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History: It is often said that necessity is the mother of invention, and this was certainly true in the case of the American census. Following the population trends established by previous surveys, it was estimated that the census of 1890 would be required to handle data from more than 62 million Americans.
Herman Hollerith, a man with a learning disability, designed a system that processed information so that human beings would not have to. He used punched cards to develop the first computer to process information. This device was constructed to allow the 1890 census to be tabulated. This construction meant a great improvement as hand tabulation was projected to take more than a decade. Twenty-eight years after Hollerith [1896] founded the Tabulating Machine Company it becomes known as International Business Machines (IBM).
Right outside the front door (south entrance) of the 1966 John Fitzgerald Kennedy Building is a stone marker with the words, “The First Telephone,” and what is supposed to be a picture of the device. In closer inspection of the marker, atop it is a plaque which describes how on June 2, 1875 on this site, Alexander Graham Bell and his assistant Thomas A. Watson transmitted sound over a wire for the first time. It was an accidental brush by Watson across a reed on the device which produced the resulting sound wave which transmitted across a wire into the unexpected ears of Bell. It took an additional nine more months before the art was enhanced enough so as to transmit voice. Then on March 10, 1876, Bell transmitted the first words over wire when he spoke to Watson (whom was in the room next door) saying, “Mr. Watson—Come here—I want to see you.”
For more history regarding this site, including how you can visit this locale via one of our MP3 audio walking tours, check out our site here: iwalkedaudiotours.com/2011/08/iwalked-boston%E2%80%99s-fi...
Class 60's, 60070 & 60061 coupled up and ready to go at Carlisle on the Carlisle - Newcastle leg of the "Tyne Line" railtour on Saturday 29th March 2003.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Edward_Stuart
Bell Homestead; Brantford, Ontario.
I never knew of this connection, Bell was a communications expert , as in where the sounds we speak in day to day language are formed in the mouth and attempting to use his research to aid what are now termed disabled individuals to coommunicate (before the phone thing ever happened.
World War II Veterans
Moving forward to World War II, a new group of individuals with disabilities would survive. Soldiers that would have been passed over by earlier triage teams because of severe wounds were rescued from the field and treated during WWII. With continued medical advances and the introduction of antibiotics, soldiers with spinal cord injuries survived for the first time. Medical advances were not the only requirement for these soldiers to survive. A rehabilitation process was developed to include the introduction of rigorous physical activity and sport.
Sir Ludwig Guttmann at the Stoke Mandeville Hospital in England found that offering competitive sport for the veterans with spinal cord injuries was the best way to ensure continued activity and health. Eventually the competitive nature of the sports would spur different groups of individuals with spinal cord injuries to compete internationally. The development of competitive sports among this community led to the present-day Paralympic Games.
Gardiner Greene Hubbard (August 25, 1822 – December 11, 1897) was a U.S. lawyer, financier, and philanthropist. He was the first president of the National Geographic Society and one of the founders of and the first president of the Bell Telephone Company which later evolved into AT&T, at times the world's largest telephone company. One of his daughters, Mabel Hubbard, also became the wife of scientist and telephone inventor Alexander Graham Bell.
The telephone was arguably one of the most important technological inventions of the 19th century. It completely shaped the way that humans communicated.
The caption ended up being unreadable, but this display is a collection of telephone and telegraph equipment from the 1870s. The phone was invented in 1874, of course, so some of these components predate that initial working version, while others came a few years later.
On Monday January 26th, 2015, approximately 25 history buffs and social media users gathered at the National Museum of American History for the #HearHistory Tweetup. They went on a tour of the exhibition, "Hear My Voice: Alexander Graham Bell and the Origins of Recorded Sound," with the team that made the historic sounds in the recordings available to modern ears: curator Carlene Stephens, Library of Congress digital conservation specialist Peter Alyea, and Lawrence Berkely National Lab scientists Carl Haber and Earl Cornell.
On Monday January 26th, 2015, approximately 25 history buffs and social media users gathered at the National Museum of American History for the #HearHistory Tweetup. They went on a tour of the exhibition, "Hear My Voice: Alexander Graham Bell and the Origins of Recorded Sound," with the team that made the historic sounds in the recordings available to modern ears: curator Carlene Stephens, Library of Congress digital conservation specialist Peter Alyea, and Lawrence Berkely National Lab scientists Carl Haber and Earl Cornell.
