105-807: The Volta Laboratory (also known as the Alexander Graham Bell Laboratory , the Bell Carriage House and the Bell Laboratory ) and the Volta Bureau were created in Georgetown, Washington, D.C. , by Alexander Graham Bell . The Volta Laboratory was founded in 1880–1881 with Charles Sumner Tainter and Bell's cousin, Chichester Bell , for the research and development of telecommunication , phonograph and other technologies. Using funds generated by
210-409: A Graphophone and my mother was a Phonograph." Believing the faint voice to be that of her father, Bell's daughter Mrs. Gilbert Grosvenor remarked: "That is just the sort of thing father would have said. He was always quoting from the classics." The voice was later identified by Tainter as in fact that of her paternal grandfather, Alexander Melville Bell . The historic recording, not heard since 1937,
315-399: A U.S. National Historic Landmark , was constructed in 1893 under the direction of Alexander Graham Bell to serve as a center of information for deaf and hard of hearing persons. Bell, best known for receiving the first telephone patent in 1876, was also a prominent figure of his generation in the education of the deaf . His grandfather, father, and elder brother were teachers of speech and
420-469: A cemetery, large clusters of flowers, groves of trees, and open quadrangles. The main campus has traditionally centered on Dahlgren Quadrangle, although Red Square has replaced it as the focus of student life. Healy Hall , built in Flemish Romanesque style from 1877 to 1879, is the architectural gem of Georgetown's campus, and is a National Historic Landmark . The 1973 film The Exorcist
525-495: A dinner at Forrest's home in Georgetown on March 28, 1791. Stoddert bought land within the boundaries of the federal district, some of it at the request of Washington for the government, and some on speculation. He also purchased stock in the federal government under Hamilton's assumption-of-debt plan. The speculative purchases were not, however, profitable and caused Stoddert much difficulty before his appointment as Secretary of
630-632: A license under the Bell and Tainter patent and made his records under that patent as the result of that license. Among the later improvements, the Graphophone used a cutting stylus to create lateral 'zig-zag' grooves of uniform depth into the wax-coated cardboard cylinders rather than the up-and-down hill and dale grooves of Edison's then-contemporary phonograph machine designs. Bell and Tainter developed wax-coated cardboard cylinders for their record cylinders instead of Edison's cast iron cylinder which
735-475: A lifelong admiration of Bell, was too ill to attend and remained at home in San Diego . A recording had been engraved into the wax-filled groove of the modified Edison machine. When it was played, a voice from the distant past spoke, reciting a quotation from Shakespeare's Hamlet : "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio , than are dreamed of in your philosophy ..." and also, whimsically: "I am
840-683: A number of complete machines, at the Smithsonian Institution . Their first experimental machine was sealed in a box and deposited in the Smithsonian's archives in 1881 in case of a later patent dispute. The others were delivered by Alexander Graham Bell to the National Museum in two lots in 1915 and 1922. Bell was elderly by that time, busy with his hydrofoil and aeronautical experiments in Nova Scotia . In 1947
945-551: A patent at that time, however, they sealed the machine into a metal box and deposited it at the Smithsonian, specifying that it was not to be opened without the consent of two of the three men. By 1937 Tainter was the only one of the Associates still living, and the box preserved at the Smithsonian was opened with his permission. For the occasion, descendants of Alexander Graham Bell gathered in Washington, but Tainter, who held
1050-700: A power generating plant for the old Capital Traction streetcar system, located at the foot of Wisconsin Avenue, which closed in 1935, and was demolished in October 1968. In 1949, the city constructed the Whitehurst Freeway , an elevated highway above K Street, to allow motorists entering the District over the Key Bridge to bypass Georgetown entirely on their way downtown. In 1950, Public Law 808
1155-456: A pressure of about 100 lbs. [69 newtons/scm] was indicated by the gage. The phonograph cylinder was then rotated, and the sounds produced by the escaping air could be heard, and the words understood a distance of at least 8 feet from the phonograph." The point of the jet [nozzle] is glass, and [the air jet] could be directed at a single [record] groove. The associates also experimented with other stylus jets of molten metal, wax, and water. Most of
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#17327805791921260-399: A sharp recording stylus. At each step of their inventive process the Associates also sought out the best type of materials available in order to produce the clearest and most audible sound reproduction. The strength of the Bell and Tainter patent was noted in an excerpt from a letter written by Washington patent attorney S. T. Cameron, who was a member of the law firm conducting litigation for
1365-703: A shop for the production of scientific instruments in Cambridgeport, Massachusetts . He later wrote of his first meeting with Bell: "... one day I received a visit from a very distinguished looking gentleman with jet black hair and beard, who announced himself as Mr. A. Graham Bell. His charm of manner and conversation attracted me greatly. ... ". Shortly after the creation of the Bell Telephone Company , Bell took his bride, Mabel Hubbard , to Europe for an extended honeymoon. At that time he asked Tainter to move from Cambridge to Washington to start up
