use up to date. He invented the gas mask and the three-position traffic signal. This article will skew its writing towards three-position traffic signals but it’s ideal if we slightly talk about the gas mask as well. Garett Morgan invented the gas mask around 1914 but this invention was dormant for two years. It happened that a ship of workers capsized in Lake Erie, Morgan and his team took part in rescue using the gas mask and he saved several lives. After Morgan rescued capsized workers, the demand for Gas masks ballooned.
Garret Morgan was a problem solver and his inventions were intending to solve real problems he witnessed. Documentaries written about Morgan indicates that his invention of a three-position traffic light was derived from the accident that he witnessed in the street. He became obsessed with the idea of how the movement of vehicles and pedestrians on the road can be controlled to halt unnecessary road accidents. Morgan decides to create traffic light signals that were supposed to be implanted on corners of the road so that pedestrians and vehicles are signaled when the time to pass the road comes, each (pedestrian and vehicle) had a destined time of using the road.
Morgan’s three-position traffic lights were just an improvement of prior invention. Before Morgan designed three-position traffic lights, most of the traffic lights used two signals. Two signal systems had stop and go signals which appears to be inefficient since numerous accidents were still recorded. This is because two signals fail to give an interval between two commands (stop and go) causing accidents on busy roads.
Morgan invents a T-shaped pole that features stop, go, and all direction stop position commands. The ‘all direction stop’ command was intended to stop the movement of all vehicles before they were allowed to move either side of the intersection, this assures the safety of both passengers and motorists. Garrett Morgan sold his invention to General Electric for an approximate $40,000. The current modern traffic lights are a replication of Morgan’s inventions.
Morgan lost his life in Cleveland, Ohio, on July 27, 1963, after suffering a long illness of glaucoma which compromised his sight. Morgan died but his ideas are still alive, his inventions have reduced congestion from our home towns to cities and more importantly, it has assisted in minimizing accidents.