Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 01.djvu/342

 BLAKE.

BLAKE.

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Beloit college, as i)rofessor of rhetoric and Eng- ILslx literature, from which jxysition lie was trans- ferred in lt<65 to the chair of mental and moral philosophy. Professor Blaisdell was identified from early life with .•^'^(7>^^^ the work of public

■r '?' » instruction in th«

common .schools. He ^ was superintendent

V^' ofscliools in Lebanon,

't^ N. H., from 1847 to
 * ^ 1S49. and in Beloit,

Wis., from 1864 to 1869. He was a dili- fV'^' ' ?»?nt and thoughtful /',;:~^-^ student of social ques- tions, and made fre- quent addresses on methods of penal ad- ministrat ion and kindred subjects. In the civil war he was chaplain of the 40th regiment of Wi.sconsin volunteers, a regiment largely made up from volunteer teachers and students from Wisconsin colleges. He took an active part in temperance reform, and was an earnest advocate of proliibition. He received the degree of D.D. from Dartmouth college in 1873. and from Knox college in the same year. He was pre.sident of the Wisconsin home missionary society, president of the Wisconsin children's home society, and chairman of the committee on reformatories and penitentiaries. He died at Ken- osha. Wis.. Oct. 9. 1^96.

BLAKE, Clarence John, physician, was born in Boston. Mass., Feb. 23, ls43. He was educated in the public schools of that city, and studied medicine at the Harvard medical school, where he was graduated in 186.5. He spent the follow- ing four years in study abroad, and in 1867 received the Vienna degree of obstetricce magis- irum. Upon his return to America he resumed his residence in Boston, and in 1869 entered upon the active practice of medicine. He became con- nected with nearly all the medical societies of Ma.s.sachu.setts, and in 1876 was elected president of the American otological society. He was ap- pointed profes-s^jr of otology in Harvard medical school, aural surgeon of the Massachu.setts char- itable eye and ear infirmary; president of the Me<lic-al improvement s<x-iety, and of the Boston society for the advancement of physical educa- tion. In 1876 Dr. Blake was elected Fellow of the American as-sociation for the advancement of science. In 1874. Profes.sor Bell consulted him in regard to the use of an imitation of the human ear a.s a phonautograph for u.se in the " electrical transmission of articulate speech," and Dr. Blake

suggested the u.se of the human membrana tym- pani instead of an artificial ear, liis suggestion being followed by Professor Bell in a series of exp)eriments which led to the invention of the telephone. He wrote many valuable pai>ers for the medical journals upon his specialty of the treatment of the ear. During the years 1879 to 1882 he conducted the editorial depart- ment of the American Journal of Otology. In 1881 he was elected a Fellow of the American academy of arts and sciences.

BLAKE, Eli Whitney, educator, was born in New Haven. Conn., April 20, 1836. He was grad- uated at Yale in 1857, after which he attended for a year the Sheffield scientific school, and passed several years in Europe, studying chemistry and physics in the universities of Heidelburg, Mar- burg, and Berlin. Returning to America he was made professor of chemistry and physics in the University of Vermont and State agricultural college in 1866-'67. From 1868 to 1870 he was pro- fessor of physics and mechanic arts at Cornell university, and during a portion of the same time was acting professor of physics at Columbia col- lege. From 1870 to 1895 he filled the chair of physics at Brown university. He was a Fellow of the American association for the advancement of science, and a member of other scientific bodies. He died Oct. 2, 1895.

BLAKE, Francis, inventor, was born at Need ham, Mass., Dec. 25, 1850. He received a pub lie school education, and at the age of sixteen became connected with the government coast survey. Here he acquired scientific knowledge and experience that was of great future service. He made a hydrogra])liic survey of the Susque- hanna river in Maryland, and a like .survey of por- tions of the coasts of Florida and Cuba. In 1868 he assisted in the determination of the transcon- tinental longitude between San Francisco and the observatory of Harvard college. They employed a metallic circuit of seven thousand miles with thirteen repeaters, and the experiment resulted in a signal being sent from Harvard observatory to San Francisco and back again in eight-tenths of a second. Many other interesting and impor- tant experiments were made, both in Europe and in all parts of America. In accepting his resignation from the coast survey, April 9, 1878, Supt. C. P. Patterson said: " So loath am I to sever entirely your oflScial connection with the survey, that I must recjuest you to allow me to retain your name upon the list of the survey as an ' extra observer,' under which title Prof. B. Peirce. Profes-sor Lov- ering. Dr. Gould. Professor Winlock and others, have had their names classed for many years." A few weeks after, Mr. Blake began experiments on a transmitter for the telephone, and in Novem- ber, 1878, the Blake transmitter was first used by