Subject: Mackenzie, Catherine c. 1894-1949
New York Times Company
Type: Black-and-white photographs
Date: 1947
Topic: Journalism
Mental illness
Local number: SIA Acc. 90-105 [SIA2008-5751]
Summary: Born in Nova Scotia, the journalist Catherine MacKenzie (Bierstadt) (ca. 1894-1949) began working for the New York Times in 1925. From 1939 until her death, she wrote the newspaper's popular "Parent-Child" column. In 1948, she was the co-recipient (with Lawrence K. Frank) of the Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation Award for contributions to adult education on mental illness issues. She was married to Edward Hale Bierstedt
Cite as: Acc. 90-105 - Science Service, Records, 1920s-1970s, Smithsonian Institution Archivess
Persistent URL:Link to data base record
Repository:Smithsonian Institution Archives
An eminent scientist, inventor, engineer, innovator and one of the most influential figures in human history.
I promise myself not to do anymore simple pencil portraits, so I went over my pencil sketch, I did yesterday with some charcoal and water colours and throw it in the middle of this cool digital frame..............
From this photo
Recording in wax on binder’s board, probably 1885. Content: in two segments with a gap in between; first segment is a male voice reading a story. At 51.8 seconds the voice suddenly changes to a high pitched “child imitation.” In the second segment a man is reading from a description of a New Hampshire factory.
They (the Canadian government) built a museum to house the collection of Bell's genius and that of his associates , they built a special wing to house the HD4 a prototype hydrofoil . The engines are two 350 HP Liberty airplane engines it's well over 50 some feet long and was the fastest boat on the planet for 12 years.
Cool place , Bell was certainly a genius!
Glass disc recording, produced photographically on March 11, 1885. Content: male voice saying names, recording date, then reciting “Mary had a little lamb.”
History:
Typewriter patents date back to 1713, and the first typewriter proven to have worked was built by Pellegrino Turri in 1808 for his blind friend Countess Carolina Fantoni da Fivizzono. He wanted her to be able to write love letters legibly.
Hard to believe perhaps, but exactly 134 years ago today on March 10th 1876, Alexander Graham Bell made what is widely regarded as the first ever telephone call with the less than stellar conversation with his sidekick Mr.Watson.
If only he knew what what would happen in 2010 with our plethora of mobiles and phones and gadgets that allow us to communicate. It is a far cry from the copper and wires of his lab in Boston, so this is my personal tribute to a man who allowed us to literally talk to anyone, anywhere.
Electrotyped copper negative disc of a sound recording, deposited at SI in October 1881 in sealed tin box. Content: Tone; male voice saying: “One, two, three, four, five, six”; two more tones.
A door from inside the hydro foil, very high steps, and very
HMCS Bras d'Or (FHE 400) was a hydrofoil that served in the Canadian Forces from 1968 to 1971. During sea trials in 1969, the vessel exceeded 63 knots (117 km/h; 72 mph), making her the fastest unarmed warship in the world.
The vessel was originally built from 1960 to 1967 for the Royal Canadian Navy, as a project for the testing of anti-submarine warfare technology on an ocean-going hydrofoil. The RCN was replaced on 1 February 1968 by the unified Canadian Armed Forces, and HMCS Bras d'Or was commissioned into that service several months later. Changes in priorities and cost overruns later led to the project's cancellation.
On Monday January 26th, 2015, approximately 25 history buffs and social media users gathered at the National Museum of American History for the #HearHistory Tweetup. They went on a tour of the exhibition, "Hear My Voice: Alexander Graham Bell and the Origins of Recorded Sound," with the team that made the historic sounds in the recordings available to modern ears: curator Carlene Stephens, Library of Congress digital conservation specialist Peter Alyea, and Lawrence Berkely National Lab scientists Carl Haber and Earl Cornell.
(Photo Description: Thomas Edison stands next to a chest high table with a bulb in his right hand and his left hand in his vest pocket. He wears a black suit and white shirt with bow tie. )
Edison was a poor student. When a schoolmaster called Edison "addled," or slow. his furious mother took him out of the school and proceeded to teach him at home. Edison said many years later, "My mother was the making of me. She was so true, so sure of me, and I felt I had some one to live for, some one I must not disappoint." At an early age, he showed a fascination for mechanical things and for chemical experiments.
In 1859, Edison took a job selling newspapers and candy on the Grand Trunk Railroad to Detroit. In the baggage car, he set up a laboratory for his chemistry experiments and a printing press, where he started the "Grand Trunk Herald", the first newspaper published on a train. An accidental fire forced him to stop his experiments on board.
