Bell’s HD-4
Most of us think of Alexander Graham Bell as the inventor of the telephone, as indeed he was. He was also an early pioneer in hydrofoil boats. His hydrofoil, Hydrodome #4, better known as the HD-4, set a world marine speed record in 1919.
Bell was not the first to develop a hydrofoil craft. Italian inventor Enrico Forlanini began work on hydrofoils in 1898. Bell and engineer Casey Baldwin met with Forlanini in Italy in 1911 and rode in Forlanini’s hydrofoil boat on Lake Maggiore. The craft used a ladder system of foils and was powered by a 60 hp (45 kW) engine driving two counter-rotating air propellers. It had a top speed of 68 km/h (42.5 mph).
Bell’s HD-4 was considerably larger and more powerful than Forlanini’s hydrofoil. Assisted in the design by Walter Pinaud, a Sydney yacht designer and boat builder, Bell’s HD-4 used a ladder type foil system and was powered by two 350 HP Liberty V-12 engines. On September 9, 1919, on the Bras d’Or Lakes, at Baddeck, Nova Scotia, HD-4 set a world marine speed record of 70.86 miles per hour (114.04 km/h). The video below shows the HD-4 in operation.
The Telephone?
Well, sort of, depends on who filed their patent first and who’s was actually picked-up off the pile first.
Who is credited as inventing the telephone?
Was it Alexander Graham Bell, Elisha Gray, or Antonio Meucci?
Alexander Graham Bell is often credited as the inventor of the telephone since he was awarded the first successful patent. However, there were many other inventors such as Elisha Gray and Antonio Meucci who also developed a talking telegraph.
https://www.loc.gov/rr/scitech/mysteries/telephone.html
How did he get hold of the engines? they didn’t start producing until late summer 1917 and were supposed to be for the War department.