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Hey, Wowzer fans, Mindy here.
And before we start the show, I gotta let you know that this November, with a special new episode featuring our friends at Circle Round and Terrestrials on Radiolab for Kids,
And don't miss when Elmo from Sesame Street stops by Wow in the World to make us all belly laugh on November 24th.
Oh, but that's not all, Reg.
On December 1st, we are sharing our 250th episode of Wow in the World with all of you.
We think this one is going to be music to your ears.
Literally.
Did I mention it's a musical?
And if you're a member of the World Organization of Wowzers...
Oh boy, do I have a surprise for you.
You can listen to our 250th episode early with me and other members from around the world on Saturday, November 22nd, at 7 pm.
Eastern.
That's right, we are throwing another listening party.
Join us as we dance along to our new songs.
React to the episode with other members in the chat and more.
Grownups.
If you want your wowzer to join this members-only listening party, you can sign up to become a member today at Tinkercastcom.
Slash wow.
Already a member?
Well, you can find the link and password to join the event when you sign in at Tinkercastcom.
Slash wow.
That's it.
It's going to be a November to remember.
But for now, let's get on with the show.
Woo!
It's Wee Wow Week.
Hey, Guy Raz.
It's another day in our week-long podcast palooza party binge-along.
Can you believe we've been in this Wow on Wheels listening to Who Win Wow episodes all week long?
What day is it, Mindy?
I've lost all track of time.
Oh, good question.
It's Weather Fry Saturnist Day?
That's actually not a day of the week, Mindy.
Okay, so I've lost track of time, too.
But I'm not going to let that stop the party.
Well, whatever day it is, we've been binging on Who Went Wow for a long time.
I need a shower.
Oh, good idea.
You can use the new Mindy Odorant Soap I invented this week.
What? reinvented this week.
It was my idea, Guy Raz.
At first yes, but it wouldn't have worked if I hadn't suggested you replace the jalapenos with lavender.
Yeah, you're right.
That was a good call.
You know, Guy Raz, we make a pretty good inventing team.
You're like the Louis Latimer to my Thomas Edison.
Or Alexander Graham Bell.
Alexander Graham Bell worked with Thomas Edison?
No, Louis Latimer did.
He worked with Both of those inventors and his work was critical to both of their biggest inventions.
Uh-oh, I smell another episode of Who Went Wow coming on.
Uh, that actually might be me.
I did say I needed a shower after this five-day podcast binge.
No, I mean, there's a great episode of Who Went Wow all about Lewis Latimer.
We should listen to it right now.
Okay, but this is really the last one.
Really, what?
We have to go clean up.
Dolphinately.
100%?
The last one?
You promise?
Yeah.
For now.
Huh?
Nothing.
Just press play.
On February 11th 1918, at a fancy restaurant in New York City, 37 men gathered for a very important luncheon.
Gentlemen!
Gentlemen!
Gentlemen!
I hope you don't mind me interrupting your vichyssoise, but I'd like to officially welcome you to the very first meeting of the Edison Pioneers.
The Edison Pioneers was a highly exclusive group, each member hand-picked by the superstar inventor of the telegraph, the movie camera and the lightbulb Thomas Elva Edison.
Sadly...
Even though it is Mr. Edison's 71st birthday, I am afraid he is unable to join us this afternoon.
He got called away on government business.
But I'd like to make sure the rest of us are present.
So we'll begin with a roll call.
Edward Goodrich Atchison?
Here.
William Symes Andrews?
Here.
John I. Beggs?
Here.
You probably don't recognize the names, but at the time these guys were a big deal in the burgeoning field of electricity.
George V. Delaney.
All 37 of them had worked for Thomas Edison in his early years, when he was first tooling around with electric power.
William E. Gilmore.
Edwin T. Greenfield.
So all 37 of them were brilliant innovators and engineers.
Samuel Insull.
Here.
But one of them stood out from the rest.
Lewis Howard Latimer.
Here.
Of the more than three dozen members of the Edison pioneers, Lewis Howard Latimer was the only African American.
At a time when Black Americans were fighting against serious racial injustice discrimination segregation violence, Lewis Howard Latimer not only managed to be sitting at that table in that fancy restaurant in 1918, he managed to be the most important person in the room.
Because, as we're about to hear, thanks to his hard work self-reliance, determination and imagination, Lewis Howard Latimer changed the course of history and helped the world see things in a whole new light.
Quite literally.
