After the Telephone
Photophone
After Bell’s great success with the Bell Telephone he still continued with his intellectual curiosity and innovation. Bell and his assistant, Charles Taiter, developed the wireless telephone known as the “photophone” which allowed to transmit sound on beams of light. On June 21, 1880, Bell’s assistant transmitted a wireless telephone message from the roof of the Franklin School in Washington, D.C., to Bell in his laboratory. The distance between the two buildings was approximately 213 meters. Bell believed that the photophone was his greatest achievement in his carrier, greater than the telephone. This innovation was only the foundation of the fiber-optic communication systems which became popular around the world in the 1980's. In December 1880 the photophone was issued, 19 years before the first voice radio transmissions. [1]
Metal Detector
Bell is credited for the invention of the metal detector in 1881. The metal detector was quickly developed, due to find the bullet in the body of the U.S. President James Garfield. The metal detector worked perfectly in tests, but it was unable to find the bullet in the president because of the metal bed frame and the metal springs, on which the president was placed on. Bell requested to move the president, but the surgeons where skeptical about the device and ignored Bell's requests. Many controversial surround the story of the recovery of the bullet from the body of President James Garfield. [1]
"In scientific researches, there are no unsuccessful experiments; every experiment contains a lesson. If we don't get the results anticipated and stop right there, it is the man that is unsuccessful, not the experiment."-Alexander Graham Bell
Graphophone
The Smithsonian, in 1880 and 1881 received, in three installments, sealed in tin boxes from Bell's Volta Laboratory, which was created after his great success with the telephone. The boxes remained sealed until 1937, when they were opened in front of his daughter and grandson. The boxes revealed a photophone predecessor, fiber optic sound carriers, and the graphophone a competitor with Edison's new invention the phonograph. [10] The graphophone was the improved version of the phonograph, which allowed to record sound. [11] These devices created by Bell were the earliest successful sound-recording devices as well there where documents in the tin boxes on their function and how they were invented. [10][13]
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Aeronautics
Bell expiramented with motor-powered heavier-than-air crafts in 1891. The Aerial Experiment Association (AEA) was formed by Bell in 1907 in partnership with his assistant F.W. Baldwin, A.D. McCurdy, and other younger engineers. The United States Army became interested in the development of the flight machines, and benefited their work. After the AEA expiramented with man lifting kites it turned to gasoline-powered biplanes, which were known as aerodromes. The association built and flew, with varying success, several aircraft in 1908. The association achieved a record on 4th of July when Curtiss flew the June Bug, becoming the first aircraft to fly 1 kilometer in the western hemisphere, were the association won the Scientific American Trophy. [5] Bell was also a supporter of the aerospace engineering research through the AEA. [1]
Hydrofoils
Bell was inspired to create what is now known as hydrofoil boats by the William E. Meacham, who explained the basic principle of hydrofoils and hydroplanes in March 1906 in the Scientific American article. In the summer of 1908 Bell and his assistant Fredrick W. Baldwin experimented with hydrofoils and their assistance to airplanes takeoff from water. This led Bell to develop the hydrofoil watercraft. [1] The AEA worked also simultaneously on "hydrodromes" or hyrofoil boats from 1908. The HD-1, was the first hydrofoil, it achieved speeds of 72 km/h in 1911 and 80 km/h in 1912. The HD-2 broke into pieces, while the HD-3 was built in 1913, but there was a pause in the creation of the hydrofoils by the account of WWI. The HD-4 was built in 1917 and set the world water-speed record of 114.04 km/h in 1919 for more than a decade. [5]