
Known best for his work on the incandescent light bulb, Lewis Latimer brought electricity to millions while advocating for Black opportunities
BY BILL LINCICOME
The clip-clop of horseshoes and the slow creaking of carriage wheels on the tarmacadam streets of London welcomed two weary American travelers after more than one month at sea on New Year’s Day, 1882. Accompanied by his wife, 33-year-old Lewis Latimer arrived with a daunting task before him: the electrified illumination of a city famous for its fog.
The Maxim-Weston Electric Light Co. had recently acquired a factory to produce incandescent light bulbs, and Latimer, an inventor and electricity expert, was to teach the production process to its workers.
Traveling to the factory—located off the Thames at Bankside—he arrived to find it dilapidated: copper wires strewn about the factory floor; windows covered thick with dirt as to not allow light to penetrate; rust patches on the milling machine, the result of rainwater from a leaky roof.
While the factory conditions presented challenges, it was the collective mentality of the workers that cast the darkest shadow during Latimer’s time in the United Kingdom’s capital city.
In the nine months he spent on this assignment, it became clear that many workers Latimer was charged with training resented having a Black man supervise their work. He wrote that he was “in hot water from the first moment to the end.”
Latimer encountered similar treatment throughout North America and England in the 1880s as he brought light to millions from New York and Philadelphia to Montreal and London.
Undeterred, he used his childhood experiences, military training, and innovative spirit to leave an indelible mark on the world, both in delivering the tangible benefits of electricity and in his advocacy for increased educational and occupational opportunities for Black people.
His rise to fame began modestly.
Following his honorable discharge from the U.S. Navy at the end of the Civil War in 1865, Lewis was hired as an office boy at Crosby, Haltsted, and Gould, a Boston patent law firm, for $3 per week. In addition to his job duties, Latimer took it upon himself to read and observe the firm’s draftsman.
Eventually, he used this knowledge to teach himself mechanical drawing and drafting. The firm’s partners made Latimer their draftsman when the incumbent resigned. Although Latimer was pleased with his salary increase from $3 to $20 per week, he was paid $5 less than the previous draftsman.
During the next decade, Latimer used his growing set of skills to sketch and draft his own patents as well as those of other famous inventors. In 1874, Latimer filed his first patent, an improved toilet system on railroad cars (U.S. Patent No. 147,363), along with Charles W. Brown.
Two years later, he played an important role in helping another fellow innovator— Alexander Graham Bell— patent his invention.
Bell hired Latimer to draw plans for the telephone, filing his patent mere hours before his main competitor on February 14, 1876.
This high-profile achievement earned Latimer the opportunity to join the ranks of U.S. innovators on the cutting edge of technology.
For the entire story, see uspto.gov/learning-and-resources/journeys-innovation.