I'm Rebecca Shear, and this is Who, When, Wow.
Our past is vast and wild.
Many things have brought us to this day.
As history has been compiled, some important details have slipped away.
In our spectacular shared experience, Howard Latimer came from humble and challenging beginnings.
He was born in 1848 to parents George and Rebecca Latimer, who had escaped from slavery just six years earlier.
Lewis's father, George, was biracial.
His mother was Black, his father was white.
So George had relatively light skin.
And in 1842, when he and Rebecca fled from the southern slave state of Virginia to the northern free state of Massachusetts, George was able to disguise himself as Rebecca's owner.
And that disguise worked.
Until the couple reached Boston.
Within a week of arriving, somebody recognized George as an escaped slave.
That's him.
That's George Latimer.
I know his owner down in Virginia.
And George was sent to jail.
The abolitionists of Boston.
Activists who fought for the emancipation of all enslaved people rallied around George's cause.
A political standoff went on for months and months.
Until, at last, an African-American minister paid $400 for George's release.
And George was free.
But he was also poor.
And as the years went by and his family grew, George struggled to provide for his wife and four children.
The youngest of those four children was Louis.
Louis was a bright kid, an excellent student who loved to read books.
A is an angler, young but expert.
B is a butcher.
Write stories.
Once upon a time, there was a fierce dragon who lived near a peaceful kingdom.
The kingdom was ruled by a fair and just king.
And most of all, draw pictures.
Look what I drew, mother and father.
It's a portrait of our family.
But when Lewis was just eight years old, something happened that would change his life forever.
The Supreme Court, the highest court in the United States, had just heard a case brought by an enslaved man named Dred Scott.
Dred Scott was taken from a slave state to a free state, then back to the slave state again.
And when Scott returned, he sued for his freedom again.
He argued that the time he had spent in a free state made him a free man.
But the Supreme Court did not agree.
In the case of Dred Scott v Sanford.
This court hereby rules that moving to a free state does not make an enslaved person free.
In fact, under the Fifth Amendment of the United States Constitution, enslaved people are property and it would be unconstitutional to deprive a slave owner of their property.
Furthermore, anyone whose ancestors were brought to the United States and sold as slaves cannot be considered an American citizen.
Therefore, they do not have the protections of an American citizen.
This court is adjourned.
Dred Scott decision did not bode well for Louis Latimer's dad, George.
Remember, George had escaped slavery in Virginia and fled to Massachusetts, but now all bets were off.
If he wasn't an American citizen and being in a free state didn't make him a free man who knew what might happen to him.
So, shortly after, Louis turned eight.
As he wrote in his diary at the time in curiously, the third person His father went out of his life.
That's right.
All of a sudden, George Latimer was gone.
Vanished.
He went into hiding somewhere, and Lewis never saw his dad again.
Now, Lewis's family was really struggling to get by.
So when Lewis was just 10 years old, he dropped out of school to help support them.
He worked all sorts of odd jobs.
Waiting tables.
Run these fried clams to table three.
Make it snappy.
Cleaning houses.
Don't forget to double wax the floors.
They're pure marble.
Delivering an abolitionist newspaper called The Liberator.
I'll take two copies, kid.
Keep the change.
And then, at age 20, Lewis got his first big break.
He was hired to work at a Boston law firm specializing in patents.
If you're an inventor, patents are official records that document your idea so that other people can't copy or steal it.
Lewis started out low in the ranks as an office boy making 3 a week.
But when Lewis wasn't running around Boston doing errands, delivering messages or fetching lunch for his bosses, Give me a cup of clam chowder with a side of baked beans.
I'll have a lobster roll and a plate of oysters.
He had his eyes fixed on the draftsmen.
Those were the people in the office who made technical drawings.
Illustrations that show how an invention is made and how it works.
Lewis had always loved drawing drawings.
And he was fascinated by what these guys were doing.
And this was way before computers came along, right?
So the draftsmen were doing everything by hand, using paper and ink and all sorts of nifty tools that Lewis had never seen before.
Hey, kid, could you hand me that T-square?
No, no, no, that's a triangle.
It's over there, between the compass and the protractor.
Lewis began saving his money so that he could buy these tools, too.
He read books about drafting.
He practiced it obsessively.
And over the next decade his bosses at the patent law firm promoted him from office boy to head draftsman.
You are wicked talented, Latimer.
Welcome to the big time.
