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

Work a Jigsaw Puzzle Online Crossword Puzzle Online Word Search Online Word Scramble Color Picture Online

PRINTABLES Alexander Graham Bell Word Search Alexander Graham Bell Crossword Puzzle Alexander Graham Bell - Word Scramble Alexander Graham Bell Study Sheet Worksheet Color a picture of Alexander Graham Bell

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 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".

Answer Connect: If you're a business looking for
telephone answering service
try Answer Connect!

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.

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

Biographies in this Series

Presidents of the United States	George Washington 1st U.S. President	John Adams 2nd U.S. President	Thomas Jefferson 3rd U.S.President
	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
	Theodore Roosevelt 26th U.S. President
American Patriots	Benjamin Franklin patriot and statesman	Francis Scott Key Star Spangled Banner	Deborah Sampson woman soldier in the Revolutionary War
World Leaders	Constantine Roman Emperor	Alexander the Great conqueror	Winston Churchill British Prime Minister
Inventors	Alexander Graham Bell telephone	Johann Gutenberg printing press	Cyrus McCormick mechanical reaper
	The Wright Brothers first airplane	Henry Ford Automaker	Thomas A. Edison electric light bulb
	Sequoyah Cherokee alphabet	Nikola Tesla 700 patents	.
Explorers	Christopher Columbus explorer	Meriwether Lewis explorer	Robert Peary Arctic explorer
	John Muir Naturalist	Matthew Henson Arctic Explorer	Sir Edmund Hillary Mr.Everest
	Kit Carson Indian agent	"Johnny Appleseed" orchardist	.
Women who made a difference	Clara Barton founder of the Red Cross	Helen Keller overcame blindness & deafness	Florence Nightingale founder of nursing profession
	Joan of Arc religious and military leader	Amelia Earhart Aviator	Annie Oakley sharpshooter
	Susan B. Anthony Suffragette	Elizabeth Keckly Seamstress	Harriet Tubman deliverer of slaves
	Anne Frank Diarist	Eleanor Roosevelt Humanitarian	.
Scientists	George Washington Carver botanist and educator	Sir Isaac Newton explained gravity and properties of light	Marie Curie scientist, physicist
	Louis Pasteur Biologist	Albert Einstein physicist, genius	Galileo Astronomer, physicist
Educators	Noah Webster writer of dictionary	Booker T. Washington leader and educator	Aristotle Greek philosopher
Physicians	Hippocrates father of medicine	Walter Reed discovered cause of yellow fever	Albert Schweitzer humanitarian
Religious Leaders	Increase Mather Salem witch trials	.
Athletes	Lou Gehrig baseball player	Wilma Rudolph Olympic gold medal winner	Tiger Woods golfer
	Michael Phelps Olympic swimmer	.	.
Civil Rights Leaders	Martin Luther King civil rights leader	Rosa Parks bus desegregation	Sojourner Truth Former slave
	Frederick Douglass Abolitionist	Mary Ann Shadd Cary Civil rights leader	James Forten Inventor, abolitionist
Composers	Beethoven composer
Artists	John James Audubon artist and naturalist	Gutzon Borglum sculptor, Mount Rushmore	Ansel Adams photographer

Home


Back to Famous Leaders







Pictures courtesy of Wikimedia Commons and the Alexander Graham Bell National Historic Site of Canada.

Puzzles on these pages courtesy of
Songs of Praise and Armored Penguin