American History Hit - Who Really Invented the Light Bulb?

Episode Date: November 17, 2022

While Thomas Edison is widely credited as the inventor of the electric lightbulb in 1879, it had existed in one form or another since the the beginning of the 19th century. But as Hugh Price tells Don, another American - Lewis Latimer - had his own light bulb moment: tweaking Edison’s invention a year later to create a longer-lasting and more affordable light bulb, able to light the buildings and streets of America, and the world.  Produced and mixed by Benjie Guy. Senior Producer: Charlotte Long.  For more History Hit content, subscribe to our newsletters here.If you'd like to learn even more, we have hundreds of history documentaries, ad-free podcasts, and audiobooks at History Hit - subscribe today! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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A year earlier, Edison had patented his incandescent electric lamp with a carbon filament. While an improvement on any previous electric light, Edison's filament burned out in a short matter of hours, making its light impractical and expensive. At his desk in Bridgeport sits 32-year-old Louis Latimer, whose parents' decades before had escaped slavery in Virginia and fled to New England. In the ensuing years, their son Lewis has become an expert draftsman and has worked on a number of groundbreaking inventions, including the telephone. Latimer modifies and refines Edison's original design, eventually having his own light bulb moment, creating and patenting a more durable filament,

which burns far longer and is more easily manufactured, making incandescent electric light practical and affordable. America and the world would no longer have to remain in the dark. Hello all and welcome to American History Hit. I'm Don Wildman. Nice to have you. We speak today of an American with one of those lives that simply defies description. His name is Lewis Latimer. Of course, many of you listening have heard of him, but far too many have not. An African American whose long life straddles the late 19th and early 20th century, who, as a youngster was offered little education beyond elementary school yet, he ends up becoming a sought-after inventor and skilled draftsman with expertise in technical matters as well as legal. He was a polymath, fluent in several

languages, a musician, poet, writer, a genius in design. The man was in the rooms where it happened for the invention of both the telephone and the light bulb. And he ends up an esteemed member of the Edison pioneers. It would be enough to tell just his biography, and we shall. But putting his life in the broader context of America at his time and that of his families, well, it's downright incredible. Here to explain such things and more is a man whose resume itself could be a podcast. Hugh Price has been an executive, advocate, teacher, author, for nearly a decade,

he was president of the National Urban League, the Civil Rights Organization founded in 1910 to fight for economic and social justice for the African American community. Hugh has written for the New York Times, served as senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, taught at Princeton University. And somehow in the midst of all that,

he ran the division at WNET 13 in New York City, which developed and produced notable series for PBS. Honorary degrees from Yale, Amherst. The list goes on. Hugh Price, welcome to American History Hit. Thank you, Don. It's a real treat to be on your podcast, and I thank you so much for inviting me. You're the ideal guide to take us through the story of Lewis Latimer.

You sit on the board of the Lewis Latimer House and Museum in Queens, New York. But you also happen to be related to this man. Yes, Louis Latimer was my great-grand uncle. His eldest sister, Margaret, was my great-great-grandmother. So they're very close connections, obviously, going all the way back to the beginning. And their parents, the very famous escaped slaves, George and Rebecca, Latimer were my great-great-grandparents. So I'm a tangential descendant of Lewis's and a direct descendant of his parents. You're the perfect guide, as I say. And I do want to start with Latimer's

family background. As you say, Lewis's parents, George and Rebecca Latimer, born into bondage in Virginia. They met and were married while still enslaved and then together managed to flee escaping to the north. Give me the details of that harrowing journey. Well, it's a remarkable story. On October 8, 1842, George and Rebecca Latimer, who were both slaves, escaped from Norfolk, Virginia by sneaking on to a steamer and hiding below deck for nine hours. At the time, Rebecca was pregnant with Margaret, who, as I mentioned, was my great-grandmother. When the vessel reached Baltimore, they came out of hiding and continued north. And interestingly enough, George Latimer was a very fair-skinned man who could pass for white. And so actually, from Baltimore to Philadelphia, they traveled as master and sleigh.

and then from Philadelphia north to Boston, they traveled as man and wife. About four days after they arrived in Boston, George was spotted by a former employee of his slave owner, and he was arrested and detained at Leverett Street Jail. The owner initiated legal proceedings to force his return, and that helped trigger a great interest by abolitionists, including Frederick Douglass and William Lloyd Garrison, and in fact, George Latimer's case was one of the very first high-profile cases. that the young Frederick Douglass became involved in. The historian, Asa Davis, maintains that George Latimer was the first fugitive slave

whose emancipation guided and influenced the American abolitionists in the 1840s and 1850s. Now, it's interesting, the day after his arrest, nearly 300 free black men in Boston assembled around the courthouse to prevent him from being moved out of the city illegally until it was clear that there had been appropriate legal proceedings. Now, after a number of court proceedings and negotiations and the payment of $400, George Latimer was finally freed. Hebe Media became a folk hero for abolitionists, and Latimer helped fuel a drive to obtain

