Background
He was born on July 5, 1859 in Waterbury, Connecticut, the eldest of six children of Benjamin Hiel and Pauline Spaulding (Phelps) Bristol, and a descendant of Henry Bristol, who settled in New Haven in 1656.
engineer inventor manufacturer professor
He was born on July 5, 1859 in Waterbury, Connecticut, the eldest of six children of Benjamin Hiel and Pauline Spaulding (Phelps) Bristol, and a descendant of Henry Bristol, who settled in New Haven in 1656.
He attended the public schools of Naugatuck, Connecticut, and Stevens Institute of Technology at Hoboken, New Jersey, from which he was graduated in 1884 with the degree of M. E.
While still a student, he organized and taught in the manual training department of the Workingman's School of New York, continuing to teach in this school until 1886, when he resigned to become instructor of mathematics at Stevens Institute. Two years later he was made assistant professor and, in 1899, professor, of mathematics, serving in that capacity until he resigned in June 1907 to devote full time to the business of the Bristol Company.
He returned to his alma mater as special lecturer in the department of mechanics during the academic year 1908-09. While at Stevens he displayed the inventive genius for which he later became famous.
One of his early patents covered a simple steel fastener, for joining leather beltings, which could be produced without waste from a strip of metal. The new fasteners could be easily and quickly applied--a great improvement over the old method of fastening with rawhide laces. To manufacture this fastener, Bristol, with the help of his brother Franklin B. Bristol, a skilled toolmaker, organized the Bristol Company in 1889.
His brother's barn was chosen as the first factory, but the business developed so rapidly that it was moved in 1892 to another and larger building in Waterbury where railroad facilities were available. Still teaching at Stevens Institute, Bristol used his spare time in the experimental laboratories and gave only week-ends and vacations to Waterbury. Seeing the need in industry of a recording instrument that would give a continuous graphic record of pressures of air, gas, or steam confined in a closed vessel, and would disclose any variations in a form that could be analyzed, he experimented with various designs of modified Bourdon tubes.
Out of this research he developed a sensitive actuating element that, with subsequent improvements, was perfected into the popular flat metal coiled tube or helical measuring element that was employed in the manufacture of Bristol instruments and accepted throughout industry as the standard of accuracy. The temperature recorder, which was a natural evolution of the pressure recorder, soon followed, and in 1904 he developed the first practical pyrometer (high temperature thermometer) for general commercial use. His recording gauges and thermometers were the first instruments to give an uninterrupted history of plant operations.
He then undertook to develop instruments for measuring and recording electric currents and produced a recording voltmeter, ammeter, and wattmeter. From these basic inventions the Bristol recording pressure gauge was developed to meet the need for pressure measurements where conditions required the maintenance of constant vacuum.
In 1915 he conceived the idea of recording simultaneously sound and action and subsequently invented and produced the Bristolphone, which synchronized both in motion pictures. To perfect this instrument he spent nearly a million dollars and constructed a fully equipped motion-picture laboratory and studio in Waterbury.
During the World War the Bristol Company engaged in manufacturing aircraft instruments for the government.
He died in a hospital at New Haven, Connecticut.
William Henry Bristol's main achievement was that he was a pioneer in the field of sound-recording devices, who revolutionized modern movies with his "Bristolphone" invention. Among the medals awarded to Bristol for his inventions were the John Scott medal (1890) and the Edward Longstreth medal (1894), bestowed upon him by the Franklin Institute of Philadelphia. Professor Bristol is also noted for inventing in 1904 the first practical pyrometer for measuring high temperatures. This created another new industry and led to the formation of the William H. Bristol Pyrometer Company in New York City. In 1915, he invented the “Bristolphone” to simultaneously record voices and other sounds with motion in moving pictures, which was completely impossible before his invention. After he founded the William H. Bristol Talking Picture Corporation, he developed “synchronized talking motion pictures, ” and produced one of the first full-length motion pictures with sound. He also developed and manufactured loud speakers, power amplifiers, radios and phonograph recorders. His “Audiophone, ” which was used at Yankee Stadium and Grand Central Station in New York, revolutionized public address systems. Needless to say, Bristol also developed instruments for measuring and recording electric currents and produced a recording voltmeter, ammeter, and wattmeter. From these basic inventions the Bristol recording pressure gauge was developed to meet the need for pressure measurements where conditions required the maintenance of constant vacuum. William Bristol was awarded medals at expositions in Chicago (1893), Paris (1900), Saint Louis (1904), San Francisco (1915) and Philadelphia (1926). He received two awards from the Franklin Institute to honor his distinguished career. He gained worldwide recognition while making possible major advances in both pure scientific knowledge and industrial technology. Afterall, he received nearly 100 patents during his lifetime.
Quotes from others about the person
It was said of him that he "combined to an unusual degree the sound thinking of the university teacher with the painstaking thoroughness of the research worker and the vision of an inventor".
William Bristol was twice married. His first wife was Jennie Louise Wright, to whom he was married at Naugatuck on September 8, 1885. She died in 1888, and on June 28, 1899, he was married to Elise Hamilton Myers at Jersey City, New Jersey. He had no children by either marriage.
