The 25 Greatest Gadgets Created By Black Inventors

9. Gas Mask

Inventor: Garrett A. Morgan
Year: 1916
Far from the technical side of the spectrum, Morgan actually used his smoke protecting apparatus to save the lives of Cleveland city workers trapped underground and exposed to toxic fumes. The safety hood had a tube that reached near the ground and brought in clear air, where as the bottom of the tube was lined with a sponge-esque material filtered all incoming gas. But he would actually modify the gas mask to appease underwater divers—creating an early underwater suit that featured a helmet that pumped air through a tube attached onto the headgear and released from another tube. Talk about advancement.