ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL Born 1847 - Died 1922 Enter your search terms Submit search form   Web gardenofpraise.com

Alexander Graham Bell was born in Scotland. His mother, who was deaf, was a musician and a painter of portraits. His father, who taught deaf people how to speak, invented "Visible Speech". This was a code which showed how the tongue, lips, and throat were positioned to make speech sounds. Graham, or "Aleck", as his family called him, was interested in working with the deaf throughout his life.

He only attended school for five years; from the time he was 10 until he was 14, but he never stopped learning. He read the books in his grandfather's library and studied tutorials * .

When he was a teen-ager, he and his brother Melly used the voice box of a dead sheep to make a speaking machine that cried, "Mama!" This created even more interest in human speech and how it worked.

When he was in his early 20's, his two brothers died of tuberculosis * . Bell himself had the disease and his father moved the family to Canada looking for a better climate in which to live. Bell recovered from the disease.

Two years later he went to Boston to open a school for teachers of the deaf and then became a professor at Boston University. It was at this time that he met Mabel Hubbard, one of his students who was 10 years younger than he. Mabel had become deaf at the age of four due to scarlet fever. Five years later they were married. At the wedding ceremony he gave her a gift of all but 10 shares of the stock in the newly formed company called Bell Telephone Company. They had three sons.

Thomas Watson became an associate of Bell. He made parts and built models of Bell's inventions. One day while they were working Bell accidently heard the sound of a plucked reed * coming over the telegraph wire. Watson had been tuning the metal reeds in the next room. Bell drew up a plan for the telephone and they continued to experiment. The next day he transmitted the famous words, "Mr. Watson, come here. I want you!" A few months later on Feb. 14, 1876, he applied for a patent on his telephone.

He knew he would have to work quickly to get the patent * because other people were also trying to make an invention to transmit the human voice. Elisha Gray claims he too invented the telephone, but Bell got to the patent office an hour or so before he did. It is said that Antonio Meucci also succeeded with the invention before Bell.

A copy of the orginal Bell phone photo credit*

Because Bell had the patent, he had the right to be the only one to produce telephones in the U.S. for the next 19 years.

He showed the invention to Queen Victoria of England and she wanted lines to connect her castles.

By 1917, nearly all of the United State had telephone service.

He continued to invent other things. He developed a method of making phonograph * records on a wax disc. He made an iron breathing lung, and a device for locating icebergs at sea. He experimented with sheep. He was interested in kites that could lift a man, and he invented a hydrofoil * which set a world speed record of over 70 miles per hour.

He along with others started the National Geographic Society and he served as its president for several years.

He became a U.S. citizen, but he died in Canada at the age of 75.

Telephone photo licensed under Creative Commons* by Rama at Wikipedia

Cyber Telephone Museum old telephones Alexander Graham Bell Family Papers Library of Congress Bell's drawing of his telephone Alexander Graham Bell: America Listens video at Biography.com Bell's Telephone from the Franklin Institute Online Alexander Graham Bell from PBS Alexander Graham Bell Timeline Biography of Bell by David Hounshell More about Bell and Kites from Design Technology Invention of the Telephone claims that Bell was not the inventor from Guardian Unlimited Antonio Meucci inventor of telephone before Bell? (from Italian Historical.org) Congressional Resolution regarding Antonio Meucci from Popular Science.net Elisha Gray also claims to be the inventor of the telephone Video "Mr. Bell" Part 1, 13 minutes Video "Mr. Bell" Part 2, 16 minutes Online book "Inventors" Alexander Graham Bell, page 264 At biography.com search for Alexander Graham Bell. Scroll the panel for the "Video & Audio Results".

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Alexander Graham Bell By Leonard Everett Fisher / Book Club Of America Filled with powerful black-and-white paintings by Fisher and diagrams in Bell's own hand, this sophisticated picture-book biography will intrigue your 9- to 12-year-olds! They'll learn about the great scientist's lifelong fascination with voice and sound, tireless efforts on behalf of the deaf and mute, and inventions---including the telephone. 30 pages, hardcover from Simon & Schuster.

The Telephone: Turning Point Inventions By Sarah Gearhart / Book Club Of America Smoke signals, carrier pigeons, messengers---all were historical modes of long-distance communication until 1876, when Alexander Graham Bell placed the first phone call. This fascinating book details the telephone's development, its impact upon everyday life, and its future. Features lively text and intriguing photographs and illustrations. Ages 9 to 12. 80 pages, hardcover from Atheneum.

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From Word Central's Student Dictionary
by Merriam - Webster
(Pronunciation note: the schwa sound is shown by &)

tuberculosis
Pronunciation: t(y)u b&r ky& 'lo s&s
Function: noun
a disease of human beings and some other vertebrates caused by a bacterium and usually marked by wasting, fever, and formation of cheesy tubercles that in human beings occur mostly in the lungs

tutorial
Pronunciation: t(y)u 'tOr E &l
Function: noun
something written to give practical information about a subject

reed
Pronunciation: r E d
Function: noun
a thin flexible strip (as of cane, wood, metal, or plastic) fastened at one end to the mouthpiece of a musical instrument (as a clarinet) or over an air opening (as in an accordion) and set in vibration by an air current (as the breath)

patent
Pronunciation: 'pat &nt
Function: noun
an official document granting a right or privilege; especially : a writing granting to an inventor for a term of years the only right to make, use, or sell his or her invention

phonograph
Pronunciation: 'fo n& graf
Function: noun
an instrument that reproduces sound recorded on a grooved disk

hydrofoil
Pronunciation: 'hI dr& foil
Function: noun
a boat that has fins attached to the bottom by braces for lifting the hull clear of the water to allow faster speeds

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	James Monroe 5th U.S. President	Andrew Jackson 7th U.S. President	Abraham Lincoln 16th U.S.President
	Franklin D. Roosevelt 32nd U.S. President	John F. Kennedy 35th U.S. President	James Madison 4th U.S. President
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