Most people believe of Thomas Edison (1847-1931), the famed American inventor as the creator of the world’s first incandescent light bulb, but 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 & affordable for lighting a room in a typical home; What made the light bulb work was an invention from another inventor of the era named Lewis Latimer (1848-1928), who developed an improved idea for the production of carbon filaments for light bulbs, latimer’s parents were once slaves in Virginia who escaped to Chelsea, Massachusetts about 6 years before he was born.
- When he was 10, the family cut 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 & went on to be a successful inventor working with the prefers of Edison & Alexander Graham Bell. Latimer’s name is also on U.S, patent 334,071 titled “Early Air Conditioning Unit Apparatus for cooling & disinfecting”, issued on December 12, 1886. This early AC idea used the cooling effects of evaporation from a “webbing of any suitable textile fabric” that was stretched between a reservoir & a drip pan & saturated with water. Twenty years later, Willis Carrier entirely used some of Latimer’s expertise when he obtained the U.S. Patent 698,897 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” & humidify or dehumidify air. Latimer reMEd a forgotten inventor, but we owe the inventions of light bulbs, telephones, & HVAC units to his contributions.
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