HARTFORD, Conn. -- Connecticut drivers stop at each traffic light for an average of about two minutes, an invention credited to a black inventor Garrett Morgan Sr.

Born in 1877, Morgan spent his adult life in Cleveland. He said that it was after he witnessed a crash between an automobile and a horse-drawn carriage that he developed the concept of the traffic directing device.

Morgan filed the patent for the traffic stoplight on Feb. 27, 1923.

The inventor designed a T-shaped pole, operated by a crankshaft, to direct traffic. The device signaled when to stop and go in all directions at an intersection. In addition, the device indicated when pedestrians could cross the street.

Morgan's patent was granted on Nov. 20, 1923.

Morgan sold the rights to his invention to General Electric Corporation for $40,000. Morgan's design was used at intersections across North America until the transition was made into using modern-day traffic stoplights.