More to Bell than phone
Museum focusing on development of hydrofoil
Alexander Graham Bell’s undisputed claim to fame is the telephone.
But the Scottish-born inventor and his team of researchers were busy developing several creations, including a speedy marine vessel known as the hydrofoil.
“Many visitors before they come to us are expecting to learn the telephone story,” said Madeline Harvey, visitor experience manager at Alexander Graham Bell National Historic Site in Baddeck.
“Bell was involved in so many different things that most people are not aware of all of the different aspects of his work.”
A hydrofoil is a wing-shaped apparatus attached typically at the bottom of a boat. The foils are shaped like an airplane wing to allow water to flow quickly over it.
At higher speeds, this action creates lift causing the boat to lift out of the water and into the air, where there is much less resistance and higher speeds can be reached.
On Sept. 9, 1919, Bell and coinventors F.W. (Casey) Baldwin
and Mabel Bell, broke a marine speed record after their ‘flying fish’ the HD-4 reached a speed of 70.86 miles or 114 km/per hour in Baddeck Bay.
“It was like all his other work — a whole bunch of experiments, a whole bunch of models ... before they got to their
success with the HD-4,” said Harvey.
“Just very, very forwardthinking and we don’t often think about him and his work in terms of transportation, but he certainly made significant contributions to both flight and marine transportation.”
As the 100th anniversary of the hydrofoil’s achievement approaches in 2019, Bell Museum administrators are focusing their efforts on celebrating the feat.
As part of free-admission day held Sunday, Ontario-based historian Bob White will be on hand to deliver his presentation, ‘The Roaring Thunder of the HD-4,’ both at 10:30 a.m. and again at 2 p.m.
The program will run again on Sept. 12 at 10:30 p.m. Regular admission rates will apply that day.
The museum is also home to the original hull of the HD-4 vessel and will be busy celebrating its record-setting anniversary in 2019.
“It’s just an incredible story of
high-technology emerging in a small Maritime town and using mostly local talent,” said White. “The more you know the more you get excited about it.
“We’re talking a speed of 70.86 miles per hour which was absolutely unheard anywhere. It again shot Bell and the Baddeck area into prominence.”
White said hydrofoils exist today in Europe as part of ferry boats and high-speed tour boats.
He said although the Bell was an advisor and mentor, it was mostly Baldwin who engineered the HD-4.
“They made a dynamic duo so to speak because they achieved so much,” said White.
As part of last year’s tourism season, the Bell museum launched a new $300,000 exhibit allows visitors to travel back through time to Baddeck to experience the history of the hydrofoil and engage in a race with Baldwin at the helm of the HD-4.