I love history and especially that of
invention since the arrival of Africans
and African descended people here in
Boston in 1638 we have had black
invention on these shores the innovators
that arrived many times did not have
their names announced they did not have
the wherewithal to be able to secure
patents we hear names like Banneker
Grant Latimer even Bram some names we
have not heard like Oni CMAs
he was the one who introduced
inoculation here as an African in the
1700s banneker the clock
we have innovators that have not been
recognized but we shall have an
innovative today that we will there was
a law that even forbid the patents for
enslaved Africans to be received when we
think about what is a patent a patent is
allowing the promotion and the process
and the progress of art of science and
useful arts for the protection of the
author the writer or the inventor to use
time allotted for that patent to be able
to be licensed and user for sale so when
you are enslaved you are property so you
may not have that right to do that in
fact there was a commissioner a US
patent commissioner who made sure in
1857 that those who were enslaved would
be denying the patent despite that we
have had free African Americans born
even before that law came about after
the patent law of 1790 was announced
there was a man who was born next year
1791 who receives a patent as the first
African American to receive a patent in
1821 his name was Thomas Jennings he
received it for a dry scouring cleaning
process we all have own clothes today
and many of us have used dry cleaning
when we think about that it is Thomas
Jennings who came up with that process
he used the money from that patent –
absolutely purchase his family so when
we connect this idea of innovation and
inventiveness with freedom in America we
have to look at what has slavery
produced and how has this democratic
process evolved with invention for those
who have been denied its access so as
move forward there’s a particular and
peculiar circumstance in Massachusetts
that happens to give us one of our most
inventive and creative geniuses in
America it is Lewis Latimer that I am
referring to but the circumstances of
his birth were not so smooth
his father was enslaved in Virginia he
escaped self liberated selphie Massa
pated and ran to Boston in the 1840s as
a way to be free once here he was
working and his former and slaver mr.
Geary heard that he was here and came to
capture him he was returned to Virginia
the citizens of Massachusetts were
enraged and they decided that no one
should be able to come to a free
territory like Massachusetts and claim
an enslaved formerly enslaved person and
so they rallied they met and they
created a petition that amassed 66,000
signatures
the petition even weighed 150 pounds
and you imagine it forced the
Massachusetts legislature to pass a
personal liberties act in 1842 and so
this Latimer petition was called the
great Massachusetts petition six years
later
Lewis Latimer is born George and Rebecca
Latimer moved to Chelsea Massachusetts
after George lattimer’s freedom was
purchased for $400 from mr. Geary and
they began a family Lewis was born in
1848 and he was a bright child
industrious he finished high school and
went on to the u.s. Navy after his
service in the Navy and honorable
discharge he decided to work in Boston
he was hired by a patent solicitor firm
in Boston Gator and Gould and he was
hired as an office boy in that room he
began to learn about drafting and
drawing and eventually and in a very
short time as a matter of fact he became
a draftsman he was so expert in his
drafting that he gained the use of the
office for his own practice and he was
hired by Alexander Graham Bell to then
do renderings of the telephone those
actual drawings helped him to even
improve the telephone Thomas Edison
heard about him and had him to do
drafting of his invention of the light
bulb and it is here that we meet Latimer
as an inventor who then establishes this
use of a carbon filament to elongate the
electric light his first patent you can
see pictured here was a water trough for
the railroad car and that first patent
was
1874 his other patents ranged from 1881
to 1882 which gave not only a
incandescent lightbulb and it’s a length
in burning but a support for the globe
of the lightbulb he is accredited with
at least seven patents in his life and
as he is going on in his career he is
hired by the US Electric Company he is
then installing the lights in cities
like New York Philadelphia Montreal and
London he’s on the board of the Thomas
Edison Electric Company and he joins
General Electric in 1894 here you see
his picture with others who are on in
that company including women I thought
this was a very special photograph as we
look at his work he was a man of science
and of literature
he wrote the incandescent electric
lighting
he wrote this volume of science that
helps others to understand the
electricity lectric process and lighting
and yet he’s not he’s not cornered or
metered by that he also has eloquence in
words in a poem that I found that he
wrote to his wife called
evany Venus and so we have a very Magic
Man I think in the body of Lewis Latimer
who is only an example of the African
genius and creativity of the innovator
and innovators that had not been
recognized in the history and the
narrative of what we see in America and
the world to raise the voice of the
African American in all branches of life
so it is my pleasure to look at out at
you and see light to look up and see
light to be in Kendall Square and see
light and every time I see light I’m
gonna
Lewis Latimer and I hope you will too
thank you very much [Applause]