Loss of Hearing
Around the age of twelve, Edison lost almost all his hearing. There are several theories as to what caused his hearing loss. Some attribute it to the aftereffects of scarlet fever which he had as a child. Others blame it on a conductor boxing his ears after Edison caused a fire in the baggage car, an incident which Edison claimed never happened. Edison himself blamed it on an incident in which he was grabbed by his ears and lifted to a train. He did not let his disability discourage him, however, and often treated it as an asset, since it made it easier for him to concentrate on his experiments and research. His deafness made him more solitary and shy in dealings with others.
Work as a Telegraph Operator
In 1862, Edison rescued a three-year-old from a track where a boxcar was about to roll into him. The grateful father, J.U. MacKenzie, taught Edison railroad telegraphy as a reward. That winter, he took a job as a telegraph operator in Port Huron. In the meantime, he continued his scientific experiments on the side. Between 1863 and 1867, Edison migrated from city to city in the United States taking available telegraph jobs.
Love of Invention
In 1868, Edison moved to Boston where he worked in the Western Union office and worked even more on his inventions. In January 1869 Edison resigned his job, intending to devote himself fulltime to inventing things. His first invention to receive a patent was the electric vote recorder, in June 1869. Daunted by politicians' reluctance to use the machine, he decided that in the future he would not waste time inventing things that no one wanted.
Edison moved to New York City in the middle of 1869. A friend, Franklin L. Pope, allowed Edison to sleep in a room at Samuel Laws' Gold Indicator Company where he was employed. When Edison managed to fix a broken machine there, he was hired to manage and improve the printer machines.
Phonograph
Edison's experiments with the telephone and the telegraph led to his invention of the phonograph in 1877. It occurred to him that sound could be recorded as indentations on a rapidly-moving piece of paper. He eventually formulated a machine with a tinfoil-coated cylinder and a diaphragm and needle. When Edison spoke the words "Mary had a little lamb" into the mouthpiece, to his amazement the machine played the phrase back to him. The Edison Speaking Phonograph Company was established early in 1878 to market the machine, but the initial novelty value of the phonograph wore off, and Edison turned his attention elsewhere.
Electric Light System
Edison focused on the electric light system in 1878, setting aside the phonograph for almost a decade. With the backing of financiers, The Edison Electric Light Co. was formed on November 15 to carry out experiments with electric lights and to control any patents resulting from them. In return for handing over his patents to the company, Edison received a large share of stock. Work continued into 1879, as the lab attempted not only to devise an incandescent bulb, but an entire electrical lighting system that could be supported in a city. A filament of carbonized thread proved to be the key to a long-lasting light bulb. Lamps were put in the laboratory, and many journeyed out to Menlo Park to see the new discovery. A special public exhibition at the lab was given for a multitude of amazed visitors on New Year's Eve.
Edison set up an electric light factory in East Newark in 1881, and then the following year moved his family and himself to New York and set up a laboratory there.
Lighting Becomes a Commercial Commodity
In order to prove its viability, the first commercial electric light system was installed on Pearl Street in the financial district of Lower Manhattan in 1882, bordering City Hall and two newspapers. Initially, only four hundred lamps were lit; a year later, there were 513 customers using 10,300 lamps. Edison formed several companies to manufacture and operate the apparatus needed for the electrical lighting system: the Edison Electric Illuminating Company of New York, the Edison Machine Works, the Edison Electric Tube Company, and the Edison Lamp Works. This lighting system was also taken abroad to the Paris Lighting Exposition in 1881, the Crystal Palace in London in 1882, the coronation of the czar in Moscow, and led to the establishment of companies in several European countries.
Thomas Promotes DC Current Unsuccessfully
The success of Edison's lighting system could not deter his competitors from developing their own, different methods. One result was a battle between the proponents of DC current led by Edison, and AC current led by George Westinghouse. Both sides attacked the limitations of each system. Edison, in particular, pointed to the use of AC current for electrocution as proof of its danger. DC current could not travel over as long a system as AC, but the AC generators were not as efficient as the ones for DC. By 1889, the invention of a device that combined an AC induction motor with a DC dynamo offered the best performance of all, and AC current became dominant. The Edison General Electric Co. merged with Thomson-Houston in 1892 to become General Electric Co., effectively removing Edison further from the electrical field of business. (http://inventors.about.com/od/estartinventors/a/Thomas_Edison.htm)
Electrotyped copper negative disc of a sound recording, deposited at SI in October 1881 in sealed tin box. Content: Tone; male voice saying: “One, two, three, four, five, six”; two more tones.
Based upon one of the entries in the flower show held at St Andrews church in Stratton, Cornwall. A tribute to Alexander Graham Bell, who is credited with inventing the first practical the telephone - a bit of Photoshop and you can now charge this old Bakelite phone with your laptop - bridging the years!