- Chichester Bell
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Chichester A. Bell (1848–1924) was a chemist, cousin to Alexander Graham Bell, and instrumental in developing improved versions of the phonograph.[1]
Contents
Life
Chichester Bell was born in Dublin, Ireland in 1848 to David Charles Bell (1817–1903) and Ellen Adine Highland.[2][3] David Bell was a brother of Alexander Melville Bell, the renowned elocutionist and scholar.[4]
Prior to arriving in Washington, D.C., Chichester was Assistant Professor of Chemistry, University College London.[5] In 1881 Chichester Bell began working with his famous cousin Alexander Graham Bell and their associate Charles Tainter on addressing the drawbacks to Thomas Edison's phonograph.[1]
The three men created the Volta Laboratory Association to be the holder of their patents.[1] Their successful development of the Graphophone led to the formation of the Volta Graphophone Company of Alexandria, Virginia in February 1886 by the principals, along with Chichester's brother, lawyer and banker, Charles B. Bell (born 1858).[3] While living in Washington, D.C., Chichester Bell was one of the founding members of the Chemical Society of Washington.[6]
He then returned to University College, London to continue his scientific research. In 1887, he published "Sympathetic Vibration of Jets" in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society.[7]
He was awarded the John Scott Medal of The Franklin Institute in 1900.[1] He married Antoinette Ives in 1889, in Montreal, Canada and died at Radcliffe Infirmary, St Giles, Oxford, Oxfordshire, England, on 11 March, 1924.[2][3]
Patents
- U.S. Patent 341,212 Reproducing Sounds from Phonograph Records (without using a stylus), filed November 1885, issued May 1886 (with Alexander Bell and Charles Tainter)
- U.S. Patent 341,213 Transmitting And Recording Sounds By Radiant Energy, filed November 1885, issued May 1886 (with Alexander Bell and Charles Tainter)
- U.S. Patent 341,214 Recording and Reproducing Speech and Other Sounds (improvements include compliant cutting head, wax surface, and constant linear velocity disk), filed June 1885, issued May 1886 (with Charles Tainter)
See also
- Volta Laboratory and Bureau
References
- ^ a b c d American History Museum. Charles Sumner Tainter Papers, Smithsonian American History Museum website, Washington, D.C. Retrieved July 14, 2011.
- ^ a b Chichester Alexander Bell, Recording Pioneers website. Retrieved August 13, 2011.
- ^ a b c "David Charles Bell Family Tree". Bell Family Papers. US Library of Congress. http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/bellhtml/dcbtree.html. Retrieved October 14, 2010.
- ^ Alexander Bell Family Tree, Bell Family Papers, US Library of Congress. Retrieved August 10, 2011.
- ^ Letter from Alexander Graham Bell to William H. Forbes, February 2, 1881, Alexander Graham Bell Family Papers, US Library of Congress. Retrieved August 10, 2011.
- ^ Chemical Society of Washington. "Washington: Printed for the Society, 1886, List of Members", Bulletin of the Chemical Society of Washington, No. 1, January 12, 1884, to January 14, 1886, page 7.
- ^ Bell, Chichester A. Sympathetic Vibration of Jets, Pharmaceutical Journal & Transactions: A Weekly Record of Pharmacy and Allied Sciences, Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain, J. Churchill, 1887, pp.93-97. Abstract of a paper read before the Royal Society on 13 May 1887.
External links
Categories:- 1848 births
- 1924 deaths
- American manufacturing businesspeople
- American expatriates
- American inventors
- American people of Scottish descent
- People from Washington, D.C.
- Alexander Graham Bell
- Scottish chemists
- British scientist stubs
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