Bell and Howell LLC is a

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-based services organization and former

manufacturer Manufacturing is the creation or production of goods with the help of equipment, labor, machines, tools, and chemical or biological processing or formulation. It is the essence of secondary sector of the economy. The term may refer to ...

camera A camera is an optical instrument that can capture an image. Most cameras can capture 2D images, with some more advanced models being able to capture 3D images. At a basic level, most cameras consist of sealed boxes (the camera body), with a ...

lens A lens is a transmissive optical device which focuses or disperses a light beam by means of refraction. A simple lens consists of a single piece of transparent material, while a compound lens consists of several simple lenses (''elements ...

es, and motion picture machinery, founded in 1907 by two projectionists, and originally headquartered in Wheeling, Illinois. The company is now headquartered in Durham, North Carolina, and currently sells production mail equipment, buy-online-pickup-in-store (BOPIS) smart locker and kiosk solutions, and provides maintenance services for automated, industrial equipment in enterprise-level companies. Since 2010, the Bell + Howell brand name has been extensively licensed for a diverse range of consumer electronics products.

History

Bell & Howell Regent home 8mm film projector

According to its charter, the 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. (10:00 CT). The first board of directors was chosen for a term of one year: Donald Joseph Bell (1869–1934), chairman; Albert Summers Howell (1879–1951), secretary; and Marguerite V. Bell (wife of Donald Bell), vice chairman. The firm built its name making products for the motion picture industry. Bell & Howell's best known contribution to Hollywood is its creation of the long time gold standard of cameras. The Bell & Howell 2709 was the first all metal, commercially available motion picture camera, and it dominated the market from 1919-1958. The 2709 was so expensive that only Charlie Chaplin and three other people owned one, while the rest were owned by studios. Bell & Howell also contributed to the movie industry through various inventions that improved the quality of the projected image in the movie theater. The Kinodrome 35-mm projector mechanism, introduced in 1907, steadied the image and reduced the annoying "flicker" that can occur during motion-picture projection. The 35-mm perforator, introduced in 1910, set the standard throughout the industry as to the expected distance and width of those little holes running on each side of the 35-mm film; before this there had been no agreed upon standard Bell & Howell further dominated the movie market by revolutionizing printing; they developed a continuous printing process in 1911. Through this step, Bell & Howell had effectively set the standards for 35-mm cameras, projection, film printing, and perforation for the entire industry. Historically, Bell & Howell Co. was an important supplier of many different media technologies, and it produced numerous products such as: *

Newsreel A newsreel is a form of short documentary film, containing news stories and items of topical interest, that was prevalent between the 1910s and the mid 1970s. Typically presented in a cinema, newsreels were a source of current affairs, inform ...

and amateur film cameras such as the Filmo (end of 1923) and

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 camer ...

(1925), and Autoload EE (1956) * Military Gun sight TYPE N-8 * Regular-8 and Super-8 film cameras and projectors (all models) * 16mm silent and sound projectors (all models); the famous ''Filmosound'' projectors dominated the market for many years *

Slide projector A slide projector is an opto-mechanical device for showing photographic slides. 35 mm slide projectors, direct descendants of the larger-format magic lantern, first came into widespread use during the 1950s as a form of occasional hom ...

s (2" × 2"; 5 cm x 5 cm) * 35mm filmstrip projectors * Overhead presentation projectors (all models) * Stereo cameras and stereo slide projectors through its TDC subsidiary *

Slide Cube Projector The Slide Cube Projector is a slide projector and system, manufactured and marketed by Bell & Howell Bell and Howell LLC is a U.S.-based services organization and former manufacturer of cameras, lenses, and motion picture machinery, founde ...