So now, instead of making 3 a week, Lewis was making 20 a week, though he still made less money than some of his white assistants did.
But now, instead of making lunch runs, Lewis was creating these complicated and super-precise mechanical drawings, and creating them beautifully.
So beautifully, in fact, that he caught the eye of someone whose name might ring a bell.
Hello?
Alexander Graham Bell.
Our records indicate that the warranty on your horse-drawn carriage is about to expire.
Don't miss this golden opportunity to extend your warranty well into the 1900s.
Dial 1 to speak to one of our warranty specialists.
Ugh, another robocall.
Um, I'm sorry, Mr. Bell, but your part of the story is coming up.
Would you mind?
Oh, am I on already?
Sorry, sorry.
I'll be just one second.
Hello?
Hi, is Frank Walls there?
No.
Is Pete Walls there?
No.
Are there any walls there?
No.
Then what's holding up the roof?
What in the world?
Sometimes I wonder why I even bothered to invent this darn contraption.
That darn contraption is, of course, the telephone.
And back in 1876, Alexander Graham Bell was putting the final touches on this new invention that could transmit the sound of the human voice, but he hadn't yet applied for a patent.
And remember, a patent is important because if you're an inventor, it protects you from copiers and stealers.
It proves you have dibs on your invention.
But on Friday, February 11th, Bell received some distressing news.
Another inventor was on the verge of applying for his own patent for his own version of the telephone.
Wait, wait.
Stop the music.
Mr. Bell, you're on.
Oh, uh...
Ah, another inventor is on the verge of applying for his own patent for his own version of the telephone.
Sorry.
That's okay.
That's okay.
So anyway, this other inventor was an accomplished electrical engineer named Elisha Gray.
Gray had been keeping his work on the telephone a secret.
But on Friday, February 11, 1876, his secret somehow got out.
And Alexander Graham Bell was freaking out.
Ah!
I am freaking out!
Bell knew he needed to apply for a patent pronto.
But he couldn't do it alone.
He needed someone to do the drawings and fill out the paperwork.
In short, he needed someone who knew everything there was to know about the patent process.
And it just so happens that that someone was a mere block away, working as head draftsman at a patent law firm.
Any guesses who it was?
That's right.
Lewis Howard Latimer.
Yay!
Bell took one look at Lewis's amazing technical drawings, and he knew he had found his man.
Thank you for coming to work for me, Mr. Latimer.
Tell me, how quickly can you put together a patent How quickly?
Yes, like, are we docking next year?
Next month?
Monday?
Monday?
But it's Friday, Mr. Bell.
That only gives us three days.
I know that, but time is of the essence, Mr. Latimer.
That impertinent rascal, Elisha Gray, believes he will be the first person to file a patent for the telephone.
And I want to show that swaggering smarty-pants who the real genius is here.
So, what do you say?
Ready to burn some midnight oil?
Well, Lewis Latimer was ready.
He and Bell stayed up Friday night.
Finished yet, Mr. Latimer?
Not yet, Mr. Bell.
Saturday night?
Finished yet, Mr. Latimer?
Not yet, Mr. Bell.
And Sunday night?
Finished yet, Mr. Latimer?
Not yet, Mr. Bell.
And early Monday morning, February 14th, Valentine's Day, Bell raced out the door, sprinted to the patent office Next customer and submitted his finished application.
Yes.
Hello.
My name is Alexander Graham Bell, and I'm here to submit the patent for the telephone.
Beating his rival, Next customer.
By just a few hours.
Yes, hello.
My name is Elisha Gray, and I'm here to submit the patent for... the telephone.
Sorry, Mr. Gray, but you're too late.
What?
As Lewis Howard Latimer immersed himself in this world of inventions and patents, he began seeing the magic that happens when you spot a technical problem.
You dream up a solution, then you secure a patent for it.
After all, as a draftsman, he saw dozens hundreds, maybe even thousands of inventions cross his work table.
He would look at them and think gosh, if the inventor would only change this or tweak that or add one little flourish here, the invention would be so much better.
In fact, there's this great line.
Lewis once said We create our future by well-improving present opportunities, however few and small they are.
And very soon.
Lewis Howard Latimer would improve a present opportunity in a monumental way by lighting up the world.
Hey grown-ups, it's Mindy and Guy Raz here from Wow in the World.
Mindy and I have some We'll be right back.
Our Wow in the World toys help your wowzer learn about their world through play.
