Language, Literacy and Storytelling: Day 13 - Lewis Howard Latimer

Wednesday, February 13, 2019

Day 13 - Lewis Howard Latimer - Incandescent Inventor

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.

Incandescent Electric Lighting - A Practical Description of The Edison System.

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.

He co-founded the Unitarian Church in Flushing, New York.

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: