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After gaining his freedom, George and Rebecca settled in Chelsea, Massachusetts and started a family. Young Lewis Latimer attended Phillips Grammar School in Chelsea, where he showed much promise in the fields of mathematics and drafting.May 14, 2018
Lewis Howard Latimer, the youngest of four children, was born to former slaves, George W. and Rebecca (Smith) Latimer, on 4 September 1848 in Chelsea, Massachusetts. He attended grade school, and the remainder of his education was self-taught.
Lewis Howard Latimer (1848-1928) was an African-American inventor, electrical pioneer, and a son of fugitive slaves. With no access to formal education, Latimer taught himself mechanical drawing while in the Union Navy, and eventually became a chief draftsman, patent expert, and inventor.
Lewis Howard Latimer | |
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Occupation | Inventor, patent consultant, author, engineer, draftsman, Navy Landsman (Rank) |
Spouse(s) | Mary Wilson Lewis ( m. 1873) |
Who invented the electric light? No, it wasn’t Thomas Edison. Two lesser-known inventors, Humphrey Davy and Joseph Swan (who won a patent lawsuit against Edison), both developed working electric lights well before Edison.
The Three-Light Traffic Signal, Invented by Garrett Morgan in 1923. With only an elementary school education, Black inventor (and son of an enslaved parent), Garrett Morgan came up with several significant inventions, including an improved sewing machine and the gas mask.
December 11, 1928
Most work had to end once the sun when down. As Edison worked to illuminate the world, he faced several problems. As mentioned, the filament then used in light bulbs burned out too quickly, and it produced a black film on the inside of the bulb—which dimmed the weak light even more.
Latimer’s other patented inventions include such diverse items as the first water closet (i.e., toilet) for railroad cars (1874) and a forerunner of the air conditioner (1886).
Invention: Latimer worked with the famous inventor Hiram Maxim at the U.S. Electric Lighting Company. While working there in 1881, Latimer patented a carbon filament for the incandescent lightbulb. The invention helped make electric lighting practical and affordable for the average household.
“Hope springs eternal in the human breast,” and is as necessary to life as the act of breathing.
INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT THOMAS EDISON:
Thomas Edison’s teachers said he was “too stupid to learn anything.” He was fired from his first two jobs for being “non-productive.” As an inventor, Edison made 1,000 unsuccessful attempts at inventing the light bulb. When a reporter asked, “How did it feel to fail 1,000 times?”
In 1802, Humphry Davy invented the first electric light. He experimented with electricity and invented an electric battery. When he connected wires to his battery and a piece of carbon, the carbon glowed, producing light. His invention was known as the Electric Arc lamp.
John Lee Love was an African American inventor, most known for his invention of the hand-cranked pencil sharpener, the “Love Sharpener,” and an improved plasterer’s hawk. Little is known about the early life of Love.
It describes how Lowell Wood, who struggled mightily through high school, recently broke Thomas’ Edison’s patent record and helped defend our nation from threats from the Soviet Union. At age 74, Wood has been an inventor-in-residence at Intellectual Ventures, a technology research and patent firm, for about a decade.