Francis Blake: An Inventor's Life, 1850-1913
219
Francis Blake: An Inventor's Life, 1850-1913
219Hardcover(First Edition)
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Overview
The Blake telephone transmitter became the world standard, and anyone who spoke into Alexander Graham Bell's device in the last twenty years of the nineteenth century also encountered Blake s name, emblazoned on his transmitter. In addition, he invested an enormous amount of his energy, talent, and wealth in his home, originally designed by Charles Follen McKim, and its elaborate grounds. This self-contained compound, which included homes for his in-laws and his children and a complete water system, reflected Blake's passion for precision, beauty, and order. It became his major preoccupation, a place where he could exercise unchallenged mastery.Unfortunately, the fabulous Keewaydin estate did not endure, but thankfully Blake's photographic images remain. Blake's experimental camera work placed him in the forefront of the photographic world in the 1880s. His high-speed photographs remain unsurpassed for their clarity, crispness, and composition, and are as fresh today as when he first snapped them over a hundred years ago. Although little-known today, Blake helped revolutionize photography and transformed the role of the photograph in American society, marking him as a significant figure at the dawn of the twentieth century. His story is a compelling and fascinating chronicle of unbounded energy, independence, and genius.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780934909846 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Distribution |
| Publication date: | 03/16/2005 |
| Series: | Historical Society |
| Edition description: | First Edition |
| Pages: | 219 |
| Product dimensions: | 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.25(d) |
| Age Range: | 18 Years |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
FRANCIS BLAKE
An Inventor's Life 1850-1913By Elton W. Hall
Massachusetts Historical Society
Copyright © 2003 Massachusetts Historical SocietyAll right reserved.
ISBN: 0934909849
Chapter One
Strong character and a spirit of adventure ran in Blake blood. Francis Blake's paternal and maternal ancestors, hardy New Englanders whom he eagerly read and wrote about as a young man, offered him models of character and ambition. William and Agnes Blake, founding English members of the Blake clan, left Pitminster, Somerset County, England, for Dorchester, Massachusetts, about 1635. They joined Dorchester's First Church, founded in 1636, and William quickly became a freeman and member of the exclusive Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company. He also served the town as selectman, constable, and clerk. Blake's father, Francis Blake, the ninth child of prominent Worcester lawyer Francis Blake and his wife Eliza Chandler Blake, was born on July 7, 1812. Originally, Francis was christened with a different name, after other family patriarchs. But the death of a sibling, distressingly common in New England families then, led his parents to change his name to Francis. Little else is known about Blake's father until his name appeared in Boston city directories in 1841 as a businessman.
Blake also descended from the Trumbull family (spelled Trumble until the late eighteenth century), who first settled in Ipswich, Massachusetts, in 1645. During the 1680s, the Trumbulls made their way to Connecticut, primarily Suffolk and Lebanon, and Blake counted the state's Revolutionary War governor Jonathan Trumbull (1710-1785) and the patriot-artist John Trumbull (1756-1843) among his collateral ancestors. Dr. Joseph Trumbull (1756-1824), second cousin to the artist, was born in Suffield and practiced medicine in Petersham, Massachusetts, before removing to Worcester in about 1803. In 1786, he married Elizabeth Paine, daughter of Timothy and Sarah Chandler Paine, and settled into a house that for half a century before had served as Worcester's courthouse and had been moved to an area still known today as Trumbull Square.
George Augustus Trumbull, Joseph and Elizabeth's only son, was born in Petersham on January 23, 1792, attended Phillips Exeter Academy, and ventured into the book selling business. In 1819, he took over publication of the Massachusetts Spy following the death of the newspaper's legendary owner, Isaiah Thomas. By 1829, he had given up the newspaper and toiled as a bank cashier until his retirement in 1858. During this period he suffered financial reversals that crippled his fortunes but not his spirit. His wife, Louisa Clapp, was the daughter of Capt. Caleb Clapp, who had fought at Lexington during the Revolution and had become an original member of the Society of the Cincinnati. Their third child, Caroline Burling Trumbull, born on June 24, 1820, married Frank's father on June 14, 1842. Francis Blake, Sr., quickly benefited from his connection to the Trumbulls. As early as 1841, he had become the partner of his future brother-in-law, George Clapp Trumbull, a Boston dealer in wines and teas. The Blakes shared a home with Trumbull at 32 Oxford Street until April 1845, when Blake purchased the property for the considerable sum of $6,400. Under puzzling circumstances, Trumbull then dissolved his partnership with Blake and joined the commission merchant house of C. S. Brown & Co. Blake apparently abandoned the business two years later and moved to Newton Lower Falls on the Charles River.