65,000 signatures on a petition to urge the state legislature to secure passage in 1843 of a law prohibiting public officials from aiding in the recapture of fugitive slaves. It's amazing to me how ignorant most Americans are, and I would include myself in this until I revisit this information that I learned earlier in my education, how much law protects the institution of slavery in the mid-19th century. This is a fact that most Americans, I would venture to say, have forgotten about. It is also the world in which Lewis Latimer is born into. We're talking about massive federal-sized legislatures, the compromise of 1850, the compromise of 1850. all the way through eventually to the Dred Scott case in which it is literally declared by the federal government

that a black man in America is inferior to white. That's how solid this is. And I just want to make sure that people understand this that when Louis Latimer is born to George and Rebecca in 1848, that's the world he comes into. Let me just add that slavery was not confined to the south. There was slavery in the north. My great, great, great, great grandfather,

by the name of Nero Hawley, fought in the American Revolution in order to gain his freedom from slavery, and he lived in Trumbull, Connecticut. There were slaves who were traded on Wall Street on the East River in New York City. So slavery ended up north earlier, and as I mentioned, there were free blacks

who rallied to George Latimer's side when he was captured in 1842, but it wasn't confined, the phenomenon was not confined to the South. Now, it's interesting. You mentioned the Dred Scott. decision in 1857, that ruling declared that slaves were not considered free even if they lived in a free state, which is a shocking thought when you consider it. And actually, after the Dred Scott decision, George Latimer vanished and left, he abandoned his family without a trace. No one knows exactly

whether the Dred Scott decision was the reason and he was afraid of being recaptured or whether there are other reasons, but the fact is that he abandoned his family. And Rebecca was left to support her family on her own. By then they had four children, the youngest of whom was Lewis, who was born in 1848. Yes. So let's get to Lewis Latimer. He's the youngest of four children. His brothers are sent away to what is called farm school, which is no pastoral experience, really, and he has to start to fend for himself. After very little education, as a young teenager, he lies about his age in order to sign on into the Civil War and serves for the U.S. Navy on a gunboat, the USS Mason. Correct? That's right. He served there. Let me just

interject that Lewis at some point was sent to the farm school as well, which is the equivalent of a state orphanage. And he and one of his brothers escaped from the farm school, hit out on railroad cars and rejoined their mother. And their mother, by the way, had gone out to see as a stewardess in order to raise money for the children. So it was a very difficult childhood. Lewis, although he was very, very bright, never got beyond elementary school because he was working odd jobs

to help support the family. And as you say, by the time he was about 15 or 16, he fibbed about his age and joined the Navy. He received an honorable discharge when the Civil War ended, and he sought work in Boston. He secured a menial job as an office boy in the patent law firm of Crosby and Gould. And although he'd never progressed beyond grade school,

Lewis taught himself mechanical drawing through research, practice, and the powers of observation. And he demonstrated his skills at the law firm. There's so much about this young man's life that we need to explain to a modern audience. Crosby and Gould, first of all, is a patent law firm, meaning they are in the business of litigating

or defending patents in court. That's its own discussion, but suffice to say, this is a time of great invention in America, the beginning of the Gilded Age or that's coming around the corner here, and all of American industry is inventing like crazy. So patents have become a huge deal for this country. Crosmine Gould is one of the leading patent firms in Boston, and he's brought in, I guess, by someone who knew of his name from his, you know, youth from his father and so forth. And he is trained in office work, at which time he begins to watch people draft. This is what I want to explain.

I am probably the last generation of people who went to high school when there was technical drawing, taught as an industrial art. You learned how to draw. You learned to use the T-square and the horsehair brush and all this stuff was a true art form. It had to do with perspective. It had to do with rendering objects as they needed to be seen in order to explain their purpose and so forth. It has to be precise. It has to be very, very good. It's an incredibly difficult thing to do.

