OUR MISSION
is to demonstrate the social and technical significance of the telephone network
from 1876 to the present, using working equipment to provide tangible,
operable evidence of an evolving technology.
WE CELEBRATE
the inventiveness, craftsmanship, ingenuity and industry
of the telecommunications community through educational programs,
exhibits, and special events.
"It's for YOU"
“I wandered into the exchange at the height of last week’s hot wave, and found your girls working like beavers.”
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| Massachusetts Historical Society |
Photographs? Yes, for those who associate Francis Blake with the invention of the marvelous transmitter that boosted the fledgling Bell Company on its corporate ascension, the revelation of many other aspects of Mr. Blake’s inventiveness and intellect are a delightful surprise. The man who sent Thomas Edison and the Western Union Company packing when Edison’s solid carbon transmitter threatened to unseat the Bell System, possessed the nature of a tinkerer. His interests extended also to arboriculture, politics and outdoor recreation.
Born in 1850 in Needham, MA, Blake benefited from family connections and a gregarious personality to land a position with the U.S. Coastal and Geodetic Survey at the age of 16. From 1868 until his resignation in 1878, his work focused on the telegraphic determination of longitudes in various parts of the world.
His marriage to Elizabeth L. Hubbard in 1873 brought a financial stability that had eluded his own family. Elizabeth’s father, who owned hundreds of acres of land in Weston, MA, offered the newlyweds a house site within the Hubbard family compound, “Woodlands.” Francis chose a site high on a plateau above the Charles River with views of the Blue Hills, and of the Boston and Albany tracks running below.
Secure with his abilities, and now his place in the world, Blake proceeded to construct his dream house. Working with architect Charles McKim, the result was an elegantly detailed structure with piazzas, towers and fancy shingle and brickwork that set the standard for the “shingle style” of American architecture. Blake named the place “Keewaydin”, the Massachuset Indian word for the northwest wind. Although aesthetically grand, it was also a laboratory for more of Blake’s experiments.
It was here that Blake experimented with building a better telephone transmitter. In a room originally designed for billiards, Blake constructed a machine shop. He worked on improvements to both Edison’s phonograph and transmitter, choosing to concentrate on the latter. On October 18, 1878 at the offices of the Bell Telephone Company in Boston, Blake’s transmitter was declared better than anything else available by Bell’s assistant, Thomas Watson. By 1886, 25,000 Blake transmitters were in use throughout the world – and the value of Bell Telephone stock was soaring.
Free to continue experimenting and tinkering, Blake constructed a steam-powered waterworks at Keewaydin, and an innovative heating system for the structure. He added such diversions to the estate as a bowling alley and a theatre, and entertained sumptuously.
In 1884 he purchased his first camera, and his curiosity and inventiveness were challenged again . With the help and advice of his friend, William deYoung Field, Blake set up a dark room at Keewaydin and began developing his talents as a photographer. The estate became a backdrop for his studies, and family, friends and workers became his subjects. Re-discovering the focal-plane shutter he made improvements to it, and to the lenses he employed, enabling him to create exceptional high-speed photographs of people and animals in motion.
Francis Blake died in 1913 and Keewaydin was demolished in 1965 to make way for a development of 20 new homes. The beautiful grounds had been devastated when toll booths for the Massachusetts Turnpike were constructed in the 1950’s, doing away with Blake’s brook and duck pond and the view he had cherished.
Charles and Sandra Galley had the honor of representing The Telephone Museum at the January reception in Boston. Thanks to an invitation from Rosamond Blake, the inventor’s great granddaughter, and the consideration of Matthew and Peggy Strong, the Galleys were able to be present as William M. Fowler, Jr., director of the Massachusetts Historical Society praised the Blake family for their stewardship of the Blake papers. Charles and Sandra had the pleasure of meeting Rosamond’s parents and viewing the exhibit of Blake photographs.
A staff member confided that when he came to work at the society’s library several years ago, he thought Toby Hall was a fellow staff member because he seemed to be there all the time – as it turns out, researching the book on Blake.
“Francis Blake: An Inventor’s Life” by Elton W. Hall is published by The Massachusetts Historical Society and can be purchased online at http://www.masshist.org/shop/books.cfm and at bookstores.