Dissatisfied-or unsuccessful-living the life of a merchant, Blake applied for a position as a purser in the United States Navy. To secure an appointment from the secretary of the Navy, he solicited letters of endorsement from the great jurist Rufus Choate, former governor Levi Lincoln, Jr., a Trumbull relative, and the merchant-prince Abbott Lawrence, but nothing came of the effort. In August 1850, Blake sold his house on Oxford Street and temporarily abandoned the city and his mercantile pursuits to raise his family and become a "yeoman" of Needham. The first two of his children died in infancy, but Louisa Trumbull Blake was born in 1846, followed by Charles Henry Mills Blake two years later. The fifth and final child, Francis Blake, Jr., was born on Christmas Day 1850, at the family's home in rural Newton Lower Falls.
Francis Blake, Sr., renewed his efforts to locate work in Boston, having done poorly at farming, and joined the partnership of Whiting, Blake & Hindro, dealers in shoes and leather. About 1854, the B1akes moved to familiar family terrain in Worcester, where they remained for the next few years. The elder Francis Blake and his son, Charles, traveled to Richmond, Virginia, in an attempt to enter the tobacco business, but after eight months returned home largely empty-handed. Still casting about for a livelihood, Blake removed his family to New York City in May 1858, where he sought to continue his struggling tobacco business. Reflecting Blake's fortunes as a businessman, the family frequently moved around the city, even occupying a boarding house for a time.
In 1861, about two weeks after the Confederate attack on Fort Sumter, the Blakes abandoned New York, traveled by steamer to Norwich, Connecticut, and then proceeded by train back to Worcester. "I staid at my Aunt Elizabeth Lincoln's until August," the young Francis Blake recalled, "going to School at the Sycamore St. School House." William Lincoln, son and grandson of the two governors, had married one of the Trumbull daughters and lived on a farm on May Street about a mile from the school. Frankie, as the Blakes called their youngest child, appeared unaffected by his family's financial uncertainties and enjoyed visiting his grandparents and numerous Trumbull relatives in Worcester. He became a fast friend of his cousin Winslow Lincoln and remained close to him for many years. The elder Francis Blake's activities from May to August 1861 are not recorded, but likely he searched for a new position to support his family.
The Blakes achieved some financial stability in August 1861, when Francis's father won an appointment as a bond clerk at the Boston Custom House. But this meant again uprooting the family and returning to Boston. For the first winter they boarded in the house of an elderly widow named Mrs. Lemuel Pope who lived on Appleton Place-now Pilgrim Road-in the Longwood section of Roxbury. All traces of that neighborhood long since have been eradicated, replaced by Simmons and Wheelock colleges.
In March 1862, the Blakes secured a more permanent residence when they moved into a brick house on Plymouth Street owned by the wealthy merchant and developer David Sears. Sears had acquired an extensive tract of land during the 1850s, principally in Brookline, with the intention of developing a peaceful neighborhood in which sober and intelligent people could live quietly. In an early example of a planned community, Sears built a church overlooking the Muddy River, laid out streets, and sold land to those most likely to realize the secure and respectable neighborhood he envisioned. Sears also built within the community blocks of brick rental houses, homes meant for families of good quality but limited means. The Blakes lived on the west side of Plymouth Street in a house with a back yard that extended down to Muddy River, giving the Blake boys plenty of room to play. In those pre-Olmstead days, the river was a dirty stream that snaked through a marsh in which the celebrated Longwood mosquito bred profusely. On the far bank ran the Brookline branch of the Boston & Worcester Railroad, its Chapel Station providing convenient transportation into Boston. The Longwood Post Office, situated in the railroad station, served as the Blakes' mailing address.
Details concerning Frankie's school days are scarce. However, an astonishing note that appeared in an August 1862 issue of the Worcester Spy survives:
Nearly a Fatal Accident. As Frank Blake, son of Francis Blake, Esq. of Boston, now on a visit to the family of Col. William S. Lincoln, of this city, was playing with a gun a few days since, he accidentally shot the domestic. The gun had been discharged at a hawk and subsequently reloaded. Not aware of the latter fact, Blake pointed the gun at the girl exclaiming, "Now I'll shoot you." The full charge took effect in the neck and shoulders, inflicting a bad but not a fatal wound.
It was an extraordinarily careless act, even for a youth of eleven. Whatever disciplinary action the family took, the Lincolns forgave Frankie and continued to welcome him into their home. Blake, unfortunately, left no record of his remorse or any other reaction to the accidental shooting. We know that he continued to own firearms, but he became meticulously careful and mindful of the consequences of his actions. Perhaps the unfortunate incident proved a valuable lesson that stayed with Blake for the rest of his life.
