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Lewis Latimer
In the summer of seventeen-year-old Lewis Latimer was looking for a job. This son of former slaves had served in the Union Navy during the Civil War and then returned to his native Boston. He was finally hired by Crosby and Gould—at three dollars per week—as an errand boy and office assistant. Crosby and Gould specialized in patents, preparing drawings and legal descriptions for inventors and filing them with the U.S. Patent Office. Latimer diligently applied himself to his work. After watching the draftsmen and attentively observing their tools and their methods, he bought a book on drafting and a set of used drafting tools. He then practiced drawing on his own at night.

Latimer soon approached the head draftsman at Crosby and Gould and asked if he might make some drawings for him. Although the draftsman laughed at first, he decided to give Latimer a project and was amazed at the young man’s ability. Before long, Latimer’s work came to the attention of the company president, who was so pleased with the young man’s technical skills that he promoted him to a
full-time drafting position and raised his wages.

Latimer eventually became the chief draftsman for Crosby and Gould.
One of his most famous projects was in collaboration with Alexander Graham Bell. When Bell invented the telephone, he hired Latimer to help him document his new invention and file for a patent. The two men worked many late nights together, studying the telephone.
As he listened attentively and worked diligently to understand
how inventions like Bell’s telephone worked, Latimer began
to spend time tinkering with inventions of his own.

He developed his most famous invention in 1879, the year after
Thomas Edison patented his electric light bulb—one of the most revolutionary inventions of all time. Edison’s electric light bulb did have one serious flaw. It made light by heating a tiny strand called a filament until it glowed, but that filament lasted only a few days. Before light bulbs could be widely used, a longer-lasting filament was needed. Inventors around the world, including Thomas Edison, turned their attention to this challenge.

Latimer applied his usual attentiveness to his new work and, after conducting hundreds of experiments, finally discovered what the whole world seemed to be seeking: how to produce a long-lasting filament both simply and inexpensively. Lewis Latimer’s discovery transformed the light bulb from an expensive novelty into a practical, household reality. It also brought him to Thomas Edison’s attention. At that time, Edison was just beginning his work with electricity. He recognized
Lewis Latimer as a man who could focus on a problem and study it attentively to find a solution, so he asked Latimer to work for him in 1884. Latimer became an integral part of the Edison Pioneers—a group of twenty-eight men and women who worked with Thomas Edison to begin the General Electric Company.

In addition to contributing to Edison’s work, Latimer developed other inventions of his own, including alternative types of electric lighting and an early air conditioner. Lewis Latimer—the seventeen-year-old office boy in Boston—by diligent work, creative thinking, and careful attentiveness, became one of the most important pioneers
in the field of electricity.