"Lewis Howard Latimer"(September 4,1848-December 11 1928)

Was an African American inventor and draftsman.Lewis H. Latiner was born in Chelsea

Massachusetts,the youngest of the four children of Rebecca (1826-1848)and George Latimer (July 4,1818-1880).George Latimer had been a slave of James B.Gray of Virgina.George ran away to freedom in Trenton,New Jersey in October,1842,along with his wife Rebecca who had been the slave of another man. When James the owner,appeared in Boston to take them back to Virgina,it became a noted case in the movement for abolition of slavery,gaining the involvement of such abolitionist as William Llyod Garrison,Eventually funds were raised to pay James 400 for the freedom of George.Lewis joined the U.S. Navy at the age of 15 on September 16,1863.After receiving an honorabe discharge from the Navy on July 3,1865,he gained employment as an office boy with a patent law firm,crosby Halstead and Gould,with a $3.00 per week salary.He learned how to use an L square ruler,and other tools.Later,after his boss recognized his talent for sketching patent drawings,Lewis was promoted to the position of head draftsman earing $20.00 by 1878.In 1874,he co-patented (with Charles Brown)an improved toilet for railroad cars called the Water Closet for Railroad cars.In 1876,Alexander Graham Bell employed Lewis,then a draftsman at Bell's patent law firm,to draft the necessary drawings required to receive a patent for Bell's telephone.In1879,he moved to Bridgeport Connecticut with his brother,William,his mother Rebecca,and his wife.Lewis was hired as assistant manager and draftsman for the U.S. Electric Lighting Company,a company owned by Hiram Maxim, a rival inventor of Thomas Edison.Lewis received a patent in January 1881 for the "Process of Manufacturing Carbons", an improved method for the production of carbon filaments for lightbuld.The Edison Electric Company in New York City hired  Lewis in 1884,as a draftsman an an expert witness in patent litigation on electric lights.He married Mary Wilson on December 10,1873 and later had two daughters,Emma Jeanette (born on June 12,1883) and Louise Rebecca (born April 19,1890).Mary was born in Rhode Island.