Lewis Latimer
Lewis Howard Latimer (born September 4, 1848 in Chelsea , Massachusetts , † December 11, 1928 in New York , NY ) was an inventor, patent expert in the electrical industry in the early days, author of a textbook and a poetry book. He spent a large part of his working life in Thomas Alva Edison's company .
At the beginning of his life he was in the midst of the social upheavals of the time, affected by slavery and actively involved in the civil war . Afterwards he was actively involved in the technological upheaval of electrification, worked for several important electrical companies from the early days and was at the forefront of witnessing and shaping their struggles for market shares and defending their innovations. He was involved as a draftsman in the execution of one of the most important patents of the 19th century, the telephone patent of Alexander Graham Bell . As a technical expert and patent expert, he defended another patent of the century, the light bulb patent of Thomas Alva Edison, against fraudulent anticipation claims and other challenges.
Lewis Howard Latimer is an early example of African American accomplishments in building modern industries in the United States.
Life
Lewis Howard Latimer is the fourth child of a slave who escaped from Virginia to Boston , Massachusetts in the Northern States . His father was tracked down and imprisoned by slavers, but was saved from deportation through ransom from opponents of slavery. Lewis Howard Latimer grew up in poverty, had only a rudimentary education and began working at the age of 10. From 1861 he worked as an office boy for Isaac Wright, a renowned lawyer. He faked his year of birth in order to be accepted into the US Navy and to be able to fight in the Civil War (1861-1865) in 1864 and 1865.
He then worked as a clerk at the patent law firm Crosby Halstead and Gould , initially at $ 3.00 a week. After his boss discovered his talent for drawing, the preparation of technical drawings for patent applications became his main task. In 1878 he was promoted to head of technical draftsman. During his work, he was able to acquire fundamental knowledge of patent law and was evidently stimulated to experiment himself through contact with many inventors.
In 1874 Lewis H. Latimer and Charles W. Brown obtained their first patent, an improved toilet system for railroad cars (US Patent 147,363: "Water Closet for Railroad Cars'").
In 1876 he was commissioned by Alexander Graham Bell with the patent drawings for his telephone patent, one of the economically most important patents of the 19th century. Latimer also made drawings for the early electrical inventions by Elihu Thomson , a co-founder of General Electric .
In 1880 he went with his family to Bridgeport , Connecticut, where he was hired as assistant director for the United States Electric Lighting Company by Hiram Maxim , a rival of Thomas Alva Edison . Maxim was particularly impressed by Latimer's drawing skills and his patent knowledge. Obviously, Latimer also got the opportunity to conduct his own experiments in the field of light bulb development. He worked in all areas of production and developed into a technician.
In January 1882 he received a patent for an improved process for making carbon threads. There are several difficulties to be solved in the production of carbon threads: The heat must flow around the carbon thread as evenly as possible, escaping gases must be discharged without oxygen penetrating and the threads that have become charred in one process must not stick together. A particular problem is preventing deformations during charring and achieving the desired shape of the threads. The threads with a diameter of about 0.25 mm are brittle and fragile after charring and hardly malleable. Latimer's device for charring vegetable fibers solved all requirements. His employer probably made the characteristic "M-shape" of the filaments of the carbon filament lamps he made with Latimer's invention.
In 1882 he was sent to England by the United States Electric Lighting Co. to lead the establishment of lamp production for the Maxim-Weston Electric Light Co. He is said to have carried out the complete training of the workers in all stages of lamp manufacture himself.
He also traveled to Philadelphia , New York and Montreal to supervise and guide the installation of electrical lighting systems. In Montreal he is said to have acquired French language skills in a very short time in order to be able to instruct the workers.
Latimer apparently left the United States Electric Lighting Co. in early 1883 when Hiram Maxim went to England to develop a machine gun. He then worked for a short time for Omstead Electrical Co. and Acme Electric Light Co., two electrical companies in the New York area.
In 1884 Latimer switched to Edison Electric Light Co. as a draftsman; In 1890 he became chief draftsman of the Edison group of companies. His profound knowledge of patent preparation, patent interpretation and the patent situation in the electrical industry through his involvement since the establishment of the industry soon made him an irreplaceable expert in patent matters. He later described that he often met with rejection because of his skin color and had to gain recognition with competence, skill and friendliness.
In 1890 Latimer published his book "Incandescent Electric Lighting, A Practical Description of the Edison System" with two supplementary chapters by the authors John W. Howell and CJ Fields.
In 1893 three electrical companies asserted an anticipation of the Edison bulb patent by Heinrich Göbel , who came from Germany . Latimer was tasked with checking Heinrich Göbel's biography and finding people who had anything to do with him during his life. He found a number of people from Göbel's surroundings whose affidavits contradicted Göbel's statements. (See patent litigation with "Goebel Defense" )
In 1896, Lewis Howard Latimer became chief draftsman and patent expert on the Board of Patent Control for General Electric and Westinghouse . He held this position until its dissolution in 1911. The Edison company and the electrical company Thomson-Housten Co. merged into General Electric Co. in 1892 . The Board of Patent Control , founded jointly by General Electric and its competitor Westinghouse , was apparently supposed to look after the patent interests of both companies together and, among other things, to collect information on patent infringements. More than 600 patent court proceedings against third parties have opened and patent disputes between General Electric and Westinghouse have been settled out of court.