invention since the arrival of Africans
and African descended people here in
Boston in 1638 we have had black
invention on these shores the innovators
that arrived many times did not have
their names announced they did not have
the wherewithal to be able to secure
patents we hear names like Banneker
Grant Latimer even Bram some names we
have not heard like Oni CMAs
he was the one who introduced
inoculation here as an African in the
1700s banneker the clock
we have innovators that have not been
recognized but we shall have an
innovative today that we will there was
a law that even forbid the patents for
enslaved Africans to be received when we
think about what is a patent a patent is
allowing the promotion and the process
and the progress of art of science and
useful arts for the protection of the
author the writer or the inventor to use
time allotted for that patent to be able
to be licensed and user for sale so when
you are enslaved you are property so you
may not have that right to do that in
fact there was a commissioner a US
patent commissioner who made sure in
1857 that those who were enslaved would
be denying the patent despite that we
have had free African Americans born
even before that law came about after
the patent law of 1790 was announced
there was a man who was born next year
1791 who receives a patent as the first
African American to receive a patent in
1821 his name was Thomas Jennings he
received it for a dry scouring cleaning
process we all have own clothes today
and many of us have used dry cleaning
when we think about that it is Thomas
Jennings who came up with that process
he used the money from that patent –
absolutely purchase his family so when
we connect this idea of innovation and
inventiveness with freedom in America we
have to look at what has slavery
produced and how has this democratic
process evolved with invention for those
who have been denied its access so as
move forward there’s a particular and
peculiar circumstance in Massachusetts
that happens to give us one of our most
inventive and creative geniuses in
America it is Lewis Latimer that I am
referring to but the circumstances of
his birth were not so smooth
his father was enslaved in Virginia he
escaped self liberated selphie Massa
pated and ran to Boston in the 1840s as
a way to be free once here he was
working and his former and slaver mr.
Geary heard that he was here and came to
capture him he was returned to Virginia
the citizens of Massachusetts were
enraged and they decided that no one
should be able to come to a free
territory like Massachusetts and claim
an enslaved formerly enslaved person and
so they rallied they met and they
created a petition that amassed 66,000
signatures
the petition even weighed 150 pounds
and you imagine it forced the
Massachusetts legislature to pass a
personal liberties act in 1842 and so
this Latimer petition was called the
great Massachusetts petition six years
later
Lewis Latimer is born George and Rebecca
Latimer moved to Chelsea Massachusetts
after George lattimer’s freedom was
purchased for $400 from mr. Geary and
they began a family Lewis was born in
1848 and he was a bright child
industrious he finished high school and
went on to the u.s. Navy after his
service in the Navy and honorable
discharge he decided to work in Boston
he was hired by a patent solicitor firm
in Boston Gator and Gould and he was
hired as an office boy in that room he
began to learn about drafting and
drawing and eventually and in a very
short time as a matter of fact he became
a draftsman he was so expert in his
drafting that he gained the use of the
office for his own practice and he was
hired by Alexander Graham Bell to then
do renderings of the telephone those
actual drawings helped him to even
improve the telephone Thomas Edison
heard about him and had him to do
drafting of his invention of the light
bulb and it is here that we meet Latimer
as an inventor who then establishes this
use of a carbon filament to elongate the
electric light his first patent you can
see pictured here was a water trough for
the railroad car and that first patent
was
1874 his other patents ranged from 1881
to 1882 which gave not only a
incandescent lightbulb and it’s a length
in burning but a support for the globe
of the lightbulb he is accredited with
at least seven patents in his life and
as he is going on in his career he is
hired by the US Electric Company he is
then installing the lights in cities
like New York Philadelphia Montreal and
London he’s on the board of the Thomas
Edison Electric Company and he joins
General Electric in 1894 here you see
his picture with others who are on in
that company including women I thought
this was a very special photograph as we
look at his work he was a man of science
and of literature
he wrote the incandescent electric
lighting
he wrote this volume of science that
helps others to understand the
electricity lectric process and lighting
and yet he’s not he’s not cornered or
metered by that he also has eloquence in
words in a poem that I found that he
wrote to his wife called
evany Venus and so we have a very Magic
Man I think in the body of Lewis Latimer
who is only an example of the African
genius and creativity of the innovator
and innovators that had not been
recognized in the history and the
narrative of what we see in America and
the world to raise the voice of the
African American in all branches of life
so it is my pleasure to look at out at
you and see light to look up and see
light to be in Kendall Square and see
light and every time I see light I’m
gonna
Lewis Latimer and I hope you will too
thank you very much [Applause]
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