Who is Lewis Latimer?

Lewis Howard Latimer was born in 1848 in Chelsea, Massachusetts. His parents had escaped slavery in Virginia, and they were determined that their children would be born into freedom.

In 1863 when he was just 15, Lewis

joined the U.S. Navy to fight in the Civil War

After the war ended, Lewis began working for a law firm that dealt in inventors’ patents.

He started as an office boy and worked his way up to draftsman, which is the person who does technical drawings of items like inventions.

Lewis eventually became the head draftsman. He made the drawings for Alexander Graham Bell’s patent for the telephone

Lewis Latimer died in 1928 in New York. He has been included in the National Inventors Hall of Fame for his important work