1470-479: A spiral line around the cylinder as it turned. The cylinder is to be covered with a sheet of paper upon which the record is made. ... This ink ... can be rendered magnetic by means of a permanent magnet. The sounds were to be reproduced by simply substituting a magnet for the fountain pen. ... The result of these ideas for magnetic reproduction resulted in patent U.S. patent 341,287 , granted on May 4, 1886; which dealt solely with "the reproduction, through
1575-489: A spiral, recording 150 grooves to the inch. The preserved Bell and Tainter records are of both the lateral cut and the Edison hill-and-dale (up-and-down) styles. Edison for many years used the "hill-and-dale" method with both cylinder and disc records, and Emile Berliner is credited with the invention of the lateral cut Gramophone record in 1887. The Volta associates had been experimenting with both types as early as 1881, as
1680-521: A vacant house [at 1325] 'L' Street, between 13th and 14th Streets, and fitted it up for our purpose ... The Smithsonian Institution sent us over a mail sack of scientific books from the library of the Institution, to consult, and primed with all we could learn ... we went to work ... We were like the explorers in an entirely unknown land, where one has to select the path that seems to be most likely to get you to your destination, with no knowledge of what
1785-609: Is ahead. In conducting our work we had first to design an experimental apparatus, then hunt about, often in Philadelphia and New York , for the materials with which to construct it, which were usually hard to find, and finally build the models we needed, ourselves. Bell appeared to have spent little time in the Volta Laboratory. Tainter's unpublished manuscript and notes (later donated to the Smithsonian Institution 's National Museum of American History ) depict Bell as
1890-414: Is also called the 'AG Bell'. From about 1879 Bell's earliest physics research in Washington, D.C., was conducted at his first laboratory , a rented house, at 1325 L Street NW, and then from the autumn of 1880 at 1221 Connecticut Avenue NW. The laboratory was later relocated to 2020 F Street NW sometime after January 1886. With most of the laboratory's project work being conducted by his two associates, Bell
1995-760: Is located to the south on K Street between 30th and 31st Streets. Georgetown is home to the main campus of Georgetown University and other landmarks, including the Old Stone House (1765), the oldest still standing building structure in Washington, D.C., the Volta Bureau for deaf education, the Dumbarton Oaks estate, and a historically significant stretch of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal . The embassies of Cameroon , France , Iceland , Liechtenstein , Mongolia , Sweden , Thailand , Ukraine , and Venezuela are located in Georgetown. Located on
2100-570: Is on the alignment of the tobacco hogshead rolling road from rural Maryland , and the Federal Customs House was located on 31st Street (now utilized as the post office). The city's oldest bridge, the sandstone bridge which carries Wisconsin Avenue over the C&;O Canal, and which dates to 1831, was reopened to traffic on May 16, 2007, after a $ 3.5 million restoration. It is the only remaining bridge of five constructed in Georgetown by
2205-403: Is shown by the following quotation from Tainter: The record on the electro-type in the Smithsonian package is of the other form, where the vibrations are impressed parallel to the surface of the recording material, as was done in the old Scott Phonautograph of 1857, thus forming a groove of uniform depth, but of wavy character, in which the sides of the groove act upon the tracing point instead of
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#17327805791922310-466: Is unique in the Georgetown area of Washington, due to its Academic Revival style. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1972. While the Volta Bureau's assigned mission was to conduct research into deafness as well as its related pedagogical strategies , Bell would continue with his other scientific, engineering and inventive works for the remainder of his life, conducted mainly at
2415-478: The AAPTSD , one of several organizations for the deaf that Bell ultimately donated some $ 450,000 (approximately $ 15,000,000 in current dollars) to starting in the 1880s. The building, a neoclassical Corinthian templum in antis structure of closely matching golden yellow sandstone and Roman brick with architectural terracotta details, was built in 1893 to a design by Peabody and Stearns of Boston. Its design
2520-670: The Atlantic Seaboard Fall Line , Georgetown was at the head of navigation on the Potomac River , the farthest point upstream that boats coming from the Atlantic Ocean could navigate. In 1632, English fur trader Henry Fleet documented an American Indian village of the Nacotchtank people called Tohoga on the site of present-day Georgetown and established trade there. The area was then part of
2625-468: The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad completed an 11-mile branch line from Silver Spring, Maryland , to Water Street in Georgetown in an abortive attempt to construct a southern connection to Alexandria, Virginia . The line served as an industrial line, shipping coal to a General Services Administration power plant on K Street (now razed) until 1985. The abandoned right-of-way has since been converted into
2730-631: The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad , formally ceased operations in March 1924. After severe flooding in 1936, Baltimore and Ohio Railroad sold the canal to the National Park Service in October 1938. The waterfront area retained its industrial character in the first half of the 20th century. Georgetown was home to a lumber yard, a cement works, the Washington Flour mill, and a meat rendering plant, with incinerator smokestacks and