Plus, you can hear exclusive audio content from me and Guy Raz to help your wowzer discover even more wows.
Grownups.
Give the gift of wow and wonder this holiday season with our latest Wow in the World toys designed with your curious wowzer in mind.
You can shop our Wow in the World toys at Tinkercast.com slash toys.
That's Tinkercast.com slash toys. my megaphone, Guy Raz.
Okay.
Here you go.
Thank you.
Attention, wowsers.
Being a good inventor means that you need to have a place to keep the materials that you might need to design and create your crazy contraptions and inventions.
An empty box, an old suitcase, or even a drawer.
It can live anywhere you have room for it.
It's always a good idea to have a supply of tinkerable materials standing by to encourage lots of creativity, innovation and problem solving.
With a grown-up.
Visit Tinkercastcom slash.
WeWow for more ideas on how to stock your inventor's supply lab.
Can we go back to listening to Who and Wow now?
Yes, we can, Mindy.
Lewis Latimer in 3, 2...
Welcome back.
I'm Rebecca Shear.
Today we're talking about Lewis Howard Latimer.
Tired of feeling a cold breeze from train toilets that are basically a gaping hole down to the tracks.
Your worries about getting sucked out of the train backside first are over.
Thanks to the new and improved Water Closet for Railroad Cars.
With the Water Closet for Railroad Cars' mechanical lid and hopper.
A patented trap door closes while you do your business.
And it won't open till you've answered the call of nature and shut the lid.
The Water Closet for Railroad Cars.
Now you can make number two while feeling like number one.
In 1874...
When Lewis Howard Latimer was 25 years old, he received his first US patent for yes, the water closet for railroad cars.
And thanks to this nifty invention, relieving yourself during your next Amtrak journey is much more of a relief.
But train bathrooms aren't the only invention Latimer improved upon.
In 1880 in Menlo Park, New Jersey, which would later be renamed Edison, New Jersey.
By the way, Inventor Thomas Alva Edison was unveiling a creation that would revolutionize life as we know it.
Ladies and gentlemen, I am proud to present to you today the light bulb.
That's right, ladies and gentlemen.
Thanks to this little beauty here, your nights of living in the dark are over.
Now you can read all night, play checkers, chess and cribbage all night, not to mention keep the boogeyman away.
You simply switch this baby on the electricity travels into this thin little thread here called the filament, and see how the filament gets very hot and very bright and voila, you have Ah.
Sorry about that.
I was using a filament made out of hickory wood.
Perhaps this cedar filament will be better.
Okay, as I was saying, the filament gets very hot and very bright, and...
Okay, so cedar won't do it.
How about boxwood?
Oak?
Bamboo?
Coconut fiber?
Couple of hairs from my friend Henry's beard?
Surely there's some way I can make my light bulb glow for more than just a few lousy minutes.
I need to make it more practical, more efficient, not to mention cheaper.
My friend Henry charged me 50 bucks and a steak dinner for those beard hairs of his.
Well, as it turns out, there was a way to make the light bulb more practical, efficient, and cheap.
And guess who discovered it?
That's right.
Lewis Howard Latimer.
You see all the filaments Edison had been using the hickory wood, the bamboo, even Henry's beard hairs.
They were made of carbon which, as you now know, doesn't burn very long.
So Louis Latimer dreamed up a way to fix that.
In fact, you might say the proverbial light bulb went off in his head.
And it lasted a heck of a lot longer than Edison's ever did.
You see, the problem with Edison's carbon filaments was that they broke down too quickly.
So in 1882 Louis patented a method for making carbon filaments that were wrapped in kind of a cardboard envelope.
With this new envelope protecting the filaments, the light bulb could glow for months and months and months.
So now that light bulbs were so much more practical, efficient and affordable, they were ready for prime time.
And so was Lewis Howard Latimer.
Hiram Maxim was an inventor who had patented hundreds of items, from hair curling irons to mousetraps.
But as the founder of the U.S.
Electric Lighting Company in Brooklyn, New York, Hiram Maxim, had his eyes set on a very particular prize— installing electric lighting on a wide scale.
We're talking railroad stations, office buildings, major streets, and major cities.
And do you know who Maxim hired to install these lights?
You guessed it.
Lewis Howard Latimer.
Maxim sent Lewis to oversee the installation of public electrical lighting all over the place.
London, England.
Blimey.
Have a gander at that, mate.
That bloke's installing street lights.
