Lewis Latimer INVENTOR

Lewis Howard Latimer

(September 4, 1848 – December 11, 1928)

Pioneer Inventor, Educator, Advocate of civil rights

He was an American black inventor and patent draftsman. His inventions included an evaporative air conditioner, an improved process for manufacturing carbon filaments for light bulbs, and an improved toilet system for railroad cars. In 1884, he joined the Edison Electric Light Company where he worked as a draftsman. The Lewis H. Latimer House, his landmarked former residence, is located near the Latimer Projects at 34-41 137th Street in Flushing, Queens, New York City.

1874, Latimer co-patented (with Charles M. Brown) an improved toilet system for railroad cars called the Water Closet for Railroad Cars (U.S. Patent 147,363).

In 1876, Alexander Graham Bell employed Latimer, then a draftsman at Bell’s patent law firm, to draft the necessary drawings required to receive a patent for Bell’s telephone.

In 1879, he moved to Bridgeport, Connecticut, and was hired as assistant manager and draftsman for the U.S. Electric Lighting Company, a company owned by Hiram Maxim, a rival of Thomas A. Edison. While Latimer was there he invented a modification to the process for making carbon filaments which aimed to reduce breakages during the carbonization process. This modification consisted of placing filament blanks inside a cardboard envelope during carbonization. While in England on behalf of the Maxim light company he taught the entire process for making Maxim lights, including glassblowing in 9 months to get the factory up and running.

In 1884, he was invited to work with Thomas Edison. Along with the work he did with Edison, he was also responsible for translating data into German and French, as well as gathering that information.

Latimer also developed a forerunner of the air conditioner called “Apparatus for cooling and disinfecting”.

In 1894, Latimer pursued a patent on a safety elevator that prevented the riders from falling out and into the shaft.

In 1924, after the Board of Patent Control dissolved Latimer went on to work with Hammer and Schwartz until he retired

Lewis Latimer was born in Chelsea, Massachusetts in 1848. He was the son of George and Rebecca Latimer, escaped slaves from Virginia. Latimer was hired as the assistant manager and draftsman for U.S. Electric Lighting Company owned by Hiram Maxim. Maxim was the chief rival to Thomas Edison. Maxim greatly desired to improve on Edison’s light bulb and focused on the main weakness of Edison’s bulb – their short life span (generally only a few days.) Latimer set out to make a longer-lasting bulb. Latimer devised a way of encasing the filament within a cardboard envelope which prevented the carbon from breaking and thereby provided a much longer life to the bulb and hence made the bulbs less expensive and more efficient. This enabled electric lighting to be installed within homes and throughout streets.

OTHER NOTES:

Latimer taught English and drafting courses to immigrants at the Henry Street Settlement in New York. He died in 1928, Latimer lived with his family in a home on Holly Avenue in what is known now as the East Flushing section of Queens, New York. Latimer died on December 11, 1928, at the age of 80. Approximately sixty years after his death, his home was moved from Holly Avenue to 137th Street in Flushing, Queens, which is about 1.4 miles northwest of its original location.

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• Latimer is an inductee of the National Inventors Hall of Fame for his work on electric filament manufacturing techniques.^[25]
• The Latimer family house is on Latimer Place in Flushing, Queens. It was moved from the original location to a nearby small park and turned into the Lewis H. Latimer House Museum in honor of the inventor.^[23][26][27]
• Latimer was a founding member of the Flushing, New York, Unitarian Church.^[28]
• A set of apartment houses in Flushing are called “Latimer Gardens”.^[29]
• P.S. 56 in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn, is named Lewis H. Latimer School.
• An invention program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MIT, is named after him.^[30]
• On May 10, 1968, a school in Brooklyn, New York was rededicated to The Lewis H. Latimer School in his memory.^[31]
• In 1988, a committee was formed, the Lewis H. Latimer Committee, to save his home in Flushing, New York.^[4]

PATENTS and Co PATENTS

• U.S. Patent 147,363 “Improvement in water-closets for railroad-cars” (with Brown, Charles W.), February 10, 1874
• U.S. Patent 247,097 “Electric lamp” (with Nichols, Joseph V.), September 13, 1881
• U.S. Patent 252,386 “Process of Manufacturing Carbons”, January 17, 1882
• U.S. Patent 255,212 “Supporter for electric lamps” (with Tregoning, John), March 21, 1882
• U.S. Patent 334,078 “Apparatus for cooling and disinfecting”, January 12, 1886
• U.S. Patent 557,076 “Locking rack for hats, coats, and umbrellas”, March 24, 1896
• U.S. Patent 781,890 “Book Supporter”, February 7, 1905
• U.S. Patent 968,787 “Lamp fixture” (with Norton, William Sheil), August 30, 1910 Photos of some patents below