2835-590: The Buffalo Bridge on present-day Q Street opened and connected this part of Georgetown with the rest of the city east of Rock Creek Park . New construction of large apartment buildings began on the edge of Georgetown. In the early 1920s, John Ihlder led efforts to take advantage of new zoning laws to get restrictions enacted on construction in Georgetown. In 1933, a study by Horace Peaslee and Allied Architects laid out ideas for how Georgetown could be preserved. The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal , then owned by
2940-565: The Capital Crescent Trail , a rails-to-trails route, and the power plant replaced by a condo. There is no Metro station in Georgetown. Some residents opposed building one but no serious plans for a station existed in the first place, primarily due to the engineering issues presented by the extremely steep grade from the Potomac River (under which the subway tunnel would run) to the center of Georgetown, very close to
3045-512: The Civil War and World War I . As a result, many older homes were preserved relatively unchanged. In the late 18th century and 19th century, African Americans comprised a substantial portion of Georgetown's population, with a large number centered around Herring Hill in the far eastern section near Rock Creek Park . The 1800 census reported the population in Georgetown at 5,120, which included 1,449 slaves and 227 free blacks. A testament to
3150-708: The Farmers and Mechanics Bank , which was established in 1814. Other banks included the Bank of Washington, Patriotic Bank, Bank of the Metropolis, and the Union and Central Banks of Georgetown. Newspapers in Georgetown included the Republican Weekly Ledger , which was the first paper, started in 1790. The Sentinel was first published in 1796 by Green, English & Co. Charles C. Fulton began publishing
3255-798: The Francis Scott Key Bridge ) connected Georgetown with Virginia . Before the Aqueduct Bridge was built, a ferry service owned by John Mason connected Georgetown to Virginia. In 1788, a bridge was constructed over Rock Creek to connect Bridge Street ( M Street ) with the Federal City. Georgetown was located at the juncture of the Alexandria Canal and the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal . The C&O Canal, begun in Georgetown in 1829, reached Cumberland, Maryland in 1851, and operated until 1924. Wisconsin Avenue
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3360-542: The Georgetown Historic District . It received this designation in 1967 for its large concentration of well-preserved colonial and Federal period architecture. Georgetown is also home to several other historic landmarks, including: Famous former residents include: Current residents include: Several movies have been filmed in Georgetown, including: Citations Alexander Melville Bell Too Many Requests If you report this error to
3465-533: The Key Bridge in Arlington ), Foggy Bottom-GWU , and Dupont Circle . Georgetown is served by the 30-series, D-Series, and G2 Metrobuses , as well as the DC Circulator . Another potential option for transportation in Georgetown is scootering, with scooters provided by companies like Bird and Lime. The entire Georgetown neighborhood is a designated National Historic Landmark District , known as
3570-677: The Potomac Advocate , which was started by Thomas Turner. Other newspapers in Georgetown included the Georgetown Courier and the Federal Republican . William B. Magruder, the first postmaster, was appointed on February 16, 1790, and in 1795, a custom house was established on Water Street. General James M. Lingan served as the first collector of the port. In the 1790s, City Tavern, the Union Tavern, and
3675-518: The Province of Maryland , an English colony . In approximately 1745, George Gordon constructed a tobacco inspection house along the Potomac River on a site that was already a tobacco trading post when the inspection house was built. Warehouses, wharves, and other buildings were then constructed around the inspection house, and it quickly became a small community. Georgetown grew as thriving port, facilitating trade and shipments of goods to and from
3780-696: The Volta Prize of 50,000 francs (approximately US$ 330,000 in current dollars) for the invention of the telephone . Bell used the money to establish a trust fund, the Volta Fund, and founded the Volta Laboratory Association, along with his cousin Chichester A. Bell and Sumner Tainter . The laboratory focused on research for the analysis, recording, and transmission of sound. In 1887, the Volta Laboratory Association transferred
3885-519: The colonial-era Province of Maryland . In 1751, the legislature of the Province of Maryland authorized the purchase of 60 acres (240,000 m ) of land from Gordon and George Beall for £280. A survey of the town was completed in February 1752. Georgetown was founded during the reign of King George II , and some speculate that the town was named after him. A second theory is that the town
3990-566: The phonograph , during which they created the tradename for one of their products – the Graphophone (a playful transposition of phonograph )." Earlier Bell had met fellow Cambridge resident, Charles Sumner Tainter , a young self-educated instrument maker who had been assigned to the U.S. Transit of Venus Commission geodetic expedition to New Zealand to observe the planet's solar transit in December 1874. Tainter subsequently opened
4095-484: The stylus was properly adjusted, its reproduction of sound was distorted and squeaky, and good for only a few playbacks; nevertheless Edison had discovered the idea of sound recording . However, he did not work to improve its quality, likely because of an agreement to spend the next five years developing the New York City electric light and power system. Meanwhile, Bell, a scientist and experimenter at heart,
