Page 38 - Book one - Flipbook

11

Magic in the Study

JAXON FOLLOWS HIS dad into the study. It has a ton of books, a big desk, and a puffy leather
chair. His dad spends a lot of time in here reading.

His dad is staring at the desk. “What happened to the lamp?”
“Hello there,” says a good-looking man wearing big black rimmed glasses, standing next to
the bookcase. “The lamp is not there because of me.”
Jaxon asks, “Did you invent the lamp?”
“No, I invented a small thing inside the light bulb that keeps it lit for a long time.”
“Really!” Jaxon and his dad blurt out at the same time. Then they look at each other and
smile.

“Yes, my name is Lewis Latimer,” the man continues. “You see,
Thomas Edison invented the light bulb, but his bulb would only stay on
for a very short period of time. With the filament I invented, the
bulb will stay on for hours and hours.”
“You’re kidding!” Jaxon’s dad is truly impressed.
“No, I actually did.”
Jaxon touches his necklace and says, “Show me.” The lamp
appears on the desk. Jaxon walks over to the desk and turns it on.
“Whoa!” says Jaxon’s dad. “That’s quite a trick. And what’s with

the ‘show me’?”
“When the inventors show up, in order for me to see their
inventions I have to touch my necklace and say ‘show me.’”
“Cool. Oh, sorry for the interruption,” Jaxon’s dad says turning
back to Mr. Latimer.
“No problem. I also worked for Alexander Graham Bell. I helped
him write his patent for the telephone. Jaxon, that means that I

helped him write the document to send to the government to make
it illegal for anyone to steal his invention.” Mr. Latimer smiles
proudly.
Jaxon’s truly impressed. “Wow! That’s awesome! And I learned
earlier that Mr. Granville Woods also helped Mr. Bell with the telephone. So two Black people
helped Mr. Bell’s telephone invention. How cool is that!”
Then Jaxon feels a little sad. “We learned about Mr. Bell in class. But they didn’t mention you
or Mr. Woods.”