Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 01.djvu/344

 BLAKE.

BLAKE.

ethifutioii. aiul under the instnu-tiou of tutors took the regular Vale ct>lh>go course lit liome. lu 1855 she was married to Frank ii. i^. Umstead, a young Pliiladelpliia lawyer, who died in 1859, leaving her with two young children. Prior to this time she wrote a story, " A Lonely House." which ap- I)eareil in the Atlantic Monthly, and she published "Southwold," a novel, which met with success. She now became dependent on her pen for sup- jmrt. having lost the fortune which she had in- herited!. Her second novel, "Rockford" (1862), was followed by a number of romances. In 1866 she was married to Grenfill Blake, a New York merchant. Her interest in woman's enfranchise- ment was thoroughly enlisted in 1869, and after that time she devoted a large share of her time, energy, and talents to the cause,— arranging con- ventions, holding public meetings, addressing legislative bothes and congressional committees, making lecture tours, and writing articles. In 1878 she addressed a formal appeal to the trustees of Columbia college for the admission of women to the college courses on a footing with men, and she presented at the doors of the institution a class of girl students, qualified to pass the regular entrance examination. Though the class was not admitted. Barnard college, opened some years later, was the direct result of the agitation thus begun. Mrs. Blake was a member of the dele- gation, which, on July 4, 1876, made public proclamation at Philadelphia, of the "Woman's Declaration of Rights." She held the office of president of the New York state woman's suffrage association from 1879 to 1884. Among the many successful beneficent measures championed by her were: securing matrons to take charge of women detained in police stations; the employ- ment of women as census takers; providing seats for saleswomen, and compelling the employment of woman physicians in every insane asylum ad- mitting women patients. She founded the " SfK-iety for jKilitical study," and originated the '■ Pilgrim mothers' dinner." In 1886 Mrs. Blake was elected president of the New York city woman .suffrage league. She published: "The Hypocrite: Sketches of American Society " (1874); "Fettered for Life" (1874); "Woman's Place To-day. "and "A Daring E.xperimeut" (1892). In 1^*06 slie was again wirlowed.

BLAKE, Lucien Ira, educator, was born at Mansfield, Mass., Sept. 12, 1856. He was gradu- ate<l at Amherst college in 1877, received the de- gree f)f Ph.D. at the University of Berlin in 1883, and during his second yeiir at the university, the first award of the John Tyndall fellowsliip. Soon after his return to America, he was appointed assistant in mathematics in the Adelphi academy, Brrxiklyn, N. Y., and was afterwards made full professor of physics and electrical engineering at

the Rose Polytechnic, Terre Haute, Ind. In 1887 he resigned to accept the professorsliip of pliysics and electrical engineering at the State university of Kansas. In 1892-'93 he delivered courses of lec- tures upon electricity and its modern applications before university extension classes in Kansas city, Mo.; Topeka, Kan.; and Wichita, Kan. In 1894 he was appointed constructing electrical engineer of the U. S. light-house board, and invented a system of telephonic communication without wires for light-ships, which was apjjlied under his personal direction to the Scotland light-ship off Sandy Hook, N. Y., and operated by the light- house department. His publications include: "Uber die electrische Neutralitat des von ruhigen electrisirten Flu-ssigkeitsflsechen aufsteigenden Dampfes," " Wiedermann's Annalen der Physik und Chemie " (Band 19) 1883, and, in American scientific journals, articles on the " Production of Electricity by Evaporation," "The Evaporative Power of Kansas Coals," the "Method of Tele- graphic Communication Between Ships," "The Theory of the Artificial Production of Rain " in 1891, and "The Effect of the Electrical Current Upon Friction Between Metallic Surfaces."

BLAKE, Mortimer, clergyman, was born in Pittston, Me., June 10, 1813; son of Ira Blake, a native of Wrentham, and descendant of John Blake of Sandwich, who removed to Wrentham with the returning settlers after its destruction in King Philip's war. He was graduated at Amherst college in 1835. For three j-ears he was principal of Hopkins academy, Hadley, Mass., and for sixteen years was pastor of the First Con- gregational church, Mansfield, Mass., in 1868 receiving the degree of D.D. from Amherst col- lege. For twenty nine years he was pastor of the Winslow Congregational churcli, Taunton, Mass. He was a member of the Massachusetts historical society, and president of the Old Colony historical society. He was a member of the school board, a trustee of Bristol academy, Taun- ton, and president of the board of trustees of Wheaton female seminary, Norton, Mass. He was an officer of the Home missionary society, and secretary of the Congregational publishing society, Boston, Mass. He pub- lished " Gethsemane and Calvary " ( 1844 ); " Address at the Erection of the Emmons Monu- ment at Franklin, Mass. " (1846); "Import of the Covenant" (1846); "The Maine Preventive" (1852); " History of the Mendon As.sociation " (1853); "History of Franklin" (1880), besides several pamphlets, sermons and magazine arti- cles. In 1837 he was married to Harriet Louisa Daniels; two sons were born to tliem, — Percy Mortimer, a .sanitary engineer of Boston, and Lucien Ira, profes.sor of physics of Kan.sas state university. He died Dec. 22, 1884.