4200-510: The transmission of sound by light , which resulted in the selenium-celled Photophone . Both the Hubbards and the Bells decided to move to the nation's capital, in part due to the numerous legal challenges to Bell's master telephone patent of 1876. Washington was additionally becoming a center of scientific and institutional organizations, which also facilitated Bell's research work. By 1881
4305-470: The 1880s the Volta Associates worked on various projects, at times either individually or collectively. Originally, work at the laboratory was to focus on telephone applications, but then shifted to phonographic research at the prompting of Tainter. The laboratory's projects and achievements included (partial list): "... as well as several other important, and commercially decisive improvements to
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4410-636: The African-American history that remains today is the Mount Zion United Methodist Church , which is the oldest African-American congregation in Washington. Prior to establishing the church, free blacks and slaves went to the Dumbarton Methodist Church where they were restricted to a hot, overcrowded balcony. The church was originally located in a small brick meetinghouse on 27th Street, but it
4515-938: The American Association for the Promotion of the Teaching of Speech to the Deaf (the AAPTSD) which was organized in 1890, electing Bell as President. The Volta Bureau officially merged with the Association in 1908, and has been known as the Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf since 1956, and then as the Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing since 1999. Informally it
4620-483: The American Graphophone Company. The letter dated December 8, 1914, was addressed to George C. Maynard, Curator of Mechanical Technology at the U.S. National Museum (now the National Museum of Natural History): Subsequent to the issuance of the Bell and Tainter patent No. 341214, Edison announced that he would shortly produce his 'new phonograph' which, when it appeared, was in fact nothing but
4725-405: The Bell and Tainter record set forth in their patent 341214, being a record cut or engraved in wax or wax-like material, although Edison always insisted on calling this record an 'indented' record, doubtless because his original tin-foil record was an 'indented' record. Edison was compelled to acknowledge that his 'new phonograph' was an infringement of the Bell and Tainter patent 341214, and took out
4830-464: The Bureau increased to such an extent that in 1893 Bell, with the assistance of his father, constructed a neoclassical yellow brick and sandstone building specifically to house the institution. The new bureau building was constructed across the street from his father's home, where its carriage house had been its original headquarters. On May 8, 1893, Bell's 13-year-old prodigy, Helen Keller , performed
4935-822: The Chesapeake & Ohio Canal Company. Several streetcar lines and interurban railways interchanged passengers in Georgetown at and near the Georgetown Car Barn , which the Capital Traction Company operated near the end of the Aqueduct Bridge and later, the Key Bridge (see Streetcars in Washington, D.C. ). A station serving the Great Falls and Old Dominion Railroad and its successor, the Washington and Old Dominion Railway ,
5040-547: The Columbian Inn opened and were popular throughout the 19th century. Among these taverns, only the City Tavern remains today, serving as a private social club and known as City Tavern Club , located near the corner of Wisconsin Avenue and M Street . George Washington frequented Georgetown, including Suter's Tavern , where he negotiated many deals to acquire land for the new national capital. A key figure in
5145-534: The Edison patent for US$ 10,000 and dividends of 20% of the company's profits. But Hubbard's phonograph company was quickly threatened with financial disaster because people would not buy a machine that seldom worked and which was also difficult for the average person to operate. By 1879 Hubbard was able to interest Bell in improving upon the phonograph, and it was agreed that a laboratory should be created in Washington, D.C. Experiments were also to be conducted in telephone and other telecommunication technologies such as
5250-469: The Museum received the key to the locked box of experimental " Graphophones ", as they were called to differentiate them from Edison's 'phonograph'. In that year Mrs. Laura F. Tainter also donated to the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History ten bound notebooks, along with Tainter's unpublished autobiography. This material described in detail the strange creations and even stranger experiments at
5355-456: The Navy by John Adams , the nation's second president . Stoddert was rescued from his debts with the help of William Marbury , a Georgetown resident who later was a plaintiff in the landmark case Marbury v. Madison . Stoddert ultimately purchased Halcyon House at the corner of 34th and Prospect Streets. The Forrest-Marbury House on M Street is currently the embassy of Ukraine. In 1800,
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#17327805791925460-865: The Photophone's rights to the National Bell Telephone Company in May 1880. The master patent for the Photophone ( U.S. patent 235,199 Apparatus for Signalling and Communicating, called Photophone ), was issued in December 1880, many decades before its principles could be applied to practical applications. Bell and his two associates took Edison's tinfoil phonograph and modified it considerably to make it reproduce sound from wax instead of tinfoil. They began their work in Washington, D. C., in 1879, and continued until they were granted basic patents in 1886 for recording in wax. They preserved some 20 pieces of experimental apparatus, including
