2019 Nova Scotia - part 5, Cape Breton: Bell's other pursuits and his life at Beinn Bhreagh - Travel With Us

Along with Bell’s successes with the telephone, flying machines, and hydrofoils, he had other interests that filled his mind with possibilities. Such excitement with life and improving life for others, even at his home estate,

Not sure what Bell was being pulled out of or why, but he sure looks happy.

In mid-January 1876, Bell took rooms in Boston, transforming one of them into a lab where he and Watson could conduct their telephone experiments. Mabel (before they married) told hm she was painting a picture of him but wouldn’t show it until it was ready to send to him.

Finally it arrived, and Bell and Watson opened it together.

The picture was of a while owl since Bell was always working late at night into the early morning hours. What a lovely sense of humor.

Replica of the room with the picture in the right corner.

other inventions and pursuits

graphophone

Thomas Edison and his phonograph. He doesn’t look too happy.

That’s because his success was short-lived. Quality was poor, and the records were short and soon wore out. The Volta Associates began experiments in 1881 to improve the phonograph and were able to commercially exploit it in 1887. This invention, called the graphophone, was a marked improvement over Edison’s invention.

It recorded sounds on wax cylinders rather than tin foil, resulting in higher quality and more accurate sound. It also reduced record wear because a regulator kept the speed constant.

Volta Associates worked together between 1881 and 1886. The associates were Chichester Bell (Bell’s 1st cousin), Charles Summer Tainter, and Bell.

The graphophone was a commercial success and the basis of the modern record industry. The associates, wanting to pursue other interests, soon disbanded their laboratory.

an idea person, not a professional inventor

With the prosperity from the telephone, Bell was free to pursue his ideas as he pleased.

He was more interested in possibilities than in realities, and he tended to lose interest when an invention reached the stage of commercial application.

photophone – a telephone without wires

This new device transmitted speech over light waves. On April 1, 1880, an associate, Charles Tainter, climbed the roof of a nearby schoolhouse to test this new invention.

Catching the sun’s rays in his transmitter mirror, he called Bell who was in another building, asking him to come to the window and wave his hat, which he did. It worked!

While it worked, the downside was its impracticality since clouds and rain easily interrupted transmission and the range was limited. Still, it was a great invention according to Bell.

Selenium cells were used in the photophone.

vacuum jacket – early artificial respiration

In 1881, the Bells’ son, Edward, was born prematurely. Because his lungs weren’t fully developed, he had respiratory failure after just a few hours. Heartbroken, Bell started working on a device he called a vacuum jacket that he hoped would help others. The jacket fastened around the torso of the patient and had a tube connected to a bellows. Air could be pumped in and out of the jacket with the bellows to alternately raise and lower the patient’s thorax, forcing air in and out of the lungs.

The jacket in this picture is incomplete. Originally it had a flap of rubberized cloth at each end. These flaps were bound tightly around the patient’s body to make the jacket airtight.

tools of the trade

Bell loved to plan and had the tools to help him as he considered new ideas.

ruling pen on the left, and a slide rule next to a ruler on the right

tripod, proportional dividers, and compass for navigating and surveying

record keeper

After defending himself in court for 18 years to prove he was the inventor of the telephone, Bell became a diligent record keeper.

Everything was recorded using photographs and the written word.

a case of negatives stored backups of these photographs

When attached to a large kite, an anemometer measured wind velocity. Don’t you just love seeing Mabel flying the kite?

weighing letters

genetics

Intrigued by why some people lived longer than others, Bell started research in 1908 on longevity. He spent 8 years compiling statistics on dates of birth, marriages, and deaths.

Can’t seem to find if anything came of this research.

distilled water

Bell experimented with solar stills to distill drinkable water from salt water or contaminated water. A pan of water was exposed to the heat of the sun. The moisture that evaporated collected on a sloping piece of glass.

The water trickled to a low corner of the frame where it was funneled to a receptacle underneath, leaving salt and impurities behind.

application

Starting in the 1890s, Bell became concerned over men who were stranded at sea and not able to drink the water around them, so he started experimenting. One device was to provide drinking water from human breath, another possibility had him working with steam boilers.

A third option was to distill salt water into drinkable water.

This pot is the upper half of an apparatus used to distill water. It served as the condenser while another part was the boiler.

artificial cooling for houses

Bell was often bothered by the summer heat and so became an advocate of artificial cooling for homes.

These 2 blowers were designed by Bell and used at Beinn Bhreagh with his air conditioning experiments.

metal detector

As mentioned in a previous post, in the summer of 1881, Bell tried to find the bullet in President Garfield’s body, but interference from the metal springs in the bed made detection impossible. Perhaps if the bullet had been found and removed, the infection may not have killed the president.

sonar

During WWI, Bell experimented with transmitting and receiving underwater sound vibrations traveling through the water.

Bell’s “water ears” transmitters and receivers.

life at home

Beinn Bhreagh was a large, beautiful home on a hill.

The Bells tried to make their estate self-sufficient by growing food and raising livestock for their use.

Much more than a “gentleman farmer,” Bell was a visionary who used his spirit of invention to create a crematory for the sanitary disposal of sewage, discussed getting power from the sun’s heat, and using hydro power to produce electricity the estate needed.

attempt to increase flocks

When the Bells arrived in Nova Scotia in 1885, many farms dotted the shores of the Bras d’Or.

Wanting to help the local farmers, Bell began a 32-year project to breed ewes that would constantly bear twins, making the flocks more profitable and the farmers’ stock more valuable.

Bell believed that a relationship existed between the number of nipples on a sheep and the likelihood of multiple births. No idea how he came up with this belief.

Over 30 years of research led Bell to conclude that no such relationship existed. He was successful, however, in breeding a flock of multi-nippled sheep.

samples of wool collected from lambs born at Beinn Bleaugh

energy conservation

In 1914, Bell used the term “greenhouse effect” to describe the heating of the earth because of foreign particles in the upper atmosphere. In 1921 he spoke of the need to find substitutes for coal and oil to provide energy.

In this picture Bell is shown with his solar stills developed to turn salt water from the Bras d’Or into potable water. Would certainly help during droughts.

farm’s organization

Not only did Mabel manage the family’s personal finances (remember, Bell was a visionary person, not a practical man), she also took the lead in running the estate. The employees were divided into departments such as the farm, sheep, roads, and the garden. One general manager reported to her.