Your Car Care REPs have officially opened up our Online Shop!! We’ve been on this winding cyber road a long time and now its time to celebrate this historic milestone. With this being Black History month we figured lets pay homage to some of the African American inventors and designers that have made history and a difference in the automotive world. So unbuckle your seat belt as we chop it up with you on the home front.
There are several African American inventors that have not received their just due. Garrett Augustus Morgan is one such inventor. We see some of his inventions used in this modern society that we live in today but little no about him. He is responsible for inventing the Three-Position traffic signal stoplight, the respiratory protective hood (similar to modern gas masks) as well as a hair-straightening preparation tool. Lets find out a little background on this groundbreaking inventor. Garrett Morgan was born in Paris, Kentucky on March 4, 1877. He left Kentucky while still a teenager, moving north to Cincinnati, Ohio in search of employment. He spent most of his adolescence working as a handyman for a wealthy Cincinnati landowner. Due to his financial situations Morgans formal education ended after elementary school. Because he valued education and knew that it was the key to uplift him from poverty, Morgan hired a tutor and continued his studies in English grammar while living in Cincinnati. Morgan moved to Cleveland, Ohio where he worked as a sewing machine repairman for a clothing manufacturer. Experimenting with gadgets and materials to discover better ways of performing his trade, Morgan found his passion. His proficiency for fixing things led to numerous job opportunities with various manufacturing firms throughout the Cleveland area. In 1907 Garrett Morgan opened his own sewing equipment and repair shop. This was one of several business ventures that he started. Over the years he became a prosperous and widely respected businessman. This enabled him to purchase a home and an automobile.
At that time, it was not uncommon for bicycles, animal-powered carts and motor vehicles to share the same throughways with pedestrians. Accidents frequently occurred between the vehicles. After witnessing a collision between an automobile and a horse-drawn carriage, Morgan was convinced that something should be done to improve traffic safety.
While other inventors are reported to have experimented with and even marketed their own three-position traffic signals, Garrett A. Morgan was the first to apply for and acquire a U.S. patent for such a device. The patent was granted on November 20, 1923. Morgan later had the technology patented in Great Britain and Canada as well.
Prior to Morgans invention, most of the traffic signals in use featured only two positions: Stop and Go. Manually operated, these two-position traffic signals were an improvement over no signal at all, but because they allowed no interval between the Stop and Go commands, collisions at busy intersections were common during the transition moving from one street to the other. The Morgan traffic signal was a T-shaped pole unit that featured three positions: Stop, Go and an all-directional stop position. The third position halted traffic in all directions before it allowed travel to resume on either of the intersections perpendicular roads. This feature not only made it safer for motorists to pass through intersections, but also allowed pedestrians to cross more safely.
Morgans traffic management technology was used throughout North America until it was replaced by the red, yellow and green-light traffic signals currently used around the world today. Garrett Morgan eventually sold the rights to his traffic signal to the General Electric Corporation for $40,000. Shortly before his death in 1963, the U.S. Government awarded Garrett Morgan a citation for the traffic signal.
Another widely unknown African American inventor named Richard Spikes is credited with inventing the automatic gear shift among other inventions such as the railroad semaphore, the horizontally swinging barber chair, the automatic safety brake and the beer keg tap to name a few. Richard Spikes was born in San Francisco, California in 1884. Very little is known about the early life of Richard Spikes. But what we do know is that he has invented numerous inventions that have made a significant impact on the world today. He received a patent for his automatic gear shifter in 1932. Some other inventions that Spikes is accredited with are the automatic car washer, the self-locking rack for billiard cues, the automatic shoeshine chair and a multiple barrel machine gun.
Today there are African Americans that are paving the way in the automotive industry. 34-year-old Andre Hudson is one such individual. Andre Hudson is the Design Manager for Hyundai Design North America. He is responsible for designing the sleek, sculpted 2011 Hyundai Sonata. Which I must say, I truly enjoy the look and design of these new Hyundai vehicles. Im not the only one that seems to be enjoying it, because in May of 2011 sales for the Sonata soared 93%, leading the company to an all-time sales record for the month. Andre Hudson is quoted as saying, “The importance of good design transcends all industries. Whether its your auto, mobile device, the clothes or footwear you wear, or the interior of a building youve entered, great design changes the world.”
These African American individuals have made an impact on the way we interact with each other and the way we see the world. It goes to show when you have a bright idea, (no matter how the odds are stacked against you) if you truly believe in something, you can achieve your goals. So during this Black History month we salute these and other inventors and designers that have made this world a little better place to live. Upon reaching this milestone of opening up our online shop we want to thank all the people that have helped and supported us during this journey to reaching our destination, REP-YOUR-HOOD. Thank You. Special thanks to all the folks over at the Industries #1 Blogspot Gotham Jungle.
Your Car Care REPs have officially opened up our Online Shop!! We’ve been on this winding cyber road a long time and now its time to celebrate this historic milestone. With this being Black History month we figured lets pay homage to some of the African American inventors and designers that have made history and a difference in the automotive world. So unbuckle your seat belt as we chop it up with you on the home front.
