Lewis latimer early life
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Dimensions
Approx. 20 x 24 in.
Biographical Information
Lewis Latimer was one of the pioneers in the electric light industry from its creation until it became worldwide in its influence. Latimer’s great sense of accomplishment was outstanding, even in his childhood. His self-made background was indeed one of talent, and his many abilities were destined to bring him recognition. Latimer was born in Chelsea, Massachusetts on September 4, , and reared in Boston. He was the fourth child of George and Rebecca Latimer. His father, a former slave, had fled to Boston from a Norfolk, Virginia plantation during the s to get away from slavery.
George Latimer’s limited financial means as a self-employed barber and paperhanger enabled him to provide only a few years of grammar school for his four children. Lewis, nonetheless, developed an avid interest in drawing, musical performance, and writing literary composition. Determined to obtain an education, but aware of the need to h
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Lewis Latimer
- Birthdate
- /09/04
- Death date
- /12/11
- Associated organizations
- United States Lighting Company, Edison Pioneers
Biography
Lewis Howard Latimer, the youngest of four children, was born to former slaves, George W. and Rebecca (Smith) Latimer, on 4 September in Chelsea, Massachusetts. He attended grade school, and the remainder of his education was self-taught. At the age of ten he began working with his father in order to support the family. He had a fabulous appetite for reading, drawing, and learning.
Lewis Latimer's father, George W. Latimer, was born 4 September in Norfolk, Virginia. He was the son of a white stonemason, Mitchell Latimer, and Margaret Olmstead, a slave owned by Mitchell's brother Edward. In October , George escaped for a second time, taking with him, Rebecca Smith, a slave whom he married in January Lewis Latimer's parents fled to Boston, Massachusetts, a hotbed of abolitionism. A black minister, Reverend Samuel Caldwell, and others r
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Lewis Latimer
Lewis H. Latimer was born in Chelsea, Massachusetts on September 4, Along with Granville T. Woods, Latimer was one of the first major African American inventors. He first worked as an assistant to Alexander Graham Bell, drawing the blueprints for Bell’s patent for the telephone in
Latimer joined the U.S. Electric Lighting Company in under Hiram Maxim. This year saw Thomas Edison patent his light bulb which used a carbonized bamboo filament that burnt out rather quickly.
Around this time, Latimer created a way to make the carbon filament more durable by encasing it in cardboard and went on to patent the process for efficiently manufacturing the carbon filament in His invention made incandescent lighting practical and affordable and was also longer lasting than earlier filaments.
In , he went to work for Thomas Edison at the Edison Electric Light Company in New York as an engineer and legal member, helping him i