Lewis Howard Latimer - Revolutionary Inventor

 


Lewis Howard Latimer
September 1848 - December 1928

Lewis Howard Latimer was born on September 4, 1848, in Chelsea, Massachusetts whose parents Rebecca and George Latimer, fled slavery from Virginia. Lewis's father, George, had to buy his freedom to reunite with his family because of someone recognizing him from Virginia. After a case ruled individual slaves needed proof of consent from their owners that they were legally free, Lewis's mother decided to split up the family. Lewis was sent to a farm school. At 16 years old he enrolled in the U.S. Navy and after 10 months received an honorable discharge. He got a job at a patent law firm as an office boy learning how to use drafting tools working his way up to draftsman.

Lewis and Charles M. Brown received a patent for an improved toilet system called the water closet for railroad cars. Alexander Graham Bell hired Lewis to create drawings required to obtain a patent for Bell's telephone. Lewis relocated to Bridgeport, Connecticut in 1879 where he improved the process for making carbon filament decreasing breakages through the carbonization process. Lewis left Hiram Maxim and went to work with Thomas Edison. He created the "apparatus for cooling and disinfecting" and a patent for safety elevator. Lewis wrote Incandescent Electric Lighting and supervised electric lights being displayed all over New York, Philadelphia, Montreal, and London. In 1892 General Electric was born when Edison Electric Light Company merged with Thomson-Houston Electric Company which Lewis worked in the legal department. By 1911 he was a patent consultant for law firms. Lewis Howard Latimer died on December 11, 1928.

Source: Innovative Lives: Lewis Latimer (1848-1928): Renaissance Man | Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation (si.edu)

               Lewis Howard Latimer: Biography, Inventor, Draftsman

               Lewis Howard Latimer - Wikipedia

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