Montreal, Canada.
Oh la la, his lights are très magnifique.
New York, New York.
Forget about candles and kerosene lamps.
With this guy's street lights, I can see all the way from the BQE to the FDR.
And Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Hold my hoogie.
That's the fella who invented the water closet for railroad cars.
When Lewis returned from his travels, his career took an interesting turn and he found himself working for Hiram, Maxim's arch rival, the other would-be king of electricity.
That's right.
Ah, sorry about that.
Thomas Alva Edison.
At the Edison Electric Light Company in New York City.
Edison hired Lewis Latimer as a draftsman, engineer and legal expert.
But despite his talents and skills...
Lewis wasn't always warmly received by his fellow employees because he was African-American.
This wasn't the first time Lewis had experienced racism and discrimination simply because of his skin color.
You may recall that at the patent law firm where he'd become head draftsman, Lewis made less money than his white assistants did.
And when Hiram Maxim sent him to London to supervise the installation of electric lighting systems.
Lewis faced pushback from English businessmen who weren't used to being directed by an African-American man.
As Lewis later put it.
And now back in America working for Thomas Edison, Lewis was in hot water again.
But he didn't let that stop him.
Here's how Lewis described it in his diary, again written in the third person.
Every new workman who came into the office saw for the first time a colored man making drawings, and as often as they came to work in the office, they tried to pretend that he could not do their work.
But he had had such long experience and was so well posted in all kinds of drawing that they soon were forced to acknowledge his exceeding ability, which was far above the average at the time.
In fact, Louis Latimer's exceeding ability was so far above the average that Thomas Edison actually encouraged Louis to write a book, the very first book to explore electrical lighting in a comprehensive and easy-to-understand way, and really in a poetic way.
Listen to how Louis described electric light in one of his chapters.
Like the light of the sun, it beautifies all things on which it shines and is no less welcome in the palace.
Lovely, right?
So, whether you live in a palace or a humble home, as you light up your room with the simple flick of a switch, you know who you should think of, right?
Oh, oh, let me guess.
Me?
Thomas Alva... Oh!
All right fine, sure you can think of Thomas Alva, Edison and his pioneers, and perhaps even Alexander Graham Bell.
Hello?
Hello?
They're all a part of this story.
But let's not forget our unsung hero, the self-made man who was never really in the limelight, but whose perseverance and innovation helped the world see the light.
The one, the only, Lewis Howard Latimer.
Yay!
Wow, that was so interesting.
What a great story about God.
Good ideas, sharing resources, and working together.
I know.
I can't wait to get back home to organize my own inventors club.
You want to be in it, Guy Raz?
You had me at the word organize.
Oh, speaking of which, will you hand me my megaphone for a second?
Oh, sure.
Here you go.
Thank you.
Attention, wowsers!
If you like what you heard this week, there's a lot more where that came from.
For more info on any of the activities from this week, like making soap, building an adventure toolkit or organizing your own inventor's club or stocking your inventor's supply closet.
You can find instructions, ideas and inspiration at Tinkercastcom.
Slash WeWow.
That's Tinkercast.com slash WeWow.
Thanks again for wowing with us this week and don't forget to follow the Who When Wow podcast wherever you get your podcasts.
And also, don't forget to take a shower in between episodes.
And also that until next time, who wows, we wow.
Thanks for joining us, for we wow.
Our show this week was written by kenny curtis, with me, mindy thomas, and original sound design created by jed anderson with jackson mcginnis.
Special thanks to our STEAM mate and teacher, Chrissy Brownson, for helping to come up with this week's Tinkering Challenge.
And to the rest of our WeWow team, Rebecca Caban, Anna Zagorski, and Meredith Halpern-Ranzer.
And to all of the Wowzers who called in to share their WeWow Tinkering Challenges with us.
And there's still time to share your projects with us.
Grown-ups, you can upload pictures and videos to us at Tinkercast.com slash share.
Our phone number is 1-888-7WOW-WOW.
Our website is Tinkercast.com.
There you can learn more about becoming an official member of the World Organization of Wowzers.
Learn about upcoming events, shop our shop and pick up a copy of our number one New York Times bestselling book, The How and Wow of the Human Body.
Thanks again for thinking, tinkering, experimenting, and exploring with us this week.
Meet us back here on Monday for Wow in the World.
Until next time, keep on wowing!
Wow in the World was made by Tinkercast and sent to you by Wondery.
