Bell and Howell is a

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brand of

camera A camera is an instrument used to capture and store images and videos, either digitally via an electronic image sensor, or chemically via a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. As a pivotal technology in the fields of photograp ...

lens A lens is a transmissive optical device that focuses or disperses a light beam by means of refraction. A simple lens consists of a single piece of transparent material, while a compound lens consists of several simple lenses (''elements'') ...

es, and

motion picture A film, also known as a movie or motion picture, is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, emotions, or atmosphere through the use of moving images that are generally, since ...

machinery. It was originally founded as a company in 1907, and headquartered in Wheeling, Illinois. The company was acquired by Böwe Systec in 2003. Since 2010, the brand name has been licensed for a variety of consumer electronics products.

History

According to its charter, the Bell & Howell Company was incorporated on February 17, 1907. It was recorded in the Cook County Record Book eight days later. The first meeting of stockholders took place in the office of Attorney W. G. Strong on February 19. The first board of directors was chosen for a term of one year: Donald Joseph Bell (1869–1934), chairman; Albert Summers Howell (1879–1951), secretary; and Marguerite V. Bell (wife of Donald Bell), vice chairman. The firm made products for the motion picture industry. The Bell & Howell 2709 was the first all metal, commercially available motion picture camera. The 2709 was so expensive that only

Charlie Chaplin Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin (16 April 188925 December 1977) was an English comic actor, filmmaker, and composer who rose to fame in the era of silent film. He became a worldwide icon through his screen persona, the Tramp, and is considered o ...

and three other people owned one, while the rest were owned by studios. Bell & Howell introduced products that improved the quality of projected images in a movie theater. The Kinodrome 35-mm projector mechanism, introduced in 1907, steadied projected images and reduced the flicker that can occur during motion-picture projection. The 35-mm perforator, introduced in 1910, set the standard throughout the industry as to the expected distance and width of the sprocket holes running on each side of the 35-mm film; before this there had been no agreed upon standard Bell & Howell developed a continuous film printing process in 1911, that was gradually accepted across the film printing industry. Historically, Bell & Howell Co. was an important supplier of many different media technologies, and it produced products such as: *

Newsreel A newsreel is a form of short documentary film, containing news, news stories and items of topical interest, that was prevalent between the 1910s and the mid 1970s. Typically presented in a Movie theater, cinema, newsreels were a source of cu ...

and amateur film cameras such as the Filmo (end of 1923) and Eyemo (1925), and Autoload EE (1956) * Military Gun sight TYPE N-8 * Regular-8 and Super-8 film cameras and projectors (all models) * 16mm silent and sound projectors (all models) *

Slide projector A slide projector is an optical device for projecting enlarged images of photographic slides onto a screen. Many projectors have mechanical arrangements to show a series of slides loaded into a special tray sequentially. 35 mm slide p ...

s (2" × 2"; 5 cm x 5 cm) * 35mm filmstrip projectors * Overhead presentation projectors (all models) * Stereo cameras and stereo slide projectors through its TDC subsidiary * Slide Cube Projector, circa 1970 In 1934, Bell & Howell introduced their first amateur 8mm movie projector, in 1935 the Filmo Straight Eight camera, and in 1936 the Double-Run Filmo 8. The 1938 Kodak cassette holding of Double-Eight film was taken by the Filmo Auto-8 in 1940. The firm added microfilm products in 1946. In 1954, Bell & Howell purchased DeVry Industries' 16mm division. Although known for manufacturing their film projectors, a partnership with

Canon Canon or Canons may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Canon (fiction), the material accepted as officially written by an author or an ascribed author * Literary canon, an accepted body of works considered as high culture ** Western canon, th ...

between 1961 and 1976 offered still cameras. Many of their 35mm SLR cameras were manufactured by Canon with the Bell & Howell logo or Bell & Howell/Canon in place of the Canon branding. The firm dropped the production of

movie camera A movie camera (also known as a film camera and cine-camera) is a type of photographic camera that rapidly takes a sequence of photographs, either onto film stock or an image sensor, in order to produce a moving image to display on a screen. In c ...

s by the end of the 1970s. Bell & Howell was a supplier of media equipment for schools and offices. The film laboratory line is now a separate company, BHP Inc, which is a division of Research Technology International. In 1960, Bell & Howell merged with an Electronics and Instrumentation company CEC, Lennox Road,

Basingstoke Basingstoke ( ) is a town in Hampshire, situated in south-central England across a valley at the source of the River Loddon on the western edge of the North Downs. It is the largest settlement in Hampshire without city status in the United King ...

, UK. This facility produced pressure transducers and other devices for applications in areas such as North Sea oil platforms, the chemical industry, and the Ariane Space vehicles. This division was divested to Transamerica Corporation in 1983. In 1977, Bell & Howell signed an agreement with

BASF BASF SE (), an initialism of its original name , is a European Multinational corporation, multinational company and the List of largest chemical producers, largest chemical producer in the world. Its headquarters are located in Ludwigshafen, Ge ...

to develop a new amateur videotape recorder, which would have made use of a tape on which 28 of parallel tracks were to be recorded with the aid of a fixed head. The machine was expected to be ready by Christmas 1979, but did not reach the market. Bell & Howell purchased University Microfilms International in the 1980s. UMI produced a product called ProQuest. In the 2000s, Bell & Howell decided to focus on their information technology businesses. The imaging business was sold to

Eastman Kodak The Eastman Kodak Company, referred to simply as Kodak (), is an American public company that produces various products related to its historic basis in film photography. The company is headquartered in Rochester, New York, and is incorporated i ...

