I tweeted a clip of Michael Holding talking about racism and he mentioned that while we've all heard about Thomas Edison few people will have heard of Latimer who invented the carbon filament that made light bulbs commercially viable.

Turns out it's an amazing story.

His father was a slave who escaped to Boston and because the subject of a famous legal case when his owner tried to get him back (I remember it from my civil war module at uni). Eventually wealthy northern abolitionists paid off the owner and he was a free man.

Lewis, pictured here, fought in the navy in the civil war and then went to work for a patent office where his enormous talent was discovered.

He co-invented toilets for trains and then helped Alexander Graham Bell improve the design of the telephone.

He then went to work for Hiram Maxim, a competitor with Edison (and inventor of the Maxim gun). That's where he invented the carbon filament.

He was sent to London (amongst other places) to set up a factory for Maxim + was involved in putting electric lights on London streets.

He ended up working for Edison and stayed in his company the rest of his career.

His son-in-law was the first black public school teacher in New York.

Anyway I feel very ignorant for not having heard of him until today.