Garrett Augustus Morgan, Sr.- Traffic Control Signal

Garrett Augustus Morgan, Sr.  was an African-American inventor and community leader. His most notable inventions included a type of protective respiratory hood (or gas mask), a traffic signal, and a hair-straightening chemical.  He is renowned for a heroic rescue in 1916 in which he and three others used the safety hood device he'd developed to save workers trapped within a water intake tunnel, 50 ft. beneath Lake Erie. He is also credited as the first African American in Cleveland, Ohio, to own an automobile.
He filed for a patent on his safety hood invention in 1912, and launched the National Safety Device Company in 1914.                                               In 1913, he launched the G. A. Morgan Hair Refining Company, which sold hair care products, including a hair straightening cream, a hair dye, and a hair straightening comb invented by Morgan.
His safety hood invention led him to nation-wide fame and a much higher level of commercial success. The hair care company was also successful enough to become a long-lasting established business. He then went on to develop his traffic control signal, for which he filed for a patent in 1922.                                       .