BELL, JAMES (1824–1908), chemist, born in co. Armagh in 1824, was educated privately and at University College London, where he studied mathematics and chemistry, the latter under Dr. Alexander William Williamson [q. v. Suppl. II]. In 1846 he became an assistant in the Inland Revenue Laboratory at Somerset House, which had been established to carry out the provisions of the Tobacco Act of 1842, and was successively deputy principal from 1867 to 1874, and principal from 1874 till his resignation in 1894. The work of the laboratory was not long restricted to the examination of tobacco, but was extended to the value of brewing materials, the denaturing of alcohol for use in manufacture, and other matters affecting the excise. When the Food and Drugs Act of 1872 was amended in 1875, Bell was made chemical referee when disputed analyses of food were brought before the magistrates. In this capacity he elaborated methods for analysing chemically such articles of food as came within the operation of the Act, and in this work he made a high scientific reputation. Bell was also consulting chemist to the Indian government 1869–94. His researches into the grape and malt ferments were published in the 'Excise Officers' Manual' (1865) and in the 'Journal of the Chemical Society' in 1870. Many of his general results were embodied in his work on 'The Analysis and Adulteration of Foods' (3 pts. 1881-3; German transl., Berlin, 1882-5). His 'Chemistry of Tobacco' (1887) is another valuable scientific study. Bell's work was recognised in 1884 by his election as F.R.S., and he obtained the degree of Ph.D. from Erlangen in 1882 and received the hon. D.Sc. from the Royal University of Ireland (1886). He was made C.B. in 1889. He was a member of the Playfair committee on British and foreign spirits, and served as president of the Institute of Chemistry 1888-91. Bell died at Hove on 31 March 1908, and was buried at Ewell. He married in 1858 Ellen (d. 1900), daughter of W. Reece of Chester, and left issue one son, Sir William James Bell, alderman of the London county council (1903–7), who possesses a portrait in oils of his father, painted by W. V. Herbert in 1886.
[Proc. Roy. Soc., 82A 1909, p. v; Analyst, xxxvi. 157; Nature, lxxvii. 539; The Times, 2 April 1908.]
BELL, VALENTINE GRAEME (1839–1908), civil engineer, born in London on 27 June 1839, was youngest son of William Bell, merchant, of Aldersgate Street, London, who was subsequently official assignee in bankruptcy. Educated at private schools, and apprenticed in 1855 to Messrs. Wren & Hopkinson, engineers, of Manchester, he became in 1859 a pupil of (Sir) James Brunlees [q. v. Suppl. I]. For Brunlees he was resident engineer in 1863-5 on the Cleveland railway in Yorkshire, and in 1866-8 on the Mont Cenis railway (on the Fell system), for which he superintended the construction of special locomotives in Paris in 1869-70. While in charge of the Mont Cenis line he rebuilt for the French government the route imperiale between St. Jean de Maurienne and Lanslebourg after its destruction by flood. He was elected a member of the Institution of Civil Engineers on 4 May 1869. In 1871 he set up in private practice in London. In 1872-5 he carried out waterworks at Cadiz for a company which failed and involved him pecuniarily. With Sir George Barclay Bruce [q. v. Suppl. II] he constructed, during the same period, a railway for the Compagnie du chemin de fer du vieux port de Marseille.
In 1880 Bell took service under the colonial office in Jamaica, where his chief professional work was done. Until 1883 he was engaged in reconstructing the government railway in Jamaica between Kingston and Spanish Town, extending the line to Ewarton and Porus, and later to Montego Bay and Port Antonio. The governor, Sir Henry Norman, who recognised Bell's capacity and energy, appointed him in 1886 a member of the legislative council. Next year he became director of public works and held the office for nearly twenty-one years with admirable results. Under his direction the mileage of good roads was extended from 800 to near 2000; 110 bridges and most of the modern public buildings were built, and works for water-supply, drainage, and lighting were carried out. He unsuccessfully opposed with characteristic frankness the transfer, in 1889, of the government railways to an American syndicate, which proved a failure, the government resuming possession in 1900. He was made C.M.G in 1903. Bell resigned his appointment in March 1908, and returned to England in failing health. He died in London on 29 May 1908.
He married (1) in 1864 Rebecca (d. 1868), daughter of Alexander Bell Filson, M.D.; and (2) in 1882 Emilie Georgina, daughter of Frances Robertson Lynch, clerk of the legislative council of Jamaica. By his first marriage he had a daughter and a son, Archibald Graeme, now director
