Safety Hood
Garret A. Morgan invented the Safety Hood in Cleveland in 1914. He invented it to help firefighters in incidents that they were overcome by smoke when attempting to put out fires. THe safety hood is a breathing device made of a canvas hood that is placed over the head, it has a double extended tube from the hood that merges into a single tube on the back, and has an open end which held a sponge soaked with water whcih filtered smoke and cooled the incoming air. In 1916 he was able to put his invention to the test when a tunnel being constucted under Lake Erie had an explosions go off inside. Three rescue parties went into the tunnel to help but never came out. Out of desperation, official that were familiar with Morgan and his deviced asked for his help. He arrived at the scene as quick as he could in his pajamas with four Safety Hoods. SInce the police and firefighters seen that friends and co-workers go into the smokey tunnel and not come out, they refused to go in. Morgan, his brother, and two volunteers agreed to go into the tunnel wearing the Safety Hoods. They went in and out of the tunnel over and over again, pulling the workers and other rescures who were suffocating out of the tunnel to safety. Morgan even helped to save the life od the superintenden of the tunnel project by performing CPR on him. Morgan gain a lot of publicity and won numerous medals for his heroism. After this invent fire departments across the country wanted to buy his Safety Hoods for their stations. A revised version of his mask was later used by the U.S. Army. He eventurally received a gold medal from the medal International Exposition of Sanitation and Safety and from the International Association of Fire Chiefs.