Lewis Latimer observes this being done in this patent firm and learns it for himself. That is no easy task. He not only learns it, he becomes fantastic at it. He is an expert draftsman. Not only was he an expert draftsman, he won promotion to the position of chief draftsman for this preeminent patent firm. An extraordinary accomplishment. And as a result of that, he became a very consequential player in the technological revolution. At the law firm, he also mastered the processes and intricacies of winning patents,

so not just creating the mechanical drawings for patents, but understanding deeply the process for doing that. And interestingly enough, Alexander Graham Bell retained the law firm to assist him with his application for the first patent for the telephone. And Lewis was assigned to prepare the technical drawings, which enabled Bell to perfect his patent application and become the first. first person in the United States to secure a patent for a telephone just barely a few hours before a rival inventor. So that was Lewis's big move. This begins, and for lack of a better descriptor, a sort of forest gump quality to Lewis Latimer's life. The man intersected with the greats. He then becomes one of the greats himself, but he has this extraordinary

ability to course through history sort of bumping up against the great developments and these individuals along the way. He's sort of where it's happening all the time. One has to wonder if he just had the instincts of that or if it was just the way life was spinning forth for this man. But he is requested to work with Alexander Graham Bell on a new invention, which was being competed for, like most great inventions are, by many different people at the time. And Bell needed blueprints to apply for the patent of the telephone in order to beat his rival so that it becomes this sort of race against time. And on February 14th, 1876, they submit and Bell gets the patent for the telephone. Without Latimer, that bell is not rung. Thank you very much.

Right. It was extraordinary confluence of events. And Lewis was definitely a key player in that process. Just a few years later, in 1879, he began working as mechanical draftsman for Hiram Maxim, who was a prolific inventor and who was associated with the U.S. electrical lighting company. And Lewis and his family moved to a remarkable community in Bridgeport, where he worked for Maximum, and the community was called Little Liberia. Essentially, an African-American community, just off of what we now know is Interstate 95, between Interstate 95 and the Long Island Sound. And interesting enough, when he and his family, including his mother, moved to Little Liberia, there he joined his sister and her family, and also both of Lewis's brothers were there.

So there was a all of a sudden sort of a mashup of the Latimer family in Bridgeport at that time. And by the way, the little Liberia community is being restored now by an organization called the Freeman Houses. It's a fascinating story. Hiram Maxim was one of the big inventors. He later becomes the man who, sadly, invents the machine gun when he moves over to England and continues his work. But at the time, he was involved in what was the big hot issue, which was illumination, you know, how to light the world up. Edison, of course, was also involved in this. And you've got to think of it in terms of anything today would be a computer or some sort of world like this where everybody and anybody who was trying to get in on this business, they were figuring out how to light the world.

Hiramaxham had his own form of the light bulb. I love the fact that it was shaped in the letter M. This man did not hold back. You literally had an M-shaped light bulb that had a sort of filament in it, as opposed to the more normal ones that were elsewhere. But Louis Latimer becomes involved with promoting this kind of lighting technique against others. But along the way, he's also inventing his own things. He patents an improved toilet system for railroad cars, which had to be a huge problem.

The drawings of which were lovely, even if the purpose of the invention is not so lovely to consider. but he's just getting on fire as a young man sort of embarking into this world. How do you perceive, Hugh, someone at this age in this context of America moving ahead? I mean, I feel like we need to nail this down before we get any further into the bigger story here. Who is this kid? How could he perceive the world as welcoming to him at all? Lewis Latimer had a great deal of self-confidence. he had extraordinary powers of observation.

He was a person who, beyond any particular assignment, was always trying to figure out the larger context of where he's working. So while he was working with the law firm as a chief draftsman, he also wanted to understand deeply how patents are obtained and what that process is about. He wanted to understand who the organizational players were. And keep in mind that Latimer was hired by Maxim. He didn't solicit the job.

he was hired by Maxim as a draftman in his firm. And he had an extraordinary sense of timing. In 1880, as you mentioned, Thomas Edison secured the first patent in the U.S. for an electric light bulb. But his bulb burned out very quickly and wasn't terribly practical. So a lot of inventors set out trying to figure out how to improve the light bulb. And Latimer both created new things, but he also liked to make things work better. That was another interesting trait of his. And so he came up with the idea for a carbon filament for the light bulb, which enabled it to burn longer, be more affordable, and be more, interestingly enough, environmentally friendly.

And that was a major breakthrough in electrical illumination. So he used these, and I don't know where he acquired those powers of observation. I actually think that his service on a ship during the Civil War opened his eyes. to sophisticated mechanical operations and equipment. And he became very curious about how sophisticated systems work and how to improve their efficiency. That's my theory anyway. But he had this impulse to create the new

and also to improve what was existing. And his monumental contribution was the invention of this carbon filament which improved the functioning and efficiency of the lightbow. Now, interestingly enough, as you said, Maximum had quite an ego, and he insisted on claiming credit for any inventions that his employees came up with. So Lewis Latimer did not get credit initially for the carbon filament that he invented, which improved the functioning of the light bulb. About a year later, he did invent one in his own name. But his accomplishment is now really justly recognized and is quite extraordinary.