In 1906 he taught young people from poor families how to make drawings as part of a social project.
In 1911 he became a partner in the firm of Edwin W. Hammer in New York, a patent attorney and engineer.
Lewis Howard Latimer retired in 1922 at the age of 74 for health reasons and in 1925 published a volume of poetry entitled "The Poems of Love and Life". He was interested in music, poetry, painting and civil rights issues throughout his life, and he put together an extensive personal library. He corresponded with intellectuals engaged in the issue of racial integration. He was friends with Richard Theodore Greener , the first African-American Harvard graduate. He died on November 11, 1928 at his home in Flushing, Queens New York. The house was dismantled in 1988 and rebuilt as a museum elsewhere in Queens.
Lewis Howard Latimer was one of the Edison Pioneers , a group of around 28 people who worked particularly long and with special merit in Edison companies. He was the only African American in this group who met regularly for Edison's birthday.
family
Lewis Howard Latimer was the youngest of four children of Rebecca (1826-1848) and George Latimer (1818 to circa 1880), who was a former slave. He married Mary Wilson of Fall River, Massachusetts on September 20, 1873 and had two daughters with her. Emma Jeannette was born in 1883 and Louise Rebecca in 1890.
Quote
Lewis Howard Latimer on the incandescent lamp, an example of his lyrical language:
- "Like the light of the sun, it beautifies all things on which it shines, and is no less welcome in the palace than in the humblest home."
- (Like the light of the sun, it makes all things it shines on more beautiful, and is no less welcome in palaces than in the most humble house.)
Notebooks
Lewis Howard Latimer has kept notebooks all his life, which are now in various collections in the USA. They contain drawings and records of unpatented inventions, poems, plays, records of his thoughts and records of his activities. Through his contact with many inventors and the important electrical companies of the early days of US industry, they are an important source of technical history. They also document his extraordinary life, the social problems faced by black Americans at the time and the struggle for their civil rights.
Patents
- 147.363 Water closets for railway cars, February 10, 1874
- 247.097 Electric lamp, September 13, 1881
- 252,386 Process of Manufacturing Carbons, January 17, 1882
- 255.212 Globe supporter for electric lamps, March 21, 1882
- 334.078 Apparatus for cooling and disinfecting, January 12, 1886
- 557.076 Locking rack for hats, coats, and umbrellas March 24, 1896
- 968.787 Lamp fixture, August 30, 1910
Many of Latimer's inventions were not patented by him. They are in notebooks. Among other things, he has noted and drawn improvements for elevators.
literature
- Rayvon Fouché Granville T. Woods, Lewis H. Latimer, and Shelby J. Davidson Black Inventors in the Age of Segregation , The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003, ISBN 978-0-8018-7319-5
- Glenette Tilley Turner: Lewis Howard Latimer (Pioneers in Change) , Silver Burdett, ISBN 978-0-382-09524-5
- Lewis Howard Latimer A Black Inventor Book (35 pages, English, PDF) by the Thomas Alva Edison Foundation with Latimer's biography and suggestions for experimenting with his inventions, accessed on January 5, 2009 (4.86 MB)
Individual evidence
Main source:
Biographical information is taken from the biographies published on the Internet about Lewis H. Latimer of the IEEE Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and Rutgers University , New Jersey .
- IEEE Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers History Center: Lewis H. Latimer, 1848-1928 , accessed January 5, 2009
- Rutgers University: Blueprint for Change: The Life and Times of Lewis H. Latimer , accessed January 5, 2009
- Rutgers University: Lewis H. Latimer - Introduction, accessed January 5, 2009
- Rutgers University: Janet Schneider, Bayla Singer: Exhibition , accessed January 5, 2009
- Rutgers University: Latimer's Patents , accessed January 5, 2009
- Rutgers University: Kenneth R. Manning: The Culture of Invention in Boston , accessed January 5, 2009
Other individual evidence:
- ^ Thomas Alva Edison Foundation: Lewis Howard Latimer A Black Inventor p. 7
- ↑ Latimer Patent 147363
- ↑ Latimer Patent 247097
- ↑ Latimer Patent 252386
- ↑ Latimer patent 255212
- ↑ Latimer Patent 334078
- ↑ Latimer Patent 557076
- ↑ Latimer Patent 968787
Web links
- Lewis Latimer Society: Lewis H. Latimer - Model For Today's Youth , accessed January 5, 2009
- Edward Covington: Lewis H. Latimer , accessed January 5, 2009
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Latimer, Lewis |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Latimer, Lewis Howard; Latimer, Lewis H. |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | African-American inventor, specialist book author and technical draftsman |
| DATE OF BIRTH | September 4, 1848 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Chelsea , Massachusetts |
| DATE OF DEATH | December 11, 1928 |
| Place of death | New York , NY |