Albert Summers 'Bert' Howell

Bell & Howell Company: A 75 Year History, Jack Fay Robinson. Bell & Howell Co., 1982. ISBN 0-675-02555-9

Albert Summers 'Bert' Howell was born April 17, 1879 on a farm near West Branch, Michigan and died January 3, 1951 in Chicago. He was the son of Marquis de Lafayette Howell and Helen Leach Summers.

At age 11, his family moved to another farm, near a lumber camp in Indiana. Where he engaged in reapairing farm and liumbering machinery. The family moved to Chicago in 1895 where he began work as an apprentice mechanic for the Miehle Printing Press Company.

He first married to Effie Viola Brown then Nora L. Beveridge. His descendants were from Warren/Sussex County, New Jersy.

He attended the Armout Institute of Technology now known as Illinois Institute of Technology of a night and eventually graduated as a mechanical engineer. He built carsealing, berry-box machines and also animal traps. Before he began working in a machine shop that built and repaired motion picture equipment.

In 1906 he designed a framing device fot the Kinodrome 35mm theatre motion picture projector, and was awarded his first patent.

An apprentice machinist and tool and die technician in Chicago (1905-1907). He designed a 35-millimetre film projector (patented 1907) and a camera made of wood (patented 1909), and a continuous printer to reproduce films that made the mass distribution of films possible (1911) this is described as:

A hand cranked all metal body known as the 'Bell & Howell 2708'. It was of cast aluminum, a four lens turret and a rack-over sysem the film magazine was a 400ft twin compartment. A 'shuttle gate' clamped onto the film lifiting it forward deposting the preforations on register pins that were fixed for advancing of a frame, which held the flim steady and in a precise postion. The basic design of the camera remained until 1957.

He created the first inexpensive camera for the amateur photographer (1922) and continued to develop new equipment after his official retirement in 1938. He was elected an honorary life member of the American Society of Cinematographers.

Bell and Howell first met at the Cary Machine Works in Chicago.

He went into business with Donald 'Don' J. Bell and that resulted in the Bell and Howell Company. Founded in 1907 and at one time was headquartered in Skokie, Illinois, according to its charter, Bell & Howell Company came into being in Chicago on New Year's Day, 1907, and was incorporated February 17, 1907 with the amount of $5,000. It was d uly recorded in the Cook County Record Book eight days later. The first meeting of stockholders took place in the office of Attorney W. G. Strong on February 19 at 10 a. m. The first board of directors was chosen for a term of one year: Donald Joseph 'Don' Bell, chairman; Albert Summers 'Bert' Howell, secretary; and Marguerite V. Bell (wife of Donald Bell), vice chairman.

In 1914 they moved to a new building in office on LArchmont Avenue in Chicago. Bell became dissatisfied with the policies of the company which lead to a distputer between him, Howell and other managers.

It is said theat Howell supervised probuction and Bell acted as the salesman. Bell had hired Joseph McNabb as bookkeeper and general manager in 1916. Upon return from one of his trips in 1921 it is said that Bell found drastic changes made and accused Howell of taking poart - Bell fired them and gave them their last pay checks.

Howell and Mc Nabb returned the next day and offered to purchase Bell's interests. McNabb had brought with him Rufus K. Kittredge and Charles A. Ziebarth who had been a former employee of Bell and HowelL

Bell sold his interest to the others. Tho his name remmained a part of the company he did not have any role in it after selling out his interest at $183,895; his initial investement in the company in 1907 amounted to $3,500.

Upon Bell's resignation as director and chairperson, new offiecers were electer being: Rufuf Kittredge, president; Albert Howell, Vice-president; Jospeh McNabb, treasurer and Charles Ziebarth, secretary. Kittredge resigned as president in 1923 but remainded on to act as chairman of the board until 1930. McNabb became president. Ziebarth remained with the company until his death in 1952 and Howell who had resigned as chief engineer in 1939 was appointed to the chairmanship of the baord of directors where he served until his death in 1951 thus remaining with the company for three decades. McNabb died in January 1949 but had hand chosen his successor before his death - Charles Percy.

Founded by two projectionists to manufacture motion picture equipment, the firm is currently headquartered in Wheeling, Illinois, the Bell & Howell Company merged with Böwe Systec Inc in 2003 to become Böwe Bell & Howell. Currently, the company provides document processing, microfilmers, scanners, and financial services.

The trademark is also licenced to makers of various electronic consumer products.

Howel was granted nearly 150 patents during his lifetime.

Died. Albert Summers Howell, 71, co-founder of Bell & Howell Co. (movie cameras), inventor, in movie making's pioneer days, of devices and techniques which took the flicker out of movies; in Chicago. - - Time Monday, Jan. 15, 1951

Bell & Howell Company: A 75 Year History, Jack Fay Robinson. Bell & Howell Co., 1982. ISBN 0-675-02555-9

A biogrpahy also appears in Michigan Biographical Dictionary By Caryn Hannan State History Publications, Jan 1, 1998 pg. 336-338

The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography Volume 4 J.T. White, 1934 - United States pg. 255-6

... Motion Picture Engineers, and Lake Shore Athletic Club of Chicago. He was twice married: (1) June 14, 1906, to Effie Viola, daughter of Albert Vernon Brown, of Miami, Fla.; (2) Apr. 27, 1929, to Nora L. Beveridge, daughter of Norman Brown, of Porthill, Idaho. He has three sons, Vernon Albert, Kenneth Summers and Glen Orvil

Family History :

Albert Summers 'Bert' Howell Birth 17 Apr 1879 West Branch, Ogemaw County, Michigan and Death 3 Jan 1951 Chicago, Cook County, Illinois Burial Rosehill Cemetery Chicago, Cook County, Illinois He was the son of Marquis deLafayette Howell and Helen Leach Summers.

Nora Lucile Brown

Lake Maxinkuckee Its Intrigue History & Genealogy Culver, Marshall, Indiana

Albert Summers 'Bert' Howell