Most people know of Thomas Edison (1847-1931), the famed American inventor as the creator of the world’s first incandescent light bulb, however the truth is that he did not invent it, but he managed to get a patent on the first light bulb design that was practical as well as affordable for lighting a room in a correct home, then what made the light bulb labor was an invention from another inventor of the era named Lewis Latimer (1848-1928), who developed an improved proposal for the production of carbon filaments for light bulbs.
Latimer’s parents were once slaves in VA who escaped to Chelsea, Massachusetts about six years before he was born.
When he was 10, the family chop apart because of the Dred Scott decision that ruled former slaves as property unless they could prove their former owners had consented to their freedom. Lewis overcame all of this; he served in the Navy while in the Civil War as well as went on to be a successful inventor laboring with the loves of Edison as well as Alexander Graham Bell. Latimer’s name is also on U.S, then patent 334,068 titled “Early Air Conditioning Unit Apparatus for cooling as well as disinfecting”, issued on January 12, 1886. This early AC plan used the cooling effects of evaporation from a “webbing of any suitable textile fabric” that was stretched between a reservoir as well as a drip pan as well as saturated with water. Twenty years later, Willis Carrier truly used some of Latimer’s expertise when he purchased the U.S. Patent 758,897 for an “Apparatus for Treating Air.” With that patent Carrier was credited with inventing the world’s first spray-type a/c equipment, able to both “wash” as well as humidify or dehumidify air. Latimer reMained a forgotten inventor, but we owe the inventions of light bulbs, telephones, as well as Heating as well as A/C units to his contributions.