Charles S. L. Baker — Friction Heat Radiator — We Built That T-Shirt | Buillth
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Regular price
$39.99
Sale price
$29.99
★★★★★ EVERY PIECE TELLS A TRUE STORY
Built to Be Worn
100% Ring-Spun Cotton — Softer and stronger than standard cotton. Pre-shrunk for a consistent fit, wash after wash.
Heavyweight 4.5 oz Fabric — Breathable and built to last. Comfortable enough for all-day wear, substantial enough to hold the print for years.
Unisex True-to-Size Fit — A relaxed silhouette that works across body types. Wear it how you want. The history stays the same.
The Construction
Double-Needle Stitching — Reinforced at the shoulder, armhole, neck, waistband, and sleeves. The same places a garment fails first. We built those points to outlast the rest.
Seamless Collar — Quarter-turned construction. Holds its shape over time. No center crease. No shortcuts.
Tear-Away Label — Clean inside and out. Remove it. Nothing left behind but the work.
Stand Behind the Work
30-Day Returns — If it's not right, we'll make it right. No forms. No friction. No questions.
Printed in the USA — Every domestic order printed and fulfilled on American soil.
A new way to heat a room, built from nothing but friction and twenty-three years of trial and error. Charles S. L. Baker was born enslaved and self-taught himself into a mechanical engineer. He patented the friction heat radiator in 1903 and helped found the company built on it. Now you know. Wear that.
The Buillth Friction Heat Radiator tee is part of the We Built That collection — wearable archives honoring the Black inventors who built the modern world and never got the credit.
The design: Museum-quality archival badge. Twin cylinder core, friction drive, radiant heat lines — the invention that warmed rooms without a single flame, made wearable.
Wear it. They'll ask. Then you tell them.
The shirt: Heavyweight unisex tee. 100% ring-spun cotton. Soft enough to live in, bold enough to start a conversation. Tear-away label. Runs true to size.
Charles S. L. Baker — The Short Version
Charles S. L. Baker was born into slavery in 1859 in Savannah, Missouri, and became a self-taught mechanical engineer with no formal training. Over twenty-three years of experimentation — rubbing bricks, testing metals, refining a spinning core inside a metal cylinder — he perfected a way to generate heat through friction alone, no fire required. He patented the friction heat radiator in 1903 and co-founded the Friction Heat & Boiler Company the following year. A man born with nothing engineered a new way to keep a building warm.
→ Read the full story of Charles S. L. Baker on the Buillth inventor page.