I'll be back with more from Hugh Price after this short break. It's just poetic irony that at the time when this man is inventing new ways to see, new ways to illuminate the world, it couldn't be a darker time in America. I mean, we're in around 1877 at this point, which is the beginning of Jim Crow. This is the collapse of the Reconstruction era, and Jim Crow laws are being invented in the South. segregation taking hold, there is hatred and racism everywhere. Even Alexander Graham Bell, I want to point out, was an avowed eugenicist. I mean, it's amazing the facts of life that define things on a daily basis for people back then.

It's everywhere in America. And yet, Lewis Latimer pushes on. I mean, Hiram Maxim in the 1880s, he's the founder of what was called the U.S. Electric Lighting Company, headquartered in Brooklyn. He needs Lewis's mechanical drawing expertise, especially, to work on his production of this new incandescent light bulb powered by electricity. Maxim's company is the top competitor against Thomas Edison. Another incredible situation back then that Lewis Latimer finds himself right between.

Let me just also say that Lewis wasn't content to be an inventor. His knowledge of arc and incandescent lighting established him as one of the preeminent authorities in the entire industry. And working for Maximum, he helped to install and operate some of the first electric lighting plants in major North American cities like New York City, Philadelphia, and Montreal. He directed the production and installation of lighting at railroad stations and streets, and he lit such marquee structures in New York as the equitable building and the Union League Club. And in fact, Maximum actually sent him to London to establish the first lamp factory to supply that market.

Lewis encountered a lot of racism when he was in London, and he wrapped up his assignment and returned early. But this is what's fascinating also about him. In addition to being this creative genius, he also became quite interested in how to grow his career and his portfolio responsibilities within the context of these major American corporations. And he ran major business units for them. He oversaw major functions for those companies that were integral to their success. And he was, in many respects, a pioneer in moving up the corporate ladder in America. In 1884, Thomas Edison invited him to join his team. And while he was with Edison, Lewis Latimer became such a recognized authority on patent law

that he served as the expert witness for Edison in patent lawsuits asserting and defending his inventions. And as a further sign of his value to major corporations, he served from 1896 until 1911 as chief draftsman and patent consultant for the Board of Patent Control, which was a joint venture formed by the General Electric Company and Westinghouse to coordinate patent licensing and litigation. By 1918, he had garnered such professional acclaim that he became a founding charter member and the only black member of the celebrated and esteemed Edison pioneers. So when you consider the arc of this man's career from teenager in the Navy to chief draftsman in one of the preeminent patent law firms to inventor, to corporate executive, to a man running important business units within corporate America.

That's an astonishing arc in the mid to late 1800s when the rest of the country was going through reconstruction, post-reconstruction, the dialing back of rights for black folks, and Latimer was pushing ahead. He had to have been that much better than anyone else, which becomes kind of a theme in black America at the time. Fair to say, right? Yes, it's fair to say. And he also was an extraordinarily broad-gaged man. And this is something that one has to appreciate. He didn't have tunnel vision. He was an authentic renaissance man. Lewis Latimer wrote a book entitled Incondescent Electric Lighting, a practical description of the Edison system. His book became so popular that it was the essential guidebook or the Bible, if you will, for electrical engineers everywhere. He found beauty

and respite in the arts by painting, portraits, playing the violin, and writing poetry and plays. And he also was a race man. Lewis Latimer was very proud of being a black man. He corresponded with Douglas, Bookerty, Washington, Richard Grenier. And he was alarmed by overt segregation and lynching of black people. So he joined in calling for a national convention of black Americans to strengthen the organized black voice on behalf of justice and equal rights. So I think Renaissance man, is an apt description of who he was. His house, as we mentioned, is available to be visited in Queens. It was transferred to a park some distance from where its original location.

But it is the very house where in the living room, the likes of Paul Robson, W.E.B. Du Bois, all kinds of heroes of black culture visited Louis Latimer and his family. It's extraordinary to me the effect that Lewis Latimer had not only on his present and the industry he served, but on the larger African-American culture. He really sort of resonates through the generations. Yeah, I think it's remarkable that nearly 175 years after his birth, his life and legacy still speak to us. His is a compelling and uplifting African-American story. It's also an inspiring American story, and it's, in fact, a Horatio Alger story of a bright, ambitious, predator-naturally savvy youngster from a broken home who never progressed