5565-469: The Potomac River; salt was imported from Europe, and sugar and molasses were imported from the West Indies . These shipping industries were later superseded by coal and flour industries, which flourished with the C & O Canal providing cheap power for mills and other industry. In 1862, the Washington and Georgetown Railroad Company began a horsecar line running along M Street in Georgetown and Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, easing travel between
5670-409: The Volta Associates had succeeded in improving an Edison tinfoil phonograph significantly. They filled the groove of its heavy iron cylinder with wax, then instead of wrapping a sheet of foil around it and using a blunt stylus to indent the recording into the foil, as Edison did, they used a chisel-like stylus to engrave the recording into the wax. The result was a clearer recording. Rather than apply for
5775-439: The Volta Laboratory, Bell later founded the Volta Bureau in 1887 "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge relating to the deaf ", and merged with the American Association for the Promotion and Teaching of Speech to the Deaf (AAPTSD) in 1908. It was renamed as the Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf in 1956 and then the Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing in 1999. The current building,
5880-407: The action of magnetism, of sounds by means of records in solid substances. " Georgetown, Washington, D.C. Georgetown is a historic neighborhood and commercial district in Northwest Washington, D.C. , situated along the Potomac River . Founded in 1751 as part of the colonial-era Province of Maryland , Georgetown predated the establishment of Washington, D.C. by 40 years. Georgetown
5985-402: The bottom, as is the case in the vertical type. This form we named the zig-zag form, and referred to it in that way in our notes. Its important advantage in guiding the reproducing needle I first called attention to in the note on p. 9-Vol 1-Home Notes on March 29-1881, and endeavored to use it in my early work, but encountered so much difficulty in getting a form of reproducer that would work with
6090-429: The deaf and as a professor of vocal physiology and the mechanics of speech at Boston University . During this time he also invented an improved phonautograph , the multiple telegraph , the speaking telegraph, or telephone , and numerous other devices. In 1879, Bell and his wife Mabel Hubbard , who had been deaf from early childhood, moved to Washington, D.C. The following year, the French government awarded Bell
6195-423: The disc machines designed at the Volta Lab had their disc mounted on vertical turntables. The explanation is that in the early experiments, the turntable with the disc was mounted on the shop lathe, along with the recording and reproducing heads. Later, when the complete models were built most of them featured vertical turntables. One interesting exception was a horizontal seven inch turntable. Although made in 1886,
6300-546: The fact that the canals and other waterways continually silted up. Nathaniel Michler and S.T. Abert led efforts to dredge the channels and remove rocks around the Georgetown harbor, though these were temporary solutions and Congress showed little interest in the issue. An 1890 flood and expansion of the railroads brought destitution to the C&O Canal, and Georgetown's waterfront became more industrialized, with narrow alleys, warehouses, and apartment dwellings which lacked plumbing or electricity. Shipping trade vanished between
6405-433: The federal capital was moved from the revolutionary capital of Philadelphia to Washington, D.C., and Georgetown became an independent municipal government within the District of Columbia, of which there were three: Alexandria, D.C., Georgetown, D.C., and Washington, D.C. Georgetown, D.C., was in the new Washington County, D.C. ; the District's other county was Alexandria County, D.C. , now Arlington County, Virginia , and
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#17327805791926510-417: The first church in Georgetown, a Lutheran church on High Street. Stephen Bloomer Balch established a Presbyterian church in 1784. A Catholic Church , Trinity Catholic Church, was built in 1795, along with a parish school-house. Construction of St. John's Episcopal Church began in 1797 but paused for financial reasons until 1803, and the church was finally consecrated in 1809. Banks in Georgetown included
6615-572: The headmaster. Private schools currently located in Georgetown include Georgetown Visitation Preparatory School , while nearby is the eponymous Georgetown Day School . Georgetown Preparatory School , while founded in Georgetown, moved in 1915 to its present location several miles north of Georgetown in Montgomery County . District of Columbia Public Schools operates area public schools, including Hyde-Addison Elementary School on O Street. Hyde-Addison formed from merging two adjacent schools - Hyde Elementary and Addison Elementary. The Addison section
6720-404: The hilly terrain of the neighborhood. The primary commercial corridors of Georgetown are M Street and Wisconsin Avenue , whose high fashion stores draw large numbers of tourists as well as local shoppers year-round. There is also the Washington Harbour complex on K Street , on the waterfront, featuring outdoor bars and restaurants popular for viewing boat races. Between M and K Streets runs
6825-444: The historic Chesapeake and Ohio Canal , today plied only by tour boats; adjacent trails are popular with joggers or strollers. Throughout the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries, the concentration of wealth in Georgetown sparked the growth of many university-preparatory schools in and around the neighborhood. One of the first schools was the Columbian Academy on N Street, which was established in 1781 with Reverend Stephen Balch serving as
6930-408: The independent city of Alexandria, Virginia . By the 1820s, the Potomac River had become silted up and was not navigable up to Georgetown. Construction of the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal began in July 1828, to link Georgetown to Harper's Ferry , Virginia in present-day West Virginia . But the canal was soon in a race with the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad and got to Cumberland eight years after