From 1861 through the spring of 1866, Frank attended school in Brookline. The Pierce Grammar School, located between School and Washington streets, was a sixteen-minute walk from the Blake house. On a fine day the commute was surely pleasant, although in winter the trip home into the teeth of a northeast storm must have been a struggle. Of the many subjects taught at Pierce, map drawing was one that would later prove very helpful to Blake. Frankie entered high school in 1864, three months before his fourteenth birthday, and about five months younger than the average entering student. Brookline High School, built in 1857, stood at the corner of School and Prospect streets. Frank held the school principal, John Emory Horr (Harvard A.M., 1852), in high esteem and remained in touch with him even after he left the school. In those days the school year began on the first Monday in September and was divided into four terms. Teachers conducted classes between eight A.M. and one P.M. from April to September, and then between two P.M. and nine P.M. from October to March. The curriculum included algebra and geometry, French, Latin, natural philosophy and history, rhetoric and composition, music, and drawing. Unfortunately, the academic records of nineteenth-century Brookline students have not survived, but if Frank's performance in later life is any indication, he most likely pursued his studies conscientiously and with unusual skill.
With money chronically short, the Blakes expected their male children to begin adult lives early. Frank's older brother Charles had already left home with an appointment to the Naval Academy. Charles had obtained his good fortune through the influence of an uncle, Commodore George Smith Blake, who had been superintendent of the Naval Academy during the Civil War. In an effort to help balance the family budget, Uncle George and Aunt Mary Blake had moved into the Plymouth Street home of Frank's father in May 1866. "We are now members of Frank's household upon terms which seem favorable & satisfactory all round & here we remain for the present." George and Mary Blake viewed their stay as strictly temporary while they hunted for a house of their own. For the present, however, the arrangement proved mutually beneficial.
The resourceful and respected commodore proved a godsend to Frank, Sr., and his family. Just when Blake family finances reached some stability, another threat loomed. As the Custom House appraiser, Blake's father discovered that maintaining his integrity and retaining his job could prove contradictory goals. On May 3, 1866, George Blake recorded in his diary that his brother Frank, Sr., had been resisting the attempts of several Boston merchants, led by one Philo Shelton, to defraud the government. These men also sought to remove Blake from his position, as he was an obvious impediment to their schemes. The commodore wrote an assistant secretary of the Navy to warn of the trouble, which fortunately proved sufficient to end the threat.
As lighthouse inspector for the district of Massachusetts and a former high-ranking naval officer, Uncle George could find other ways to assist his struggling brother and his family. Beginning in 1835, as a Navy lieutenant, George Blake had commanded the schooner Experiment during long-term duty with the Coast Survey and served there for eleven years, until the outbreak of the Mexican War. He knew his way around, and had won the friendship and respect of his fellow officers. He generously used his influence to secure a position there for Frank, Jr. His contact at the Survey, Julius E. Hilgard, "very kindly" offered Frankie "50 dollars per month in the drawing division at the office in Washington." Without the commodore's intervention, obtaining such a position would have remained far out of Blake's reach.
Hilgard explained in a letter to George Blake that the appointment of a young man in an entry-level position, even at very low pay, implied the prospect of an eventual promotion. But the ranks were full at this time, and unless congressional appropriations considerably increased, there would be no such opportunity for Blake. Nevertheless, Hilgard made the offer with the suggestion that it would be for a year and would provide young Frank the chance to gain some professional experience. "He would be at first employed in tracing maps, and would have a opportunity of developing a good style and acquiring a knowledge of topography. I do not of course mean that his engagement must necessarily terminate by that time, but that is as far as I can now make any promise." Uncle George also made arrangements for Frankie to have a room with the family of Professor Joseph E. Nourse, formerly of the Naval Academy and, at the time, librarian of the Naval Observatory. The Nourses agreed to "take Frankie into their family upon very reasonable terms. This provides for the boy, very comfortably, in every respect."
Although Frankie attended Brookline High School for only about two years, he had in this brief time gained the respect and admiration of John Horr, his principal and teacher. In a general letter of recommendation he gave to Frank, Horr wrote that as "a young man and as a scholar" Blake had "acquitted himself honorably to a very high degree. For one of his age he has attained even to excellence in some departments. He is animated by a generous ambition and a high sense of honor.... I foresee for him a successful future, and I have the fullest assurance in commending him to the confidence of any one with whom he may come into business or social relations." Frankie recorded in a diary that he had just begun to keep, that May 25, 1866, was his last day of high school. Clearly, though, his education had just begun.
Chapter Two
On Sunday, May 27, 1866, Frank Blake began his long trek to the nation's capital. His commodore uncle recorded in his diary that it was a "dull day. Light rain & quite mild. Just the weather for vegetation. Frankie left us today for Worcester, & will continue on to Washington tomorrow.
Continues...
Excerpted from FRANCIS BLAKE by Elton W. Hall Copyright © 2003 by Massachusetts Historical Society. Excerpted by permission.
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