, and the international mail business was sold to

Pitney Bowes Pitney Bowes Inc. is an American technology company most known for its postage meters and other mailing equipment, services, and other technologies. The company was founded by Arthur Pitney, who invented the first commercially available postage m ...

. On June 6, 2001, Bell & Howell became a

ProQuest ProQuest LLC is an Ann Arbor, Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan-based global information-content and technology company, founded in 1938 as University Microfilms by Eugene Power. ProQuest is known for its applications and information services for l ...

Company, which was then a publicly traded company, but is now a subsidiary of the private

Cambridge Information Group Cambridge Information Group (CIG) is a privately held, family-owned global investment firm focusing on information services, education and technology. The company is led by CEO Andy Snyder. History CIG was founded in 1971 by Robert Snyder and a ...

. In September 2001, the remaining industrial businesses along with the Bell & Howell name were sold to private equity firm Glencoe Capital. The company merged with the North American arm of Böwe Systec Inc. Later, in 2003, Böwe Systec acquired the entire company. The company was known as Böwe Bell & Howell until 2011, when Versa Capital Management bought the company out of bankruptcy and renamed the company "Bell and Howell, LLC". In 2010 consumer electronics manufacturer Elite Brands licensed the Bell + Howell brand name to use on optical and imaging products including digital cameras and camcorders, binoculars, telescopes, lenses, and various camera accessories. BHH, LLC has also expanded licensing of the Bell + Howell brand name for a range of products including lighting and security, personal care, tools, pest control, auto accessories and luggage. In 2011 a digital video recorder was released featuring the Bell + Howell brand. In 2017 the company spun off the mail sorting business, including vote by mail, to Fluence Automation, which was then acquired by BlueCrest Inc. in 2021. BlueCrest had acquired the Pitney-Bowes document messaging business in 2018. In December 2018, Versa Capital Management, LLC ("Versa") announced the successful closing of the sale of Bell and Howell to Boston-based WestView Capital Partners ("WestView").

Apple II

Bell & Howell marketed a specially designed Apple II Plus computer to the educational market beginning in July 1979. The modified Apple had additional security elements for classroom use such as a tamper-proof cover. The case color was black but the inside was a standard Apple II Plus. The modified Apple II became known colloquially among computer enthusiasts as the "

Darth Vader Darth Vader () is a fictional character in the ''Star Wars'' franchise. He was first introduced in the original film trilogy as the primary antagonist and one of the leaders of the Galactic Empire. He has become one of the most iconic villain ...

" Apple II for its black case design.

Education Group

Bell & Howell founded an Education Group within the company in 1907. This Education Group created Bell & Howell Schools in 1966. In that same year, the Education Group purchased a controlling share of DeVry Institute of Technology. Two years later in 1968, Bell & Howell's Education Group, via a controlling interest in DeVry, acquired Ohio Institute of Technology in Columbus, Ohio.Page six of the Ohio Institute of Technology Student hand book from the school year 1974-1975 Over the years, the Education Group has bought and sold large interests in a variety of educational organizations and institutions, including

Heathkit Heathkit is the brand name of kits and other electronic products produced and marketed by the Heath Company. The products over the decades have included electronic test equipment, high fidelity home audio equipment, television receivers, amateu ...

which supplied electronics kits for Bell & Howell courses.

Gallery

File:Bell & Howell Stock Certificate (Specimen).jpg, Specimen stock certificate Vintage Bell & Howell 8mm Movie Camera With Electric Eye (12103320673).jpg, 8mm Movie Camera with Electric Eye Image:Bell_Howell_Filmo_2.jpg, Bell & Howell 8mm amateur camera ''Filmo Straight Eight'' Image:Zaprudercamera.jpg, Bell & Howell Zoomatic movie camera used to shoot the

Zapruder film The Zapruder film is a silent 8 mm film, 8mm color motion picture sequence shot by Abraham Zapruder with a Bell & Howell home-movie camera, as United States President John F. Kennedy's motorcade passed through Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas, on N ...

, in the collection of the U.S. National Archives File:Vintage Bell & Howell Two Twenty 8mm Movie Camera, Made In USA (20429387376).jpg, Bell & Howell 8mm home movie camera, model ''Two Twenty'' File:Wildwood, Toledo, OH 43615, USA - panoramio (13).jpg, Bell & Howell 200 Movie Camera File:Bell & Howell Autoload 309 Super 8 Camera.jpg, Bell & Howell Autoload 309 Super 8 Camera File:Bell and Howell Apple II.jpg, Educational version of Apple II computer File:623circlesevendrive.JPG, Bell & Howell's former

western United States The Western United States (also called the American West, the Western States, the Far West, the Western territories, and the West) is List of regions of the United States, census regions United States Census Bureau. As American settlement i ...

regional headquarters at 623 Circle Seven Drive (formerly 623 Rodier Drive) in

Glendale, California Glendale is a city located primarily in the Verdugo Mountains region, with a small portion in the San Fernando Valley, of Los Angeles County, California, United States. It is located about north of downtown Los Angeles. As of 2024, Glendale ha ...

References

Notes Bibliography
"Unlocking the Vault"
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Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917. It has been owned by the Hong Kong–based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes. The co ...

''. Dated November 13, 2000, viewed December 7, 2006
BHP Inc Website
viewed December 7, 2006 *

External links

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European & International Sector
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