Latimer, Louis Howard (1848–1928)

US inventor of improvements to electric lighting. He was a member of the Edison Pioneers, an organization of scientists who worked with Thomas Edison. He also supervised the installation of electric lights in New York, Philadelphia, Canada, and London.

Latimer was born in Chelsea, Massachusetts, and left school to help support the family by selling copies of the anti-slavery journal The Liberator. Working at a firm of patent solicitors, he learned mechanical drawing and assisted Scottish inventor Alexander Graham Bell with his application for the telephone patent. In 1880, Latimer was employed by Hiram Maxim at the US Electric Lighting Company, moving 1883 to the Edison Electric Light Company (later the General Electric Company). Between 1896 and 1911 he served as expert witness for the Board of Patent Control formed by the General Electric and Westinghouse companies to protect their patents.

After coinventing an electric lamp 1881, Latimer went on to invent a cheap method for producing long-lasting carbon light-bulb filaments 1882. Other Latimer patents included a ‘Water Closet for Railroad Cars’ 1874, ‘Apparatus for Cooling and Disinfecting’ 1886, and ‘Locking Rack for Hats, Coats, and Umbrellas’ 1896.