13. Lewis Howard Latimer was a self-trained draftsman and inventor
On September 16, 1863, Lewis Howard Latimer enlisted aboard USS Massasoit, a steamer which served in the Union blockade. Honorably discharged in 1865, he became what was known at the time as an office boy, called a gofer in a later day. He used his time to teach himself the use of draftsmen’s tools, the square, compass, and arc. His talent became apparent to his employer, a patent law office, and by 1872 he became the head of the patent drawing department. In 1876 Alexander Graham Bell hired him to produce the patent drawings for his telephone. He later went to work for a lighting company in competition with Thomas Edison. The latter resolved that issue by hiring Lewis in 1884. Prior to joining Edison, Lewis obtained a patent of his own, for the “Process of Manufacturing Carbons”, an improvement of carbon filaments for light bulbs.
Lewis eventually obtained seven patents of his own, on diverse inventions including an improved toilet for railroad cars, electric lamps and lightbulbs, and an early air conditioner. In his spare time, he wrote a book on the technical side of distributing electrical lighting, as well as a book of poetry, titled Poems of Love and Life. In 1918 he became the first Black member of the Edison Pioneers, and in 2006 an inductee to the National Inventors Hall of Fame, for his contributions to the improvement of the electric light bulb. He did not invent the light bulb, as is sometimes falsely claimed (for that matter, neither did Edison). Both men patented processes for improving the light bulb and its components, making it commercially viable.