1848-1928

American inventor and engineer who invented a durable and inexpensive carbon filament for lightbulbs in 1882. Latimer was originally trained as a draftsman and drew many of the designs for Alexander Graham Bell's first telephone. Later, he became the first African-American electrical engineer to work for the Edison Electric Light Company. He oversaw the installation of carbon-filament lighting in several major cities during the 1880s, and he published a manual of electrical engineering titled Incandescent Electric Lighting in 1890.