DescriptionElectric Lamp, J.V. Nichols & L.H. Latimer, U,S. Patent 247,097, September 13, 1881. Latimer kept this copy of one of his successful patent applications. The patent, submitted by Latimer with fellow Maxim employee Joseph V. Nichols, proposed a new way of clamping carbon strips—the light source inside incandescent glass bulbs—to the wires that supplied electric power to them. This method would end the need for platinum “nuts, screws, or pins... whereby the cost of the lamps is greatly reduced.”