Meet the American who invented the gas mask and the modern traffic signal [Video]

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Garrett A. Morgan is emerging as a larger-than-life figure in American history.

International recognition for the brilliant Cleveland entrepreneur comes a century after his life-saving inventions helped reshape the modern world — from the battlefield to the firehouse to the family road trip.

He possessed a unique humanitarian gift for turning tragedy into life-saving inventions.

The son of former slaves, Morgan conceived and patented the three-signal traffic control in 1923, after he reportedly witnessed a tragic automobile accident on a Cleveland street corner.

FOX NATION’S NEW SERIES ‘MEET THE AMERICAN WHO’ TELLS OF ORDINARY AMERICANS WHO GAVE US EXTRAORDINARY INNOVATIONS

His vision of safer streets now helps control the ebb and flow of millions of automobiles and pedestrians on busy roads all across the globe.

A decade earlier, he patented the first gas mask in …