BLAKE, Francis (1850-1913)
Archive of manuscripts, correspondence, and printed material relating to the development of telephony and late nineteenth-century electrical science
[Various places, chiefly United States and Europe]: c. 1867-1913.
A substantial archive documenting the scientific, technical, and personal life of Francis Blake, Jr., inventor and electrical engineer associated with the early development of the telephone. The material traces Blake’s career from his work with the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey through his experimental work on telephone transmission and his later involvement in patent disputes and the business of telephony.
"If the Blake name is unrecognizable today, this is no reflection of his accomplishments, which were significant, but of Blake's loathing for publicity and public attention. Ultimately, Blake reached the goals he sought and achieved the anonymity he preferred. Whatever lesson that offers us today, the significance of Blake's life and his inventions endures. His story is a compelling and fascinating chronicle of unbounded energy, independence and genius" (Elton W. Hall, Francis Blake: An Inventor's Life [Massachusetts Historical Society: 2003], p. xi). At a very young age, Francis Blake, Jr., the youngest of five children born to Francis Blake Sr., an itinerant businessman, and Caroline Trumbull Blake, was recognized for his high aptitude in science and math. His uncle, a Commodore in the U.S. Navy, secured for him an appointment to the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, where, starting at the age of 16, he excelled at triangulation, hydrographic work, astronomical measurements and the complicated method of determining trans-Atlantic and trans-continental longitude via telegraphy. His work with the U.S.C.G.S. brought him to France, Cuba, and all over the United States. Blake's fascination with the technical equipment he encountered, and the drive to perfect each piece of apparatus, developed into a career as an inventor. Leaving the U.S.C.G.S. in 1877, he began working to that end. Blake first learned of Alexander Graham Bell's invention from his Coast supervisor, Julius E. Hilgard, who had been one of several judges that had awarded Bell a prize at the 1876 Centennial Exhibition. The telegraphic work Blake had done during his years at the Coast Survey had provided him with a highly sophisticated understanding of electricity (Hall, pp. 71-72). While Bell had been the first to invent the telephone, his first apparatus had a significant flaw: while it listened well, it could not transmit speech with distinct quality or sufficient volume for communicants to easily understand one another and carry a meaningful conversation. Famed inventor Thomas J. Edison jumped on the opportunity and sold a better transmitter to Western Union, which was poised to take the lion's share of the new telephone market. Working from his home workshop, however, Blake bested both Bell and Edison, inventing a transmitter using a carbon microphone and contacts, that telephonically produced better sound quality than anything before. The addition of the Blake transmitter would immediately launch Bell Telephone as the gold standard for the next century. The present archive is predominantly comprised of material from his U.S.C.G.S. work, as well as the period during and immediately after the invention of his transmitter. Evidenced throughout are two key components of Blake's character: his continual drive for perfection, whether related to an invention, construction on his estate Keewaydin, or the quality of oats delivered from a local merchant; and his firm belief in his own claims, whether related to the endless patent infringement litigation which followed his invention, to the monies owed to him from a bequest after the death of a relative. Included are several daily manuscript journals and account books, a retained carbon copy letterbook from 1881, and numerous books and pamphlets from his own library related to the telephone, including Bell's The Telephone: A Lecture Entitled Researches in Electric Telephony ... delivered before The Society of Telegraph Engineers, October 31st, 1877. Other printed material includes Blake's true copy of the seminal 1879 contract between Western Union and Bell Telephone, in which the former agreed to withdraw from the telephone business. Significant holdings of Blake material are found in the Massachusetts Historical Society, donated by the descendants of Francis Blake, Jr. in May 1964. The present archive was part of the Blake family's Dover, Massachusetts residence, the contents sold at public auction in 2018. An itemized catalogue of the full Francis Blake archive is available upon request.
Elton W. Hall, Francis Blake: An Inventors Life (Massachusetts Historical Society: 2003).
Item #35824
Price: $48,000.00