Scottish-born scientist and inventor (1847–1922) who conceived the telephone, founded the Bell Telephone Company, and invented various devices for aiding the deaf. TLS, one page, 8 x 10.5, Beinn Bhreagh letterhead, January 9, 1909. Bell writes to W. S. Clime at the Department of Agriculture. In full: “I hope you have not forgotten to have enlargements made of your photographs of the flight of Orville Wright at Fort Meyer. Mr. Claudy reports that his photographs have been enlarged by the Eastman Kodak Company and that ‘They are, with no exceptions, the most beautiful prints possible to conceive of’ as coming from his negatives. I should like very much to have your set completed as soon as possible so that I may turn my photographs over to the National Museum.” After signing, Bell adds a handwritten postscript: “I would like very much to see the last picture you took of The Wright machine just before the accident, AGB.” The Aerial Experiment Association (AEA) was formed in 1907 under the tutelage of Bell. Bell was a supporter of aerospace engineering research through the Aerial Experiment Association, officially formed at Baddeck, Nova Scotia, in October 1907 at the suggestion of Mrs. Mabel Bell and with her financial support.The founding members were four young men: American Glenn H. Curtiss, a motorcycle manufacturer who later was awarded the Scientific American Trophy for the first official one-kilometer flight in the Western hemisphere and became a world-renowned airplane manufacturer; Frederick W. “Casey” Baldwin, the first Canadian and first British subject to pilot a public flight in Hammondsport, New York and J.A.D. McCurdy. The group attracted sufficient attention to inspire the United States government to request that an official observer be allowed to join. Their nominee was U. S. Army Lieutenant Thomas Selfridge. On September 17, 1908, with Army observer Selfridge on board, Wright’s airplane experienced a mechanical malfunction involving one of the propellers and crashed. Orville was severely injured and Selfridge died, the first fatality in a powered airplane. There was talk of the remaining members forming a commercial company, but nothing came of it, and on March 31, 1909, the Aerial Experiment Association was unceremoniously disbanded, with commercial rights to its designs and patents assigned to Glenn Curtiss. In very good condition, with mild overall toning, intersecting folds, small areas of edge discoloration, mounting remnants on reverse lightly showing through, and a small area of paper loss to top left. Auction LOA John Reznikoff/PSA/DNA and R&R COA.
