Worth, lawyer, b. in Newburgh, N. Y., 22 Sept., 1829; d. in Washington, D. C., 12 Oct.. 1890. He was graduated at Princeton, studied law at Keokuk, Iowa, where he settled, and was elected to the legislature as a democrat in 1857. At the beginning of the civil war he joined the army as major of the 15th Iowa volunteers. He was engaged at Shiloh, Corinth, and Vicksburg, became prominent in Sherman's Atlanta campaign, receiving promotion as brigadier-general on 30 July, 1864, and was brevetted major-general on 18 March, 1865. After the war he was collector of internal revenue in Iowa from 1865 till 13 Oct., 1869, when he was appointed secretary of war. This office he retained during Gen. Grant's second administration until 7 March, 1876, when, in consequence of charges of official corruption, he resigned. He was impeached and tried before the senate for receiving bribes for the appointment of post-traders, and was acquitted on the technical ground of want of jurisdiction.
BELL, Alexander Graham, physicist, b. in Edinburgh, Scotland, 3 March, 1847. He is a son of Alexander Melville Bell, mentioned below, and was educated at the Edinburgh high school and Edinburgh university, receiving special training in his father's system for removing impediments in speech. He removed to London in 1867, and entered the university there, but left on account of his health, and went to Canada with his father in 1870. In 1872 he took up his residence in the United States, introducing with success his father's system of deaf-mute instruction, and became professor of vocal physiology in Boston university. He had been interested for many years in the transmission of sound by electricity, and had devised many forms of apparatus for the purpose, but the first public exhibition of his invention was at Philadelphia in 1876. Its complete success has made him wealthy. His invention of the “photophone,” in which a vibratory beam of light is substituted for a wire in conveying speech, has also attracted much attention, but has never been practically used. It was first described by him before the American association for the advancement of science in Boston, 27 Aug., 1880. After the shooting of President Garfield, Prof. Bell, together with Sumner Tainter, experimented with an improved form of Hughes's induction balance, and endeavored to find the exact location of the ball, but failed. Prof. Bell has put forth the theory that the present system of educating deaf-mutes is wrong, as it tends to restrict them to one another's society, so that marriages between the deaf are common, and therefore the number of deaf-mute children born is on the increase. His latest experiments relate to the recording of speech by means of photographing the vibrations of a jet of water. He is a member of various learned societies, and has published many scientific papers. He has lived for some time in Washington, D. C.
BELL, Alexander Melville, educator, b. in
Edinburgh, Scotland, 1 March, 1819. He was
educated under the care of his father, Alexander Bell,
the inventor of a method for removing impediments
of speech. From 1843 till 1865 he lectured
in Edinburgh at the university and at New college,
and in the latter year was appointed lecturer at
university college, London. He removed to Canada
in 1870, and became instructor at Queen's
college, Kingston. He is the inventor of “Visible
Speech,” a method of instruction in orthoëpy,
which has also been successfully used in teaching
deaf-mutes to speak. He has published “Principles
of Speech and Elocution” (Edinburgh, 1849);
“Popular Stenography,” and other books on
shorthand;
“Visible Speech and Universal Alphabetics”;
“Line Writing on the Basis of Visible
Speech”; “Faults of Speakers” (Salem, Mass.);
“The Standard Elocutionist”; and other works.
In 1881 he removed to Washington, D. C. He now
(1886) has in press, to be published in New York,
“Essays and Postscripts on Elocution”;
“Lectures on Phonetics”; and “English Line Writing.”
BELL, Charles Heyer, admiral, b. in New York, 15 Aug., 1798; d. in New Brunswick, N. J., 19 Feb., 1875. He entered the U. S. navy as midshipman, 12 June, 1812, and served with Com. Decatur in 1813 and in Com. Chauncey's squadron on Lake Erie in 1814. In the war with Algiers he
was again with Decatur on board the "Macedonian." He became a lieutenant in 1820, and in 1824 commanded the schooner " Ferret," which capsized at sea. After remaining twenty-one
hours on the wreck, he was saved, with other survivors, by Com. McKeever. He was attached to the "Erie," in the West Indies, in 1829, and commanded one of the boats that cut out the piratical schooner "Federal" from under the guns of the forts at Guadeloupe. In 1839 he commanded the brig "Dolphin," which ascended an African river and compelled a chief to pay for goods taken from an American vessel. He was promoted commander on 20 Sept., 1840, and in 1844-'6 commanded the sloop "Yorktown," on the coast of Africa, and captured three slavers, one of them with 903 slaves on board. He was commissioned captain in 1854. He commanded at Norfolk navy-yard in 1859, in 1860 was assigned to the Mediterranean squadron, and was ordered home at the
beginning of the civil war. After the capture of the British mail-steamer "Trent," in November, 1861, he was sent to Panama to take command of the Pacific squadron, in anticipation of difficulties with England, and there he remained for nearly three years. The rank of commodore was given him 16 July, 1862. He returned shortly before the close of the war, and was assigned to special duty on the James river. He took command of the Brooklyn navy-yard in May, 1865, and held it three years. He was commissioned rear-admiral, 25 July, 1866, and placed on the retired list after fifty-two years and eight months' service.
BELL, Charles Henry, b. in Chester, N. H., 18 Nov., 1823 ; d. in Exeter, N. H., 11 Nov.. 1893. His father, John Bell — b. in Londonderry, N. II., about 1765 ; d. in Chester, N. H., 22 March, 1836— was a brother of Gov. Samuel Bell, and was himself governor of New Hampshire in 1829-"30. Charles Henry was graduated at Dartmouth in 1844 and studied law. He presided over both branches of the New Hampshire legislature, and from March till June, 1879, by the governor's appointment, filled a vacancy in the U. S. Senate. From 1881 till 1883 he was governor of New Hampshire, elected on the Republican ticket. He practised
law twenty years, during ten of which he was prosecuting attorney for Rockingham co., and was president of the New Hampshire historical society since 1867. He published " Men and Things of Exeter, N. H." (Exeter, 1871); "Exeter in
1776" (1876); "John Wheelwright" (published by the Prince society, Boston, 1876); "Phillips Exeter Academy" (Exeter, 1883); "Memorial of John T. Gilman, M. D. (1885) ; and various public addresses.
BELL, Clark, lawyer, b. in Rodman. Jefferson CO., N. Y,. 12 March, i832. He was fitted for college at Franklin Academy, Prattsburg, but ill health prevented the completion of his studies. Subsequently he studied law, and was admitted to
