can you believe this freakin' Alexander Graham Bell guy

August 2, 2018 9:51 AM

look at this telephone-inventing-ass dude with his tetrahedral kites, all flying Sierpinski pyramids around like he owns the place
posted by cortex (27 comments total)

I love how serious this guy looks. "Kites are no laughing, or even smiling, matter!"
posted by The Card Cheat at 9:54 AM on August 2, 2018 [4 favorites]

"Mr. Watson, come here. I need you to see this badass kite I just made."
posted by Atom Eyes at 9:55 AM on August 2, 2018 [10 favorites]

cortex, are we to believe you haven't tried making one of these yourself?
posted by aubilenon at 10:14 AM on August 2, 2018 [2 favorites]

These are really cool. I like the steady progression in complexity in the images, from "Hmm interesting idea" to the elaborate "WTF?" designs further down the page.
posted by carter at 10:15 AM on August 2, 2018

Bell is remembered mainly, obviously, for the telephone, but little for the wide-ranging research on hearing and speech that led to it, which he considered his primary work (both his mother and wife were profoundly deaf). The Volta Bureau and Laboratory, which he founded in DC in 1893 as an information clearing house for the deaf, is still in operation. He was a fascinating polymath.
posted by ryanshepard at 10:30 AM on August 2, 2018 [7 favorites]

I thought this one looked a bit like the Wright Brothers' first airplane. Turns out, so did Bell and some other guys from the Aerial Experiment Association, and there was a really nasty series of lawsuits about it!
posted by showbiz_liz at 10:45 AM on August 2, 2018 [6 favorites]

I love weird historical photos, and these are some of my very favourites. The Library of Congress archive (see here and here) notes that these experiments were conducted at Bell's Beinn Bhreagh estate near Baddeck, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia – might be useful to tag this post accordingly (capebreton, novascotia).
posted by oulipian at 10:59 AM on August 2, 2018 [1 favorite]

So I meant to post this comment in that "Film and Furniture" thread a couple weeks ago, but this may be even more appropriate.

I have a vivid memory of watching a TV movie about Bell back in the early 90's. The movie itself is pretty average, but the one thing that stands out is a shot of him in front of his newly built home in Nova Scotia. He's sitting in a chair that's high off the groud and is designed like the marriage between an Adirondack chair and a lifeguard's station. I've always figured that such a weird object must have some basis in his history, or it wouldn't be in there.

Now, granted, that chair wasn't exactly a tetrahedral kite, but these bits of his history further convince me that he must have designed that damned awesome chair.
posted by AlonzoMosleyFBI at 11:05 AM on August 2, 2018

I think the last picture is rather sweet.
posted by Big Al 8000 at 11:07 AM on August 2, 2018 [3 favorites]

Bell's infamous within the Deaf community; there was a petition to have the AGBell organization, in ryanshepard's second link, designated as a hate group. (Vigorously anti-ASL, Bell helped establish the ban on using sign language as a teaching and communication tool. He was also a eugenicist firmly against Deaf/Deaf marriage.)

Magnificent kites, though. And when President Garfield was shot in 1881, Bell invented a machine to try to find the lodged bullet -- the first metal detector.
posted by Iris Gambol at 11:07 AM on August 2, 2018 [10 favorites]

I love the pic where a small crowd has gathered to watch the kite. Because what else is there to do in Cape Breton?
posted by Mogur at 11:11 AM on August 2, 2018 [1 favorite]

i would buy this ac syndicate dlc
posted by poffin boffin at 11:14 AM on August 2, 2018 [1 favorite]

Coming up after the break, on Mythbusters...
posted by uncleozzy at 11:25 AM on August 2, 2018 [4 favorites]

So, if for instance you were to want to make your own tetrahedral kite, Boy's Life magazine gives these directions and directly cites Bell's designs. I don't know how closely their string-and-straw method matches whatever techniques Bell was using but it seems close enough if all you want to do is make your own ominous flying triangles.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 11:38 AM on August 2, 2018 [3 favorites]

I was curious about the identity of the black man in a couple of these pictures, and did a little bit of internet "research". I suspect it was Bell's butler, Charles F. Thompson.

Just in case any of you were wondering.
posted by It's Never Lurgi at 11:40 AM on August 2, 2018 [13 favorites]

I WANT TO BELIEVE
posted by theatro at 12:36 PM on August 2, 2018

I love the pic where a small crowd has gathered to watch the kite. Because what else is there to do in Cape Breton?

You know, this is possibly a sadly overlooked option for a time traveler's activities in the past.

You could make a tidy living just doing a bunch of scientific parlor tricks and public stunts and spectacles.

Also, imagine the weird timeline hacking you could do by introducing people to scientific concepts way too early.

Last but most importantly, cortex needs to make a Sierpinski Triangle kite.

