Francis Blake (inventor)
{{Short description|American engineer}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=April 2020}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Francis Blake
| image = Блэйк.png
| alt =
| caption =
| birth_name =
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1850|12|25}}
| birth_place = Needham, Massachusetts
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1913|01|20|1850|12|25}}
| death_place = Weston, Massachusetts
| burial_place =
| other_names =
| spouse = {{Marriage|Elizabeth Livermore Hubbard|1874}}
| children =
| occupation = Inventor
| awards =
| education =
| party =
| signature = Signature of Francis Blake (1850–1913).png
}}
Francis Blake Jr. (December 25, 1850 – January 20, 1913) was an American inventor.
Biography
Francis Blake was born in Needham, Massachusetts on December 25, 1850, the son of Caroline Burling (Trumbull) and Francis Blake, Sr.{{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/menofprogressone00her/page/948 |title=Men of Progress: One Thousand Biographical Sketches and Portraits of Leaders in Business and Professional Life in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts |editor-last=Bacon |editor-first=Edwin M. |editor-link=Edwin Munroe Bacon |publisher=The New England Magazine |location=Boston |pages=948–950 |year=1896 |access-date=2022-02-14 |via=Internet Archive}}
In 1879, he invented a carbon microphone for use in the telephone, and patented{{Cite web|url=https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/ea/71/a4/ee75a276385b08/US250126.pdf|title=US Patent № 250,126. Speaking telephone. Patented Nov. 29, 1881.}}{{Cite web|url=https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/1d/57/b2/6ecd62b1a50e3b/US250127.pdf|title=US Patent № 250,127. Speaking telephone. Patented Nov. 29, 1881.}}{{Cite web|url=https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/ad/81/4d/0a4a53a746a897/US250128.pdf|title=US Patent № 250,128. Speaking telephone. Patented Nov. 29, 1881.}} it shortly after Thomas Edison invented a similar microphone that also used carbon contacts. Blake used a carbon button design that initially would not stay in adjustment, but with later improvements proved to be workable. Alexander Graham Bell hired Blake and put him to work with Emile Berliner who also invented a carbon microphone. The improved Berliner-Blake microphone was standard with the Bell company for many years.Coe, pages 22, 33, 76 Blake also improved the construction of the microtome,{{Cite book|author=Hall, Elton Wayland|title=Francis Blake : An inventor's life : 1850-1913|year=2003|publisher=Massachusetts Historical Society|page=170|isbn=0-934909-84-9}}{{Cite web|language=|url=https://telhistory.ru/telephone_history/inostrannye-izobretateli/francis-blake-jr/|title=Фрэнсис Блэйк Младший|author=Иванов Александр|website=telhistory.ru|date=|publisher=Музей истории телефона}} and photographic shutter.{{Cite book|author=Hall, Elton Wayland|title=Francis Blake : An inventor's life : 1850-1913|year=2003|publisher=Massachusetts Historical Society|page=156|isbn=0-934909-84-9}}
Blake worked on the United States Coast Survey from his teenage years through early adulthood (1866-1878). He was a physicist and an amateur photographer.
In 1874, Blake married Elizabeth Livermore Hubbard (1849-1941) whose father provided land in Weston, on which Blake designed and built an elaborate house where he conducted his electrical experiments. They had two children: Agnes (Blake) Fitzgerald (b. 1876) and Benjamin Sewall Blake (b. 1877).
Blake was elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society in 1900.[http://www.americanantiquarian.org/memberlistb American Antiquarian Society Members Directory]
He died at his home in Boston on January 20, 1913.{{Cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/48235902/francis-blake-is-dead/ |title=Francis Blake is Dead |newspaper=The Marshfield News |location=Boston |page=2 |date=1913-01-30 |access-date=2020-04-08 |via=Newspapers.com}}
Patents
- Canadian patent 10021 for telephone transmitter, granted May 28, 1879, voided March 3, 1887 because of failure to manufacture telephone parts in Canada.
- US patent granted in 1881
References
{{reflist}}
- Lewis Coe, The Telephone and its Several Inventors, McFarland Publishers, 1995.
- Elton W. Hall, Francis Blake: An Inventor's Life, Massachusetts Historical Society, 2004
External links
- [http://www.telephonecollecting.org/Bobs%20phones/Pages/Essays/BlakeTransmitter/Blake%20Page%201.htm Blake Transmitters]
- [http://ellsworthme.org/ringring/poleline.html Telephone Museum newsletter The Pole Line, May 2004 issue] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090530125629/http://ellsworthme.org/ringring/poleline.html |date=May 30, 2009 }}
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20080515072006/http://www.techantiques.com/blake_home_page.htm Blake website]
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Category:Engineers from Massachusetts
Category:19th-century American inventors