DID YOU KNOW THAT?

 Lewis H. Latimer of New York City received patent number 334,078 for an improved device for cooling, deodorizing, or disinfecting a room. His device consisted of a screen which was stretched in front of a window and saturated with water for cooling or chemicals for disinfecting or deodorizing. Latimer was born September 4, 1848 in Chelsea, Massachusetts. He joined the United Sta...tes Navy at the age of 15 and after receiving an honorable discharge joined a patent law firm as a draftsman at the age of 17. In 1876, Alexander Graham Bell employed Latimer to draft the drawings required to receive a patent for Bell’s telephone. Although Thomas Edison is credited with the invention of the light bulb, Latimer made significant contributions to its further development. On January 17, 1882, Latimer received patent number 252,386 for the Process of Manufacturing Carbons, an improved method for the production of carbon filaments for light bulbs. In total, Latimer received seven patents before his death December 11, 1928. He was posthumously inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2006 and Lewis H. Latimer School in Brooklyn, New York is named in his honor. His biography, “Lewis Latimer: Bright Ideas,” was published in 1997. Latimer’s name is enshrined in the Ring of Genealogy at the Charles H. Wright Museum in Detroit, Michigan.