7035-431: The laboratory which led to the greatly improved phonographs in 1886 that were to help found the recording and dictation machine industries. Thomas A. Edison had invented the phonograph in 1877. But the fame bestowed on Edison for this invention (sometimes called his most original) was not due to its quality. Recording with his tinfoil phonograph was too difficult to be practical, as the tinfoil tore easily, and even when
7140-402: The land deals was a local merchant named Benjamin Stoddert , who arrived in Georgetown in 1783. He had previously served as Secretary to the Board of War under the Articles of Confederation . Stoddert partnered with General Uriah Forrest to become an original proprietor of the Potomac Company . Stoddert and other Potomac landowners agreed to a land transfer deal to the federal government at
7245-411: The machine was a duplicate of one made earlier but taken to Europe by Chichester Bell . Tainter was granted Patent No. 385886 for it on July 10, 1888. The playing arm is rigid except for a pivoted vertical motion of 90 degrees to allow removal of the record or a return to the starting position. While recording or playing, the record not only rotated but moved laterally under the stylus which thus described
7350-524: The machines were donated to the collections of the Smithsonian Institution's Museum of Natural History , and were believed to be the oldest reproducible bona fide sound recordings preserved anywhere in the world. While some were scratched and cracked, others were still in good condition when they were received. The Photophone, also known as a radiophone , was invented jointly by Bell and his then-assistant Sumner Tainter on February 19, 1880, at Bell's 1325 'L' Street laboratory in Washington, D.C. Bell believed
7455-408: The method of cutting a record on wax was the one later exploited commercially, everything else seems to have been tried at least once. The following was noted on Wednesday, March 20, 1881: A fountain pen is attached to a diaphragm so as to be vibrated in a plane parallel to the axis of a cylinder—The ink used in this pen to contain iron in a finely divided state, and the pen caused to trace
7560-527: The new laboratory. Bell's cousin, Chichester Bell , who had been teaching college chemistry in London, also agreed to come to Washington as the third associate. The establishment of the laboratory was comparatively simple; according to Tainter's autobiography: I therefore wound up my business affairs in Cambridge, packed up all of my tools and machines, and ... went to Washington, and after much search, rented
7665-534: The newer and larger laboratory he built on his Nova Scotia estate, Beinn Breagh . Although Bell self-described his occupation as a "teacher of the deaf" throughout his life, his foremost activities revolved around those of general scientific discovery and invention. By 1887 the Volta Laboratory Association's assets had been distributed among its partners and its collective works had ceased. In 1895 Bell's father, noted philologist and elocutionist Alexander Melville Bell, who had authored over 45 publications on elocution,
7770-460: The person who suggested the basic lines of research , furnished the financial resources, and then allowed his associates to receive the credit for many of the inventions that resulted. The experimental machines built at the Volta Laboratory include both disc and cylinder types , with some of the disc type turntables rotating vertically about a horizontal axis, as well as a hand-powered, non-magnetic tape recorder . The records and tapes used with
7875-410: The photophone was his most important invention . The device allowed for the transmission of sound on a beam of light . On April 1, 1880, and also described by plaque as occurring on June 3, Bell's assistant transmitted the world's first wireless telephone message to him on their newly invented form of telecommunication , the far advanced precursor to fiber-optic communications . The wireless call
7980-403: The railroad, a faster mode of transport, and at the cost of $ 77,041,586. It was never profitable. From its beginning to December 1876, the canal earned $ 35,659,055 in revenue, while expending $ 35,746,301. The canal provided an economic boost for Georgetown. In the 1820s and 1830s, Georgetown was an sizable shipping center. Tobacco and other goods were transferred between the canal and shipping on
8085-403: The recordings which were then replaced by more convenient wind-up clockwork drive mechanisms and which finally migrated to electric motors, instead of the manual crank that was used on Edison's phonograph. The numerous improvements allowed for a sound quality that was significantly better than Edison's machine. The other experimental Graphophones indicate an amazing range of experimentation. While
8190-527: The river. The planners expected the Metro to serve rush-hour commuters, and the neighborhood has few apartments, office buildings, or automobile parking areas. Since the Metro's opening, there have been occasional discussions about adding another subway line and tunnel under the Potomac to service the area. Three stations are located roughly one mile (1.6 km) from the center of Georgetown: Rosslyn (across
8295-495: The sod-breaking ceremony for the construction of the new Volta Bureau building. The 'Volta Bureau' was so named in 1887 at the suggestion of John Hitz, its first superintendent, and Bell's prior researcher . Hitz remained its first superintendent until his death in 1908. Bell's former trust, the Volta Fund, was also renamed the Volta Bureau Fund when the Bureau was established, except for US$ 25,000 that Bell diverted to
