Lewis Howard Latimer

Inventor

• Born: September 4, 1848
• Birthplace: Chelsea, Massachusetts
• Died: December 11, 1928
• Place of death: Flushing, New York

Inventor, electrical engineer, and patent draftsman

Latimer was one of the first major African American inventors and a self-taught draftsman and electrical engineer. He wrote Incandescent Electric Lighting: A Practical Description of the Edison System (1890) and was the only black charter member of the Edison Pioneers, an elite group of Thomas Edison’s employees.

Areas of achievement: Invention; Philanthropy; Science and technology

Early Life

Lewis Howard Latimer was born on September 4, 1848, in Chelsea, Massachusetts. He was the youngest of four children born to Rebecca and George Latimer, who had escaped from slavery in Virginia just six years before his birth. After moving to Boston, his parents were identified as runaway slaves. His father was arrested and eventually ruled to be the property of his Virginia owner, despite vigorous protests from Frederick Douglass, white abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison, and the Boston community. It took the public fund-raising of four hundred dollars to secure his father’s freedom—albeit a freedom that came with no freeman’s papers or documentation.

Following the infamous case of Dred Scott in 1857, Latimer’s father withdrew from the general public, possibly fearing his own reenslavement. His absence created hardship for the family and likely sparked Latimer’s own patriotism. Parallel to his success and acceptance in later life, Latimer would remain active and forthright on behalf of the African American community.

In his youth, Latimer attended grammar school and displayed abilities in reading and drawing. At some point, he sold copies of The Liberator, Garrison’s radical newspaper that advocated the “immediate and complete emancipation of all slaves” in the United States. With his mother struggling to care for the family, Latimer falsified his age and joined the U.S. Navy at the age of sixteen. He served as a cabin boy aboard the USS Massasoit on the James River. Following the Union victory in the Civil War, Latimer was honorably discharged and returned to Boston in 1865. He set his sights on a career in technology, buying into the ideology of the American Dream.

Life’s Work

Around 1868, Latimer began his professional career as an office boy for Crosby and Gould, a patent law firm in Boston. He made three dollars per week, likely for laborious or insignificant office duties. In 1873, he married Mary Wilson and later had two daughters, Emma Jeanette and Louise Rebecca.

While employed with Crosby and Gould, he observed the draftsmen as they executed their technical drawings. Subsequently, he began reading about the principles of drafting. He practiced for months until he mastered the art of “drawing to scale” using secondhand drafting tools. He was soon given the opportunity to demonstrate his abilities, and he was promptly appointed as a draftsman. In 1874, he obtained his first patent, with Charles W. Brown, on an improved toilet system for railroad cars.

Latimer’s next milestone came in 1876, when he was hired by Alexander Graham Bell to prepare the patent drawings for the telephone. The origin of the telephone is shrouded in controversy. Bell received his patent just a few hours before Elisha Gray, whom some believe to be the true inventor of the telephone. Others speculate that Latimer was its true inventor; however, Latimer himself dismissed these allegations. By 1878, Latimer was working as chief draftsman at Crosby and Gould, earning twenty dollars per week.

In 1880, Latimer was hired on the spot when Hiram Maxim, founder of the U.S. Electric Lighting Company, saw his drafting work. After teaching himself electrical engineering, Latimer was soon appointed to supervise the installation of electric-light systems in New York, Philadelphia, Montreal, and London. In 1881, he obtained his second patent, with Joseph V. Nichols, for an electric lamp; four months later, he received his first exclusive patent on the “process of manufacturing carbons.”

After three years with several other electric companies, Latimer was handpicked by Thomas Edison as his chief draftsman. In 1889, he was promoted to Edison’s legal department, where he served as patent investigator. He also became head of the company’s library, using his moderate knowledge of French and German to translate information and protect the company from European challenges. In 1890, his book Incandescent Electric Lighting: A Practical Description of the Edison System was published and became extremely popular.

Latimer attained great success as an inventor, acquiring seven U.S. patents. His “Apparatus for cooling and disinfecting” is considered the forerunner to the air conditioner. He also made many unpatented improvements to the elevator and lampmaking industries. In 1918, he became the only African American member of the Edison Pioneers, a professional network of business affilates from Edison’s many ventures. A devoted family man and philanthropist, he treasured his membership in the Grand Army of the Republic and helped to established the Flushing Unitarian Church. In 1902, he circulated a petition to Mayor Seth Low regarding the lack of African American representation on New York City’s school board.

Among Latimer’s other interests were music, art, and literature. Following the death of his wife in 1924, his daughters had his book of poetry, Poems of Love and Life, published to encourage him to carry on. Noted excerpts from that book include “Friends” and “Ebon Venus,” the latter written for his wedding day.

Latimer died on December 11, 1928. He was eighty years old.

Significance

Latimer played a crucial role in developing the inventions of Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell, and Hiram Maxim. He is highly regarded for his innovations in drafting, telecommunications, and electrical engineering. His greatest accomplishment, however, was the invention of a carbon filament that increased the brightness and durability of the lightbulb. Its lower cost made electric lighting more accessible in the late nineteenth century. In 1988, his home was moved to Flushing, a neighborhood in New York City’s borough of Queens, to serve as a museum in his honor. Likewise, a set of apartments in Flushing were christened the Latimer Gardens.

Bibliography

Fouché, Rayvon. Black Inventors in the Age of Segregation: Granville T. Woods, Lewis H. Latimer, and Shelby J. Davidson. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003. A contemporary look at three of America’s most innovative black inventors. Exposing the myths linked to their legacies, this assessment offers a candid study of their lives and historical significance.

Haskins, James. “Electrifying Inventors: Lewis Latimer and Granville T. Woods.” In Outward Dreams: Black Inventors and Their Inventions. New York: Walker, 1992. Highlights the accomplishments of Woods and Latimer, two of the first major African American inventors in electrical engineering.

Sullivan, Otha Richard. “The Civil War Years and Reconstruction.” In Black Stars: African American Inventors, edited by James Haskins. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1998. A brief look at the life of Latimer, highlighting his most notable accomplishments and inventions in the post-Civil War years.