Lewis Howard Latimer

Lewis Howard Latimer
Patent for the Electric Lamp: September 13, 1881

Lewis Howard Latimer
Born: 1848
Death: 1928
Rank: Draftsman, Inventor

An Inventor and Innovator
When we pick up a phone and dial, the marvel of an audible human voice on the other end is lost on us, because telecommunication - for a twenty-first-century human being - is a simple fact of life. When we turn on a lamp or screw a light bulb into a socket, the magic of instant light is again tempered by the very commonality of such an occurrence. In school, we learn of the men who pioneered these now common household items, men like Alexander Graham Bell, or so he claimed, and Thomas Edison. Each in their own way, they bestrode their world as titans of intellect, revolutionizing the daily lives of their contemporaries with their practical and commercially successful patent designs. But what of Lewis Latimer? Surely his name must stand tall in such lauded company, for he worked alongside Edison and Hiram Maxim!

A black man, son of escaped slaves, Latimer’s status as a champion of African American advancement has been questioned by historians. Professor Rayvon Fouche, of Purdue University, contends that Latimer, “did not invent for race; he invented for himself.” Skills in patenting and inventing served to provide Latimer with “credentials,” which, Fouche asserts, “enabled Latimer to gain access to a world closed to most black men.” Assimilation into white society to the point where he “was no longer seen as a black man, but as a raceless member of this environment.” Thus, while Latimer was a prominent African American in the late nineteenth and early twentieth-century America, it was via assimilation into white social, intellectual, and technical circles that his rise to prominence came about. While not the picture of a black man rising to uplift his own race in a time when Jim Crow pervaded and the promised hope of Lincoln’s emancipation began to fade, Latimer’s career is proof, alongside so many other examples, that African Americans could stand tall, and - in Latimer’s case - help to literally illuminate the world.

Born mere months after his parents escaped slavery in the south, Latimer grew up in Boston, the cradle of the abolitionist movement. His father, George, had escaped with his pregnant wife, Rebecca, only to be apprehended by slave catchers in Massachusett, in 1842. This affront to Massachusetts's sovereignty led to outrage and a sharp response from Massachusetts abolitionists, who threatened violence and rioting in Boston. The wave of protests, and the impressive legal apparatus assembled, managed to free Latimer from jail, and end the matter there. Several years after his father’s release, Lewis was born a free man in Boston. Yet, at the age of ten, Lewis felt the sudden sting of his father’s departure; apparently, George left his family for good, and though living until 1897, it is not apparent that he ever made contact with them again. Latimer’s mother was incapable of supporting her four children by herself, prompting Latimer to gain odd jobs working at attorney’s offices and waiting tables. As the Civil War entered its fourth year, Latimer eagerly joined the Union Navy, aged eighteen, serving aboard the USS Massasoit, on the Atlantic coast and the inland Virginia rivers. Under a year later, the war was over and he returned to Boston, but his brief service left him with lifelong pride, and he later joined the Grand Army of the Republic (the post-war northern veterans' organization, unique as being the first and largest integrated political and social institution in the United States).

The post-war world offered him a lucky opportunity, for a patent law firm hired him as an office boy, where his natural aptitude for drawing was cultivated by the meticulous observance of draftsmen - men specializing in highly detailed diagrams of patent designs, which they would draw. He soon took up the work himself, and it was in this that his career was launched. Over the next twenty years, he would produce patents on his own, in partnership with others, and for some of the great names of his day. Along with Charles Brown, of Salem, Massachusetts, Latimer’s first success came when he co-created a water closet for railroad cars, that eased the plight of those in need on moving trains. This was followed up by a job with Sir Hiram Maxim, after the famed inventor of the machine gun happened upon Latimer, who was then residing in Bridgeport, Connecticut, early in the 1880s. Latimer later wrote of the happy occasion: “He was at this time chief engineer and inventor of the U.S. Electric Lighting Co, and he engaged me there and then to become his draughtsman and private secretary.”

Under Maxim, Latimer joined the ranks of Edison’s biggest competitor in the war for light. Tackling the problem of bettering the filament system, which generated light inside the bulb, Latimer happened upon the idea of utilizing “a continuous strip of carbon secured by metallic wires and enclosed in a hermetically sealed and thoroughly-exhaustive transparent receiver.” While not alone in the creation of this process, Latimer’s carbon filament bettered Edison’s original paper filament, ensuring a longer-lasting bulb. This success eventually brought him to the attention of Edison himself, for whom he went to work, and struck up a friendship with. Thomas Edison was one of the most famous Americans of his day, and Latimer’s relationship with him ensured that Latimer moved amongst the highest circles of New York society. Such stature spread Latimer’s name far and wide, especially in the black community.

As such, in 1895, when the second National Conference of Colored Men met to discuss the growing deterioration of racial attitudes and treatment towards the black community, Latimer contributed a brief text read before the assembled gathering. It advocated for “equality before the law, security under the law, and an opportunity, by and through maintenance of the law, to enjoy with our fellow citizens of all races and complexions the blessing guaranteed us under the Constitution.” These brief words were “lackluster” in the words of Professor Fouche, who criticized Latimer’s lack of advocacy on the part of the African American community. What can be said, however, is that Lewis Howard Latimer, thanks to his skill as a draftsman, his ability to absorb complex concepts and apply his intellect towards their betterment, and the fact that he came to the attention of some of America’s biggest names, served to propel him to a position of high standing in a society that had retrograded in its legal and social attitudes towards African Americans.

Lewis Latimer (High School Activity) - Draftsman play a particularly crucial role in the business of acquiring patents for particular inventions, for you can write with all the verve in the world, but without a skilled draftsman to render your work into a coherent image, there isn’t much hope that you’ll get that longed-for patent. Drawing these highly technical images was the means by which Lewis Latimer began to raise his station in life. For this activity, thus, you’ll become draftsman for the day. Right up a patent design explaining an invention that you have created, and its uses and then to the best of your abilities draw them out in black and white paying special attention to highlight the attributes of the design you deem most worthy of notice. For help see here:

• Book 1
• Book 2

• Website 1
• Website 2