As City Startup Labs comes to the end of Black History Month 2025, we want to acknowledge an amazing scientist, inventor and key figure behind the more well known labs of the late 1800’s — Lewis Latimer. His words seem appropriate for these times.
Before you read about Latimer, I’d first like you to know about some new developments at City Startup Labs.
On January 28th City Startup Labs presented a Pitch Event for new ventures hatched out of the 6th cohort of the ReEntry Entrepreneurship Program (REEP). We heard from Freeman Dental, A Whole Lot of Fun, Dunch & Brunch and Rachet.co.
Lewis Harold Latimer
American Inventor
(September 4, 1848 – December 11, 1928)
Lewis was born to fugitive slaves from Virginia in the abolitionist environment of Boston in 1848. His father, George, was almost immediately arrested and imprisoned shortly after they arrived. When his former master sought to have him returned to Virginia, his case became a cause celeb for Massachusetts abolitionists.
A chance encounter with Hiram Stevens Maxim, then chief engineer of United States Electric Lighting Company, led Lewis to be hired to a position where he helped establish some of the earliest electric lighting plants. Here is where Latimer focused on the incandescent lamp — one of the most revolutionary inventions of our time. He recounts that, “These were strenuous times, and we made long hours each day. At the factory by seven in the morning, and after the days work somewhere running lamps until twelve o’clock or later at night.” He received several patents for improvements in electric lighting, including his 1882 “Process for Manufacturing Carbons,” which made the carbon filament (used in early light bulbs) last longer and become more commercially viable.
- Another invention of his included a 1874 improved toilet system for railroad cars called the Water Closet for Railroad Cars – Latimer co-patented (with Charles M. Brown).
- Latimer also developed a forerunner of the air conditioner called “Apparatus for Cooling and Disinfecting”.
- In 1894, Latimer pursued a patent on a safety elevator that prevented the riders from falling out and into the shaft.
Though obscure to many, he represents how amazing talents can be unleashed when given an opportunity. City Startup Labs celebrates Lewis Latimer as we do others, who are often overlooked but also can exhibit noteworthy potential.
With Gratitude,