8400-441: The soft wax records without tearing the groove, we used the hill and valley type of record more often than the other. The basic distinction between Edison's first phonograph patent and the Bell and Tainter patent of 1886 was the method of recording. Edison's method was to indent the sound waves on a piece of tin-foil while Bell and Tainter's invention called for cutting or "engraving" the sound waves into an ozokerite wax record with
8505-421: The sound recording and phonograph invention patents they had been granted to the American Graphophone Company (later to evolve into Columbia Records ). Alexander Bell bent on improving the lives of the deaf, took a portion of his share of the profits to found the Volta Bureau as an instrument " for the increase and diffusion of knowledge relating to the deaf ". The Volta Bureau worked in close cooperation with
8610-516: The two cities. The municipal governments of Georgetown and the City and County of Washington were formally revoked by Congress effective June 1, 1871, at which point its governmental powers were vested within the District of Columbia. The streets in Georgetown were renamed in 1895 to conform to the street names in use in Washington. In the 1850s, Georgetown had a large African American population, including both slaves and free blacks. Slave labor
8715-445: The university has 6,853 undergraduate students and 4,490 graduate students on the main campus. The main campus is just over 102 acres (41 ha) in area and includes 58 buildings, student residences capable of accommodating 80 percent of undergraduates, various athletic facilities, and the medical school. Most buildings employ collegiate Gothic architecture and Georgian brick architecture . Campus green areas include fountains,
8820-487: The use of visible speech for the deaf and similar related subjects, assigned all his publication copyrights to the Volta Bureau for its financial benefit. The Volta Bureau later evolved into the Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (also known as the AG Bell), and its works have actively continued to the present day under its own charter. The Volta Laboratory Association, or Volta Associates,
8925-563: The west. Much of Georgetown is surrounded by parkland and green space that serve as buffers from development in adjacent neighborhoods, and provide recreation. Rock Creek Park , Oak Hill Cemetery , Montrose Park, and Dumbarton Oaks are located along the north and east edge of Georgetown, east of Wisconsin Avenue. The neighborhood is situated on bluffs overlooking the Potomac River. As a result, there are some rather steep grades on streets running north–south. The famous " Exorcist steps " connecting M Street to Prospect Street were necessitated by
9030-479: The western edge of the Georgetown neighborhood. Father John Carroll founded Georgetown University as a Jesuit private university in 1789, though its roots extend back to 1634. Although the school struggled financially in its early years, Georgetown expanded into a branched university after the American Civil War under the leadership of university president Patrick Francis Healy . As of 2007 ,
9135-467: The younger Bell worked with them. Born in Edinburgh, Scotland , Bell moved to Canada with his family in 1870 following the deaths of his brothers, and a year later moved to Boston to teach at a special day school for deaf children. Both Bell's mother and wife were deaf, profoundly influencing his life's work. He became a renowned educator by opening a private normal class to train teachers of speech to
9240-473: Was able to engage in extensive research into the causes of deafness as well as ways of improving the lives of the deaf, leading him to create the Volta Bureau in 1887. In 1889, Bell and his family moved from their Brodhead-Bell mansion to a new home close to his father, Alexander Melville Bell . Between 1889 and 1893, the Volta Bureau was located in the carriage house to the rear of the home of Bell's father, at 1527 35th Street NW in Washington, D.C. The work of
9345-653: Was an independent municipality until 1871 when the United States Congress created a new consolidated government for the entire District of Columbia. A separate act, passed in 1895, repealed Georgetown's remaining local ordinances and renamed Georgetown's streets to conform with those in Washington, D.C. The primary commercial corridors of Georgetown are the intersection of Wisconsin Avenue and M Street , which contain high-end shops, bars, restaurants, and Georgetown Park , an enclosed shopping mall. Washington Harbour , which includes waterfront restaurants,
9450-477: Was banned in the District as one element of the Compromise of 1850 . Congress abolished ownership of slaves in the entire District on April 16, 1862, annually observed today as Emancipation Day . Many African Americans moved to Georgetown following the Civil War , establishing a thriving community. By the late 19th century, flour milling and other industries in Georgetown were declining, in part due to
9555-512: Was covered with a removable film of tinfoil (the actual recording media) that was prone to damage during installation or removal. Tainter received a separate patent for a tube assembly machine to automatically produce the coiled cardboard tubes which served as the foundation for the wax cylinder records. Besides being far easier to handle, the wax recording media also allowed for lengthier recordings and created superior playback quality. The Graphophone designs initially deployed foot treadles to rotate
9660-543: Was created by formal legal agreement on October 8, 1881 (backdated to May 1 of the same year), constituting the Volta Laboratory Association to be the owner of its patents. It was dissolved in 1886 when its sound recording intellectual property assets were transferred into the Volta Graphophone Company. The association was composed of Alexander Graham Bell , Charles Sumner Tainter , and Bell's cousin, renowned British chemist Dr. Chichester Bell . During