beyond elementary school, yet he produced a momentous invention and his race notwithstanding, he attained success in the mainstream business world. In effect, Lewis showed that if you give people who are traditionally excluded from opportunity, the opportunity to perform, they can contribute and create and succeed on the same level and beyond as anyone else. and that is true of African Americans, Latinos, LGBT community, etc. In other words, he was the poster person, if you will, for inclusion and diversity and why it is important to our society. The other thing is fascinating to me is that his life speaks to one of the critical educational

equity issues in our country. We talk a lot about STEM education, the necessary for youngsters to be proficient in science, technology, engineering, and math. And Latimer was the walking embanky. embodiment of STEM education and why the mastery of those skills is so important. And yet, so many low-income minority children are denied access to STEM courses in elementary school, middle school, et cetera. And it's going to be very difficult for them to succeed in those fields if they don't get access. But he demonstrates how you can achieve and succeed

with mastery of those skills. And his relevance to STEM doesn't stop there. There's also a school of thought in American education called STEAM, namely the addition of the arts to the other four disciplines. Latimer delivered a paper to the Bridgeport Scientific Society in 1880, in which he argued that art and science are inextricably linked. And it's interesting because the Lemelson Center at the Smithsonian Institute says that his technical drawings were admired as works of art. So Latimer personified steam more than 140 years before the acronym even existed. And we see examples of the power of steam, the integration of art and science and engineering. Today, when you think of every Apple product and the importance of design in the functioning of an Apple product,

when you think of other user-friendly products, when you think of ergonomics, when you think of automobile design, those are all embodiments of steam and the power of steam, how integral the integration of the arts and science are in our society. The last thing I'd say is that when you think about it, virtually every minute of every day, every American has a light on somewhere, which is a direct descendant of Lewis Latimer's carbon filament bulb. In the L-word, a generation Q of series on Showtime,

actress Jennifer Beals portrays the director of a high-profile art gallery in L.A. And in one scene, she tries to convince an artist who has honored Lewis Latimer in his work to sign with her gallery. And Beale says, and I've never forgotten this, I think of Lewis Latimer every time I turn on a light switch. And I would only add to that, we should also thank him every time we turn on a light switch. One of the things that is distressing about Lewis Latimer, story and legacy today is how people are aware of it. There was a major documentary on PBS about Edison several years ago, and there was no mention whatsoever of Lewis Latimer.

There have been definitive biographies of Edison and Bell, no mention of Lewis Latimer. Well, Lewis Latimer helped to build America. Many African Americans and Latinos helped to build America. So we at the Latimer House Museum as we approach the 1807, 75th anniversary of his birth next year are on a mission to make Lewis Latimer a household name so that everyone knows that he helped to build America. A paragon of Black Excellence. That's just one way of looking at it. I mean, it's an extraordinary

sophisticated life that coursed through so many aspects of American history that to follow the Latimer's story is to learn so much about what has gone right and wrong with America. Did he die a happy man, Hugh? Yes, I mean, his health began to fail, his sight began to fail, but he was a tutor in New York City for immigrants and others who were trying to learn English, etc. His daughters published a collection of his poems before he passed. One of the mysteries is that his wife is buried in a marked grave in Fall River, Massachusetts. He is buried next to her, but in an unmarked grave.

We don't understand the reasons why, because there were family members. members who were still alive at the time, including his daughters, but we want to rectify that. I would like, if you don't mind, to share one of his poems. Lewis Latimer was an early exponent of Black is Beautiful, which is a dynamic movement that swept the United States in the 1960s and which holds sway today. And you might, as you think about his influence there, consider this tribute, which he wrote to his wife, Mary. It's titled Ebon V.

Venus. Let others boast of maidens fair, of eyes blue and golden hair. My heart like needle ever true turns to the maid of Ebon Hugh. I love her form of matchless grace, the dark brown beauty of her face, her lips that speak of love's delight, her eyes that gleam as stars at night. Or marble Venus, let them rage, who sets the fashions of the age, eats to his taste, But as for me, my Venus shall be ebony. Very sweet. A good place to end. You are a perfect example of what Louis Latimer was all about, paving the way for future generations, including yourself.

Proud to speak with you about this proud man. I can full disclosure now, say at the end of this conversation, you and I are related, which is a lovely aspect of my life, distantly through marriage, of course, and I'm very proud of that fact. Everyone who can should be visiting the Lewis-Latimer House and Museum in Queens, New York. I want to point out your memoir, which is an extraordinary record of your own achievements in your extraordinary career. Available wherever you get your books, This African American Life by Hugh Price. Read of Hugh, but think of Lewis, and I think that's only appropriate. Thanks, Hugh. Talk to you soon.

Thank you so much. Thanks for listening to this episode of American Historyhead. I hope you enjoyed it. Please don't forget to like, review and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. I'll see you next time. This podcast includes music from Epidemic Sound.