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Patent holder profile

Lewis H. Latimer and the Railroad-Car Water-Closet Patent

Latimer's first CultureUp patent profile starts chronologically with his 1874 railroad-car water-closet patent, co-invented with Charles W. Brown.

Why this belongs on CultureUp

Latimer is a public-record memory story.

Latimer belongs here because the profile shows how chronological patent memory can differ from later public fame.

Unique holder rank 13 / grant rank 15Status: publish_readySource grade: A-

Patent: 147363: Improvement in Water-Closets for Railroad-Cars
Issue date: 1874-02-10
Place: Somerville / Salem, Massachusetts
Record strength: A- patent-record strength with an explicit co-inventor record.
Identity evidence: Publishable as a chronological first-patent profile while preserving Charles W. Brown in the record.
Why this record matters: Latimer is often remembered through later electrical work, but the chronological patent trail begins here with railroad-car systems.

What the public record supports

U.S. Patent No. 147363, issued February 10, 1874.
Patent text names Lewis H. Latimer and Charles W. Brown.
The invention concerns water-closets for railroad cars.

What remains open

Place labels and co-inventor context should be deepened with primary sources.
Later electrical work belongs in a later section, not as a replacement for this first patent row.

Article profile

Read the person, place, invention, and record separately.

CultureUp keeps each layer visible so a patent record does not get stretched into claims the source trail cannot support.

The patent record

The patent text identifies Lewis H. Latimer and Charles W. Brown with an improvement in water-closets for railroad cars issued February 10, 1874.

The person in the record

This page starts with Latimer's first patent row and points forward to later electrical work without making that later work the first-patent story.

Place attached to the claim

Somerville and Salem, Massachusetts appear in the source trail and should be preserved pending deeper local context.

The invention

The invention belongs to railroad-car systems and travel infrastructure.

Business, labor, and use

The patent does not prove assignment, manufacturing, adoption, or all design labor behind the railroad-car system.

What the record cannot prove

The patent cannot prove complete biography, later fame, sole inventorship, or all later electrical contributions.

Patent records

Grant trail

Grant rank and unique-holder rank are shown separately so repeat patentees do not distort the chronological sequence.

Grant rank 15Holder rank 13utility patentmedium high

147363: Improvement in Water-Closets for Railroad-Cars

Lewis H. Latimer and Charles W. Brown / 1874-02-10

Chronological Latimer profile starts with the co-invented railroad-car water-closet patent and preserves Charles W. Brown in the record.

Residence: Somerville / Salem, Massachusetts
Category: railroad-car systems
Source status: medium high
Primary sources: 2 mapped

Source trail

Claims stay tied to source limits.

Patent record

Patent text, case-file context, or patent-image trails that can support inventor, title, number, date, place, and claim language.

patent text mirrorpatent text with co-inventor record

US147363A - Improvement in Water-Closets for Railroad-Cars

Google Patents / 1874 patent record

Supports: Shows Lewis H. Latimer and Charles W. Brown connected to an improvement in water-closets for railroad cars issued February 10, 1874.
Limit: Do not erase Charles W. Brown. This profile starts with Latimer's chronological first patent and points forward to later electrical work only as later public memory.
Last checked: 2026-06-09
Source URL: https://patents.google.com/patent/US147363A/en

Identity evidence

Institutional profiles, Baker/Murray recovery context, or public source trails that support careful Black patentee language without private proof.

official historical essayrecovery-project context

Found on Baker's list

United States Patent and Trademark Office / 2022

Supports: Connects Henry E. Baker's recovery project, George Washington Murray's Congressional Record list, and the problem that the Patent Office did not and still does not collect demographic data.
Limit: Baker's list is a recovery starting point, not a complete census of Black inventors.
Last checked: 2026-06-08
Source URL: https://www.uspto.gov/learning-and-resources/journeys-innovation/historical-stories/found-bakers-list