Inventing the Gas Mask - Excerpt from "How Ohio Helped the World"
African-American Garrett Augustus Morgan, the son of former slaves, was born in Paris, Kentucky. Morgan set off from home at the young age of 14 and began working as a sewing machine repairman in Cleveland, Ohio.
Garrett’s mask was originally called the Morgan safety hood and smoke detector, for which he received a patent on October 13, 1914. The sturdy canvas hood rested on the
shoulders of the wearer, who could look through two squares of mica, a transparent material. A double tube extended from the hood and joined together to form a single tube
in the back. The open end of the tube held a sponge soaked with water to filter out smoke and to cool incoming air.

On July 25, 1916 it was put to the test when an explosion of methane gas occurred in tunnel five of the Cleveland waterworks. Trapped inside the tunnel, located 250 feet
beneath Lake Erie, were eleven workmen. Morgan, his brother, and a neighbor descended more than 220 feet into the tunnel to search for survivors after two earlier rescue parties, totaling ten men, failed to return.

Morgan was awarded the Carnegie Medal and a Medal for Bravery from the city of Erie for his courage during the Lake Eire disaster. The Morgan gas mask was later refined for use
by the U.S. Army during World War I.

In 1991, 75 years after his efforts, the Division Avenue Filtration Plant was renamed the Garrett Morgan Waterworks.

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