Bell & Howell is a U.S.

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

-based former manufacturer of motion picture machinery, founded as Bell & Howell in 1907 by two projectionists, and headquartered in Wheeling, Illinois

Wheeling, Illinois

Wheeling is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States, and a suburb of Chicago. The population was 34,496 at the 2000 census, and 38,555 at the 2006 special village census.-Geography:Wheeling is located at ....

. The company merged with Böwe Systec Inc. in 2003; it was known as Böwe Bell & Howell until 2011, when Versa Capital Management bought the company and returned it to its original name.

Bell and Howell provides document processing, microfilmer

Microfilmer

A microfilmer is a machine used by the document management industry to create microfilm. These machines are also often called "imagers" in the industry. A microfilmer is a camera that is used to photograph documents to create a more compact and permanent record of the original in the form of...

s, scanners, and financial services. The "Bell & Howell" trademark is also licensed to makers of various electronic consumer products.

History

According to its charter, Bell & Howell Company was incorporated on February 17, 1907. It was duly 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 Bell, chairman; Albert Summers Howell, secretary; and Marguerite V. Bell (wife of Donald Bell), vice chairman. Austin Delaney was the President of Bell and Howell in Canada in the 1960's and 70's. He moved with his family from England.

Historically, Bell & Howell Co. was an important supplier of many different media technologies.

The firm built its name making products such as

• a rotary framer on 35mm film projectors in 1907
• a 35mm film perforator in 1908
• Professional 35mm motion-picture film cameras from 1909 on
• Printing equipment used by motion-picture film laboratories since 1911
• The Standard Cinematograph Type 2709 hand-cranked camera (used in early silent films, it was so expensive that only Charlie Chaplin
  Charlie Chaplin
  Sir Charles Spencer "Charlie" Chaplin, KBE was an English comic actor, film director and composer best known for his work during the silent film era. He became the most famous film star in the world before the end of World War I...
  
   and three other people owned one http://www.retrothing.com/2007/06/for-sale-charli.html. The rest were owned by studios)
• Newsreel and amateur film cameras such as the Filmo
  Filmo
  Filmo is a series of 16-mm movie equipment made by the Bell & Howell Company. The line included cameras, projectors and accessories.-History:...
  
   (end of 1923) and Eyemo
  Eyemo
  The Eyemo is a 35 mm motion-picture film camera which was manufactured by the Bell & Howell Co. of Chicago.-Background:Designed and first manufactured in 1925, it was for many years the most compact 35 mm motion-picture film camera of the hundred foot capacity...
  
   (1925), and Autoload EE (1956)
• Military 16mm film gun camera TYPE N-6A
• Regular-8 and Super-8 film cameras and projectors (all models)
• 16mm silent and sound projectors (all models)
• Slide projectors (2" X 2")
• Overhead presentation projectors (all models)

In 1934 Bell & Howell introduced the first light weight amateur 8-mm movie camera, in which the film was loaded in a cassette that allowed daylight loading and unloading.

Although known for manufacturing their film projectors, a partnership with Canon between 1961-1976 added still photography to their product lineup - their 35mm SLR cameras were manufactured by Canon with the Bell & Howell logo in its place. The firm dropped the production of movie camera

Movie camera

The movie camera is a type of photographic camera which takes a rapid sequence of photographs on strips of film which was very popular for private use in the last century until its successor, the video camera, replaced it...

s in the early 1970s.

Bell & Howell has been the leading supplier of media equipment for schools and offices. The film laboratory line is now a separate company, BHP Inc, which is a division of Research Technology International.

The firm added microfilm products in 1946. It purchased University Microfilms International

University Microfilms International

University Microfilms International or UMI, was founded in the 1930s by Eugene Power in Ann Arbor. By June 1938, Power worked in two rented rooms from a downtown Ann Arbor funeral parlor, specializing in microphotography to preserve library collections...

 in the 1980s. UMI produced a product called ProQuest. On June 6, 2001 Bell & Howell became ProQuest

ProQuest

ProQuest LLC is an Ann Arbor, Michigan-based electronic publisher and microfilm publisher.It provides archives of sources such as newspapers, periodicals, dissertations, and aggregated databases of many types. Its content is estimated at 125 billion digital pages...

 Company (NYSE "PQE").

Consumer products

Currently, third-party companies offer a number of consumer products licensed under the Bell & Howell name, including:

• Digital camera
• 35mm camera
• Handheld LCD TV
• Portable radio
• Sunlight Floor Lamp
• Sunlight Desk Lamp
• Ionic Whisper Air Purifier and Ionizer
• Alarm System
• Sonic Earz
• Bio7 Pain Therapist
• Solar Powered Flood Lights
• Noise Reduction Headphones
• ZX-7 Shaver

Apple II

Bell & Howell briefly marketed a version of the Apple II in a Black case to educational institutions.

Education Group

Bell & Howell founded an Education Group within their company in 1907. This Education Group created Bell & Howell Schools in 1966. In that same year, the Education Group purchased a controlling share of DeVry Institute of Technology. Two years later in 1968, Bell & Howell’s Education Group, via a controlling interest in DeVry, acquired Ohio Institute of Technology in Columbus, Ohio. Over the years, the Education Group has bought and sold large interests in a variety of educational organizations and institutions.

See also

• Charles H. Percy
  Charles H. Percy
  Charles Harting "Chuck" Percy was president of the Bell & Howell Corporation from 1949 to 1964. He was elected United States Senator from Illinois in 1966, re-elected through his term ending in 1985; he concentrated on business and foreign relations...
  
  
• Abraham Zapruder
  Abraham Zapruder
  Abraham Zapruder was an American manufacturer of women's clothing. He was filming with a home-movie camera as U.S. President John F...
  
  
• TeleMation Inc.
  TeleMation Inc.
  TeleMation Inc was a company specializing in products for the television industry, post production and Film industry. Was Located in Salt Lake City, Utah. TeleMation started with a line of B&W video equipment and later manufactured Color Video Products. Lyle Keys was the founder and President of...
  
  In 1977 TeleMation inc. became a division of Bell and Howell.

External links

• Böwe Bell + Howell site.
• European & International Sector.
• The Zapruder Camera Bell & Howell 414PD Director Series - Overview and User's Manual.