Green Is for Go

As Europe was getting embroiled in "the war to end all wars," in the United States, the world's first electric traffic signal was installed, on Aug. 5, 1914, in Cleveland, Ohio. Its inventor, Garrett Morgan, was the son of former slaves and (like many, maybe even most, inventors) had an abbreviated school career. In addition to the electric traffic signal and among other things, Morgan invented a Safety Hood and Smoke Protector, aka the gas mask: http://inventors.about.com/od/mstartinventors/a/Garrett_Morgan.htm