Hey cortex? Here's the short and quick of how you make a modern kite:

Get some carbon fiber rods, then a roll of PET or PVC tubing that has an inside diameter that matches the carbon fiber rod outside diameter. Cut the tubing into about 1-2" lengths, then punch holes in the sides of some of them to make connectors. See where I'm going with this? These can now be connected in almost any prismatic solid shape like very light weight tinker-toys, and since it's semi-rigid and flexible it allows the kite to not snap in the wind or in a crash, or even pop apart to prevent damage.

For fabric and sails, you can use ripstop nylon or even parchement paper. No fabric sewing skills to make pockets? No problem. Glue cut fabric squares directly to the carbon fiber tubing with commercial/hobbyist/modellers strength cyanoacrylate (superglue) and an accelerator to make it set instantly.

While I would not recommend glue for a larger, full sail kite, with a small sail box kite like this you may be able to make sub-triangles or assemblies that have the fabric glued to a flat triangular panel held together by the tubing connectors.

For lines and bridles you use brass swivel snap rings and Spectra or Dyneema kite line. Be careful with either of those lines with large or high drag kites - they're capable of taking your fingers right off if you get them caught in a loop under a high load. They do not break easily. Treat them like very thin steel cables, because they're usually stronger than steel.

As for aerdynamics, well, that's really the most difficult part. Almost anything can be a kite if you attach a line to it at the right place for a good balance of center of gravity, and there's enough wind to loft it. I would look to square and triangle box kites for suggestions on bridle and line placement and finding the center of gravity. As I recall they tend to attach just forward and above of the center mass, with a y-yoke bridle spanning the structure.

You may note this is essentially the same construction as wood, paper, string and glue kites, but lighter weight and higher strength. And balsa and paper is certainly an option, too, and could be lovely and even painted with water colors. (It's also much more likely to shatter into a thousand pieces the first time it lands.)
posted by loquacious at 12:47 PM on August 2, 2018 [7 favorites]

It's Never Lurgi, the photos are from 1904/05, when Thompson was in his mid-30s. I'm wondering if the man is a 50-ish Granville T. Woods -- a fellow brilliant and prolific inventor, Bell bought his telegraphony patent (for a combo telephone and telegraph device) in the 1880s (after an earlier patent, an improved telephone transmitter, had been assigned outright to Bell's company).

The generous purchase price allowed Woods to invent full-time. I know I smack-talked Bell earlier for disability rights, but he has a better track record in this area; inventor and engineer Lewis H. Latimer drafted Bell's 1876 patent for the telephone. (Latimer would later make major contributions to Edison's light bulb.)
posted by Iris Gambol at 1:35 PM on August 2, 2018 [4 favorites]

With the big, multi-cell tetrahedrons, I can't help imagining them reaching a great height -- and then a big swarm of drones flying out of them.
posted by jamjam at 2:07 PM on August 2, 2018 [1 favorite]

This picture appears to have been taken in front of his summer home here in Colonial Beach, VA on the Potomac River.

I'm a reporter here, and a long time CB resident, and love finding things like this.

His summer home is currently up for sale. It was run as a bed and breakfast until its most recent owner passed away.
posted by SuzySmith at 4:17 PM on August 2, 2018

We built a Sierpinski kite in the lobby at my work.
posted by dmd at 5:32 PM on August 2, 2018 [4 favorites]

I've been to the Alexander Graham Bell museum in Cape Breton. Now there was a man who was seriously into tetrahedrons.
posted by Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The at 6:06 PM on August 2, 2018 [1 favorite]

Mogur: "I love the pic where a small crowd has gathered to watch the kite. Because what else is there to do in Cape Breton?"

Fly a fancy kite where people are passing by pretty much anywhere and you'll draw a crowd even today.

loquacious: "Also, imagine the weird timeline hacking you could do by introducing people to scientific concepts way too early."

Sounds like a good way to get burned as a witch.
posted by Mitheral at 6:58 PM on August 2, 2018 [2 favorites]

Sigh, every generation thinks they discovered fractals.
posted by condour75 at 4:54 AM on August 3, 2018 [1 favorite]

I went to the Bell Museum in NS as well when I was a teenager, and the kites were what impressed me the most.
posted by MtDewd at 2:05 PM on August 3, 2018

Sigh, every generation thinks they discovered fractals.

Go see a production of Arcadia...
posted by dmd at 4:49 PM on August 5, 2018

Thank you so much for posting this! I was planning on going to the AGB museum this fall when I was in NS, but -- spurred by this post -- I read their website and just got a confirmation for the white glove tour, where my (patient and loving) sweetie and I will get to handle actual artifacts, potentially including tetrahedrons that were made by the great man himself!
posted by Homeboy Trouble at 8:46 AM on August 8, 2018