, circa 1970 In 1934, Bell & Howell introduced their first amateur 8mm movie projector, in 1935 the Filmo Straight Eight camera, and in 1936 the Double-Run Filmo 8. The 1938 Kodak cassette holding of Double-Eight film was taken by the Filmo Auto-8 in 1940. The firm added microfilm products in 1946. In 1954, Bell & Howell purchased DeVry Industries' 16mm division. Although known for manufacturing their film projectors, a partnership with

Canon Canon or Canons may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Canon (fiction), the conceptual material accepted as official in a fictional universe by its fan base * Literary canon, an accepted body of works considered as high culture ** Western ca ...

between 1961 and 1976 offered still cameras. Many of their 35mm SLR cameras were manufactured by Canon with the Bell & Howell logo or Bell & Howell/Canon in place of the Canon branding. The firm dropped the production of

movie camera A movie camera (also known as a film camera and cine-camera) is a type of photographic camera that rapidly takes a sequence of photographs, either on an image sensor or onto film stock, in order to produce a moving image to project onto a movie sc ...

s by the end of the 1970s. Bell & Howell was a 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. In 1960, Bell & Howell merged with an Electronics and Instrumentation company CEC, Lennox Road, Basingstoke, UK. This facility produced pressure transducers and other devices for applications in areas such as North Sea oil platforms, the chemical industry, and the Ariane Space vehicles. This division was divested to

Transamerica Corporation The Transamerica Corporation is an American holding company for various life insurance companies and investment firms operating primarily in the United States, offering life and supplemental health insurance, investments, and retirement services. ...

in 1983. In 1977, Bell & Howell signed an agreement with

BASF BASF SE () is a German multinational chemical company and the largest chemical producer in the world. Its headquarters is located in Ludwigshafen, Germany. The BASF Group comprises subsidiaries and joint ventures in more than 80 countries ...

to develop a new amateur videotape recorder, which would have made use of a tape on which 28 of parallel tracks were to be recorded with the aid of a fixed head. The machine was expected to be ready by Christmas 1979, but did not reach the market. Bell & Howell purchased

University Microfilms International ProQuest LLC is an Ann Arbor, Michigan-based global information-content and technology company, founded in 1938 as University Microfilms by Eugene B. Power. ProQuest is known for its applications and information services for libraries, providi ...

in the 1980s. UMI produced a product called ProQuest. In the 2000s, Bell & Howell decided to focus on their information technology businesses. The imaging business was sold to Eastman Kodak, and the international mail business was sold to

Pitney Bowes Pitney Bowes Inc. is an American technology company most known for its postage meters and other mailing equipment and services, and with expansions into e-commerce, software, and other technologies. The company was founded by Arthur Pitney, who ...

. On June 6, 2001, Bell & Howell became a

ProQuest ProQuest LLC is an Ann Arbor, Michigan-based global information-content and technology company, founded in 1938 as University Microfilms by Eugene B. Power. ProQuest is known for its applications and information services for libraries, provid ...

Company, which was then a publicly traded company, but is now a subsidiary of the private

Cambridge Information Group Cambridge Information Group (CIG) is a privately held global investment firm focusing on information services, education and technology. It began as a firm providing services to academic publishers. It is headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland. As ...

. In September 2001, the remaining industrial businesses along with the Bell & Howell name were sold to private equity firm Glencoe Capital. The company merged with the North American arm of Böwe Systec Inc. In 2003, Böwe Systec later acquired the entire company. It was known as Böwe Bell & Howell until 2011, when Versa Capital Management bought the company out of bankruptcy and renamed the company "Bell and Howell, LLC". Based on the company's long history with motion picture equipment and other technologies, in 2010 consumer electronics manufacturer Elite Brands entered an agreement to license the Bell + Howell brand name to market lines of optical and imaging products including digital cameras and camcorders, binoculars, telescopes, lenses, and various camera accessories. Elite Brands similarly licenses the

Minolta was a Japanese manufacturer of cameras, camera accessories, photocopiers, fax machines, and laser printers. Minolta Co., Ltd., which is also known simply as Minolta, was founded in Osaka, Japan, in 1928 as . It made the first integrated aut ...