9765-541: Was destroyed by fire in the 1880s. The church was rebuilt on the present site. Mount Zion Cemetery offered free burials for Washington's earlier African-American population. "From a pre- Civil War population of 6,798 whites, 1,358 free Negroes, and 577 slaves, Georgetown's population had grown to 17,300 but half these residents were poverty-stricken Negroes." Other black churches in Georgetown included Alexander Memorial Baptist Church , First Baptist Church, Jerusalem Baptist Church, and Epiphany Catholic Church. In 1915,
9870-465: Was endowed by financier George Peabody in 1867 and opened in a room of the Curtis School on O Street opposite St. John's Church in 1875. In the early 1930s, a library committee was formed to encourage the establishment of a new public library branch in Georgetown. The building was severely damaged by a fire on April 30, 2007, and underwent a $ 17.9 million renovation and expansion. The building
9975-402: Was further revitalized in 2003, and includes a Ritz-Carlton , Four Seasons , and other hotels. Georgetown's highly traveled commercial district is home to a variety of specialty retailers and fashionable boutiques. Georgetown is bounded by the Potomac River to the south, Rock Creek to the east, Burleith , Glover Park , and Observatory Circle to the north, and Georgetown University to
10080-722: Was located in front of a stone wall on Canal Road adjacent to the Exorcist steps, immediately west of the Car Barn, from 1912 to 1923. Five suburban Virginia lines, connecting in Rosslyn , provided links from the Washington, D.C. streetcar network to Arlington National Cemetery , Fort Myer , Nauck , Alexandria , Mount Vernon , Clarendon , Ballston , Falls Church , Vienna , Fairfax , Leesburg , Bluemont , and Great Falls (see Northern Virginia trolleys ). Streetcar operations in Washington, D.C. ended on January 28, 1962. In 1910,
10185-612: Was looking for new worlds to conquer after his invention of the telephone . According to Sumner Tainter, it was due to Gardiner Green Hubbard that Bell took an interest in the emerging field of phonograph technology. Bell had married Hubbard's daughter Mabel in 1879 while Hubbard was president of the Edison Speaking Phonograph Company. Hubbard was also one of five stockholders in the Edison Speaking Phonograph , which had purchased
10290-422: Was named after its founders, George Gordon and George Beall. The Maryland Legislature issued a charter and incorporated the town in 1789. Although Georgetown was never officially made a city, it was later referred to as the "City of Georgetown" in several 19th-century Acts of Congress . ) Robert Peter , an early area merchant in the tobacco trade, became the town's first mayor in 1790. John Beatty established
10395-538: Was partly filmed at Georgetown University and the surrounding area. The Exorcist steps , the stairway that the character Father Damien fell down, connects Prospect Street, on the edge of the campus, and M Street. The District of Columbia Public Library operates the Georgetown Neighborhood Library , which originally opened at 3260 R St. NW in October 1935 on the site of the former Georgetown Reservoir. An earlier public library in Georgetown
10500-521: Was passed, establishing the historic district of "Old Georgetown". The law required that the United States Commission of Fine Arts be consulted on any alteration, demolition, or building construction within the historic district. In 1967, the Georgetown Historic District was listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places . Georgetown is home to many politicians and lobbyists . Georgetown's landmark waterfront district
10605-418: Was played again in 2013 and made available online. The method of sound reproduction used on the machine was even more interesting than the quotation. Rather than a conventional stylus and diaphragm , a jet of high pressure air was used. Tainter had previously recorded, on July 7, 1881: "This evening about 7 P.M. ... the apparatus being ready the valve upon the top of the air cylinder was opened slightly until
10710-559: Was renovated in 2008 and the Hyde section was renovated in Summer 2014. An addition connecting the two buildings is scheduled for completion in Summer 2019. Hardy Middle School and Jackson-Reed High School both serve Georgetown as zoned secondary schools. Duke Ellington School of the Arts , a public magnet school, is in the community. The main campus of Georgetown University is located on
10815-472: Was sent from the Franklin School to the window of Bell's laboratory, some 213 meters away. Of the eighteen patents granted in Bell's name alone, and the twelve he shared with his collaborators, four were for the photophone, which Bell referred to as his "greatest achievement", writing that the Photophone was "the greatest invention [I have] ever made, greater than the telephone". Bell transferred
10920-432: Was then re-opened on October 18, 2010, with a LEED -Silver Certification from the U.S. Green Building Council. A newly constructed, climate-controlled third floor now houses the collections of the original Peabody Library and is a center for research on Georgetown history. Georgetown's transportation importance was defined by its location just below the fall line of the Potomac River . The Aqueduct Bridge (and later,
11025-537: Was widely used in construction of new buildings in Washington, in addition, to provide labor on tobacco plantations in Maryland and Virginia. Slave trading in Georgetown began in 1760 when John Beattie established his business on O Street and conducted business at other locations around Wisconsin Avenue. Other slave markets ("pens") were located in Georgetown, including one at McCandless' Tavern near M Street and Wisconsin Avenue. Slave trading continued until 1850, when it
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