Wednesday, February 13, 2019

Day 13 - Lewis Howard Latimer - Incandescent Inventor

Lewis Howard Latimer





Lewis Howard Latimer

1848 - 1928



Who Was He?



Lewis Howard Latimer was born in Chelsea, MA in 1848 to parents who had escaped slavery in Virginia.

The slaver had them arrested and tried under the Fugitive Slave Act. Luckily, Frederick Douglass and other abolitionists came to their defense, and a minister helped raise four hundred dollars to pay off the slaver.

After the Dred Scott Decision, Latimer's father left the family. Some sources speculate that he became fearful that he would be found and forced back into slavery, and he disappeared, leaving Rebecca, his wife, to raise their children alone.

Lewis Latimer only received a basic education and at a young age he got a job to help his mother support the family.

Because of  his parent's history, Latimer was keen to fight for the abolition of slavery when the Civil War started. At fifteen (or sixteen depending on the source you cite), he lied about his age and joined the Union Navy. At the end of the war, he was given an honorable discharge, and went home to Chelsea.

Crosby and Gould
His first job after the war was as an office boy at Crosby and Gould, a patent law firm. He was making about three dollars a week.

Lewis had never used a ruler or any of the other tools of a draftsman, and he was fascinated by the whole process.
vintage Draftsman Tools










He went to the library - Shout out to the necessity of public libraries - and got books on drafting. He learned everything he could from reading. watched the draftsmen work during the day, and practiced at home with third hand materials he could afford.

Lewis started doing some sketching at work, and his skills were noticed by the the firm. He was promoted to draftsman, and his salary went from three dollars a week, to twenty.

He married Mary Wilson Lewis in 1873, and life didn't seem like it could get any sweeter. 

Then, the draftsman went from making designs for other people's inventions to making designs of his his own.

What Did He Invent?

In 1874, the year after he got married, Latimer and Charles W. Brown co-patented a toilet system for the railroad. That was just the beginning.

Latimer's work was noticed by some of the top inventors of the day. 

In 1876, Alexander Graham Bell employed Latimer as a draftsman at his patent firm. At Bell's request, Latimer not only drafted the designs, but helped Bell fill out and organize all of the proper documents to get the telephone patented. This led to some people claiming that Latimer had actually helped Bell invent the telephone, but throughout his life, when anybody ever suggested this, Latimer set them straight.

He never even suggested he'd invented the Bell Telephone.

After moving to Bridgeport, Connecticut in 1879 to take a job with US Electric Lighting Company at the invitation of its owner, Hiram Maxim, Latimer became an assistant manager as well as a draftsman.

The company was selling Thomas Edison's lightbulbs, which were the only ones around at that time. These lightbulbs used a paper filament that burnt out quickly. Latimer thought there might be a better way to do it.

The Carbon Filament Light Bulb


In 1881, Latimer experimented, produced and then co-patented the carbon filament light bulb with a man named Joseph Nichols. They sold the patent to the US Electrical Lighting Company later that year. 

1882 arrived with a new patent with a Latimer for an improved process for making the carbon filaments.

Two years later, in 1884, Latimer found himself in New York City working for The Edison Electric Light Company. By this time, he was not only hired as an expert draftsman, but an expert witness in patent litigation concerning lightbulbs.

Latimer's Book
Lewis Latimer wrote the first book about electric lighting. 




















His Legacy?

If you've ever traveled by train and had to take a pit stop...you can say thank you to Latimer.

Lewis Howard Latimer supervised the installation of public lighting in New York, Montreal, London, and Philadelphia.

In his day he was celebrated as an expert on patent law.


There are scholarships named after him, elementary schools, he was inducted into the Inventor's Hall of Fame, and MIT has an invention program named after him.

Latimer's carbon filament made electric light practical for public places as well as a necessity in the home.

He also tutored immigrants in English and helped them learn drafting skills. Latimer also wrote poetry and plays, as well as playing the flute.

Here is one of his poems:

EBON VENUS

Let others boast of maidens fair,
Of eyes of blue and golden hair;
My heart like needles ever true
Turns to the maid of ebon hue.
I love her form of matchless grace,
The dark brown beauty of her face,
Her lips that speak of love's delight,
Her eyes that gleam as stars at night.
O'er marble Venus let them rage,
Who sets the fashions of the age;
Each to his taste, but as for me,
My Venus shall be ebony.

Lewis H. Latimer


He invented some other things too, including the earliest air conditioner, but we'll leave that right here!

Thank you, Lewis Latimer for helping us turn on the light and keep it burning!

Celebrate Black History.


Day 1 - The ABC's of Black History Month
Day 6 - Ernest Everett Just - Biologist, Zoologist, Cell man
Day 7 - Frederick McKinley Jones - The Coolest Man in Modern History
Day 8 - Sarah Goode - A Practical Bed For Small Spaces
Day 9 - William Henry Cling - Did He Invent The Hospital Bed Before Gatch?
Day 10 - Inez Beverly Prosser and Brown V.S. The Board of Education
Day 11 - Jan Ernst Mateliger - Mechanical Engineer/Sole Man
Day 12 - Samuel L. Kountz Jr. - Revolutionized Transplant Surgery
Day 13 - Lewis Howard Latimer - Incandescent Inventor
Day 14 - Marie Van Brittan Brown - Home Security
Day 15 - Norbert Rillieux - Sugar Man
Day 16 - Otis Boykin - He Kept Hearts Beating
Day 17 - Alice H. Parker - Heating It Up!
Day 18 - Lloyd Quarterman - Chemist and Atom Man
Day 19 - Robert F. Flemming Jr. - Guitar Man
Day 20 - Charles S. L. Baker - The Friction Radiator 
Day 21 - Granville T. Woods - The Black Edison
Day 22 - Alfred L. Cralle - Next Time You Have Ice Cream...
Day 23 - Ellen Elgin - Through The Wringer
Day 24 - Dr. Daniel Hale Williams - Holding A Heart In the Palm of His Hands
Day 25 - Benjamin Bradley - Steam Engine Dominance
Day 26 - Elijah McCoy - The Real One
Day 27 - Alexander Miles - Hold The Door, Please!

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