brand name for camcorders and digital cameras and is also the exclusive producer of Coleman electronics and optics products. BHH, LLC has also expanded licensing of the Bell + Howell brand name into a multitude of categories for a diverse range of products including lighting and security, personal care, tools, pest control, auto accessories and luggage. In 2011 a digital video recorder was released featuring the Bell + Howell brand. In 2017 the company spun off the mail sorting business, including vote by mail, to Fluence Automation, which was then acquired by BlueCrest Inc. in 2021. BlueCrest had acquired the Pitney-Bowes document messaging business in 2018. In December 2018, Versa Capital Management, LLC (“Versa”) announced the successful closing of the sale of Bell and Howell to Boston-based WestView Capital Partners (“WestView").

Apple II

Bell & Howell marketed a specially designed Apple II Plus computer to the educational market beginning in July 1979. The modified Apple had additional security elements for classroom use such as a tamper-proof cover. The case color was black but the inside was a standard Apple II Plus. The modified Apple II became known colloquially among computer enthusiasts as the "

Darth Vader Darth Vader is a fictional character in the ''Star Wars'' franchise. The character is the central antagonist of the original trilogy and, as Anakin Skywalker, is one of the main protagonists in the prequel trilogy. ''Star Wars'' creator George ...

" Apple II for its black case design.

Education Group

Bell & Howell founded an Education Group within the 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 DeVry University () is a private for-profit university with its headquarters in Naperville, Illinois. It was founded in 1931 by Herman A. DeVry and is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission. DeVry is predominantly an online educator but ...

. Two years later in 1968, Bell & Howell's Education Group, via a controlling interest in DeVry, acquired Ohio Institute of Technology in Columbus, Ohio.Page six of the Ohio Institute of Technology Student hand book from the school year 1974-1975 Over the years, the Education Group has bought and sold large interests in a variety of educational organizations and institutions, including

Heathkit Heathkit is the brand name of kits and other electronic products produced and marketed by the Heath Company. The products over the decades have included electronic test equipment, high fidelity home audio equipment, television receivers, amateu ...

which supplied electronic kitsets for Bell & Howell courses.

Gallery

File:Bell & Howell Stock Certificate (Specimen).jpg, Specimen stock certificate Vintage Bell & Howell 8mm Movie Camera With Electric Eye (12103320673).jpg, 8mm Movie Camera with Electric Eye Image:Bell_Howell_Filmo_2.jpg, Bell & Howell 8mm amateur camera ''Filmo Straight Eight'' Image:Zaprudercamera.jpg, Bell & Howell Zoomatic movie camera used to shoot the

Zapruder film The Zapruder film is a silent 8mm color motion picture sequence shot by Abraham Zapruder with a Bell & Howell home-movie camera, as United States President John F. Kennedy's motorcade passed through Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas, on November ...

, in the collection of the U.S. National Archives File:Vintage Bell & Howell Two Twenty 8mm Movie Camera, Made In USA (20429387376).jpg, Bell & Howell 8mm home movie camera, model ''Two Twenty'' File:Wildwood, Toledo, OH 43615, USA - panoramio (13).jpg, Bell & Howell 200 Movie Camera File:Bell & Howell Autoload 309 Super 8 Camera.jpg, Bell & Howell Autoload 309 Super 8 Camera File:Bell and Howell Apple II.jpg, Educational version of Apple II computer File:623circlesevendrive.JPG, Bell & Howell's former

western United States The Western United States (also called the American West, the Far West, and the West) is the region comprising the westernmost states of the United States. As American settlement in the U.S. expanded westward, the meaning of the term ''the We ...

regional headquarters at 623 Circle Seven Drive (formerly 623 Rodier Drive) in Glendale, California

References

Notes Bibliography
"Unlocking the Vault"
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''. Dated November 13, 2000, viewed December 7, 2006
BHP Inc Website
viewed December 7, 2006 *

External links

*
European & International Sector
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