Chichester Alexander Bell (1848 – 11 March 1924) was an Irish

audio engineer An audio engineer (also known as a sound engineer or recording engineer) helps to produce a recording or a live performance, balancing and adjusting sound sources using equalization, dynamics processing and audio effects, mixing, reproduc ...

and inventor. He was a cousin of

Alexander Graham Bell Alexander Graham Bell (; born Alexander Bell; March 3, 1847 – August 2, 1922) was a Scottish-born Canadian Americans, Canadian-American inventor, scientist, and engineer who is credited with patenting the first practical telephone. He als ...

and was instrumental in developing the

graphophone The Graphophone was the name and trademark of an improved version of the phonograph. It was initially designed at the Volta Laboratory and Bureau, Volta Laboratory established by Alexander Graham Bell in Washington, D.C., United States. It was co ...

.American History Museum
Charles Sumner Tainter Papers
, Smithsonian American History Museum website, Washington, D.C. Retrieved 14 July 2011.

Life

Bell was born in

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

, Ireland, in 1848 to Professor David Charles Bell (1817–1903) and Ellen Adine Highland.Chichester Alexander Bell
, Recording Pioneers website. Retrieved 13 August 2011. David Charles was an elder brother to Professor

Alexander Melville Bell Alexander Melville Bell (1 March 18197 August 1905) was a teacher and researcher of articulatory phonetics, physiological phonetics and was the author of numerous works on orthoepy and elocution. Additionally he was also the creator of Visible ...

, the renowned British authority on elocution and speech. Bell received his ''Baccalaurei in Medicinâ'' degree in Medicine and Surgery from

Trinity College Dublin Trinity College Dublin (), officially titled The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, and legally incorporated as Trinity College, the University of Dublin (TCD), is the sole constituent college of the Unive ...

on 30 June 1869. Prior to moving to Washington, D.C. to join his cousin

's Volta Laboratory, Chichester was assistant professor of chemistry,

University College London University College London (Trade name, branded as UCL) is a Public university, public research university in London, England. It is a Member institutions of the University of London, member institution of the Federal university, federal Uni ...

. In 1881 Chichester Bell began working with Alexander and their associate Charles Tainter on addressing the drawbacks to

Thomas Edison Thomas Alva Edison (February11, 1847October18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices in fields such as electric power generation, mass communication, sound recording, and motion pictures. These inventions, ...

phonograph A phonograph, later called a gramophone, and since the 1940s a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogue reproduction of sound. The sound vibration Waveform, waveforms are recorded as correspond ...

. The three men created the Volta Laboratory Association to be the holder of their patents. Their successful development of the

led to the formation of the ''Volta Graphophone Company'' of

Alexandria, Virginia Alexandria is an independent city (United States), independent city in Northern Virginia, United States. It lies on the western bank of the Potomac River approximately south of Washington, D.C., D.C. The city's population of 159,467 at the 2020 ...

in February 1886 by the principals, along with Chichester's brother, lawyer and banker, Charles B. Bell (born 1858). While living in

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

, Chichester Bell was one of the founding members of the Chemical Society Washington Chapter. 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 The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

. Chichester Bell also helped establish the Edison Bell company. The Edison Bell company was established on 30 November 1892 in London to sell phonographs produced by the Edison United Phonograph Company.When Is A Bell Not A Bell?
/ref> Bell was awarded the

John Scott Medal John Scott Award, created in 1816 as the John Scott Legacy Medal and Premium, is presented to men and women whose inventions improved the "comfort, welfare, and happiness of human kind" in a significant way. "...the John Scott Medal Fund, establish ...

of the

Franklin Institute The Franklin Institute is a science museum and a center of science education and research in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is named after the American scientist and wikt:statesman, statesman Benjamin Franklin. It houses the Benjamin Franklin ...

in 1900. He married Antoinette Ives in 1889, in

Montreal, Quebec Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

, Canada and died at Radcliffe Infirmary, St Giles, Oxford, Oxfordshire, England, on 11 March 1924.

Patents

* ''Transmitter for Electric Telephone Lines'', filed May 1884, issued February 1886 * ''Jet Microphone or Apparatus for Transmitting Sounds by Means of Jets'', filed May 1884, issued February 1886 * ''Telephone Transmitter'', Filed April 1885, issued February 1886 * ''Reproducing Sounds from Phonograph Records'' (without using a stylus or causing wear), filed November 1885, issued May 1886 (with Alexander Bell and Charles Tainter) * ''Transmitting And Recording Sounds By Radiant Energy'', filed November 1885, issued May 1886 (with Alexander Bell and Charles Tainter) * ''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)

References

External links

Story of the Graphophone
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bell, Chichester 1848 births 1924 deaths American manufacturing businesspeople Irish emigrants to the United States 19th-century American inventors Scientists from Washington, D.C. Alexander Graham Bell Scottish chemists

Life

Patents

See also

References

External links