Alexander Graham Bell - the man who invented the telephone.
School period
Gallery of Alexander Bell
Edinburgh's Royal High School, Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom
From 1858 to 1860 Alexander Bell studied at Edinburgh's Royal High School.
College/University
Gallery of Alexander Bell
University College London, London, City of London, United Kingdom
From 1868 to 1870 Bell studied at the University College London but didn't receive a degree due to his departure from the United Kingdom to Canada along with his family.
Gallery of Alexander Bell
University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom
From 1863 to 1865 Bell studied at the University of Edinburgh but didn't graduate.
Career
Gallery of Alexander Bell
1892
Bell at the opening of the long-distance line from New York to Chicago.
Gallery of Alexander Bell
1902
Alexander Graham Bell, three-quarter length portrait, standing, facing right, by window. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congres.
Gallery of Alexander Bell
1906
Bell, an alumnus of the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, receiving an honorary Doctor of Laws degree (LL.D.) at the university.
Gallery of Alexander Bell
1906
Alexander Graham Bell, inventor, at home in Brantford. Alexander Bell and party at the home of the telephone, Brantford, Ontario (courtesy British Library).
Gallery of Alexander Bell
1914
Dr. and Mrs. Alexander Graham Bell in their motorboat Ranzo at Beinn Bhreagh (20 August 1914). Courtesy Library and Archives Canada.
Gallery of Alexander Bell
1940
A postal stamp representing A.G. Bell.
Gallery of Alexander Bell
Alexander Graham Bell (March 3, 1847 – August 2, 1922) was a Scottish-born scientist, inventor, engineer, and innovator who is credited with inventing and patenting the first practical telephone. He also founded the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T) in 1885.
Gallery of Alexander Bell
Alexander Graham Bell in his later years.
Gallery of Alexander Bell
Alexander Graham Bell
Gallery of Alexander Bell
Alexander Graham Bell
Gallery of Alexander Bell
Alexander Graham Bell's invention of the telephone grew out of his research on improving the telegraph.
Gallery of Alexander Bell
Alexander Graham Bell in his later years.
Gallery of Alexander Bell
Alexander Graham Bell
Gallery of Alexander Bell
Mabel Hubbard Bell, Alexander Graham Bell, Dr. Bartol, Alexander Melville Bell, Eliza Grace Symonds, and Mary True with children, Daisy Bell, Gypsy Grossman, and Elsie Bell at the Hubbard home in Manchester.
Gallery of Alexander Bell
Alexander and Mabel Bell
Achievements
Bell Telephone Building, Brantford, Ontario, Canada
Bell statue by A. E. Cleeve Horne, similar in style to the Lincoln Memorial, in the front portico of the Bell Telephone Building of Brantford, Ontario, The Telephone City. Courtesy: Brantford Heritage Inventory, City of Brantford, Ontario, Canada.
Membership
National Geographic Society
1888 - 1922
National Geographic Society, Washington, D.C., United States
Bell was a member and one of the founders of the National Geographic Society, that was founded in 1888.
Awards
Volta Prize
1880
Bell received the Volta prize for his achievements in the field of electrical science.
Albert Medal
1902
Bell received the Albert Medal issued by the Royal Society of Arts, for his invention of the telephone.
John Fritz Medal
1907
Bell received the John Fritz Medal issued by the American Association of Engineering Societies for his outstanding scientific achievements.
Elliot Cresson Medal
1912
Bell received the Elliot Cresson Medal given by the Franklin Institute in 1912 for his electrical transmission of articulate speech.
Alexander Graham Bell, inventor, at home in Brantford. Alexander Bell and party at the home of the telephone, Brantford, Ontario (courtesy British Library).
Alexander Graham Bell (March 3, 1847 – August 2, 1922) was a Scottish-born scientist, inventor, engineer, and innovator who is credited with inventing and patenting the first practical telephone. He also founded the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T) in 1885.
University College London, London, City of London, United Kingdom
From 1868 to 1870 Bell studied at the University College London but didn't receive a degree due to his departure from the United Kingdom to Canada along with his family.
Bell Telephone Building, Brantford, Ontario, Canada
Bell statue by A. E. Cleeve Horne, similar in style to the Lincoln Memorial, in the front portico of the Bell Telephone Building of Brantford, Ontario, The Telephone City. Courtesy: Brantford Heritage Inventory, City of Brantford, Ontario, Canada.
Bell’s attempt to perfect Edison’s phonograph, he invented the microphone, a device that would have a host of applications ranging from music to eventually broadcasting. The aim of creating a microphone was to allow users to speak in a normal voice rather than shouting to be heard on a call.
Alexander Graham Bell's sketch of a telephone. He filed the patent for his telephone at the United States Patent Office on February 14, 1876 - just two hours before a rival, Elisha Gray, filed a declaration of intent to file a patent for a similar device.
Alexander Graham Bell filing the patent for his telephone at the United States Patent Office on February 14, 1876, two hours before declaration of a rival device by Elisha Gray. Bell's telephone is on the table to the right.
Mabel Hubbard Bell, Alexander Graham Bell, Dr. Bartol, Alexander Melville Bell, Eliza Grace Symonds, and Mary True with children, Daisy Bell, Gypsy Grossman, and Elsie Bell at the Hubbard home in Manchester.
Upon the Electrical Experiments to Determine the Location of the Bullet in the Body of the Late President Garfield; and Upon a Successful Form of Metallic Masses in the Human Body
Sheep Catalogue of Beinn Bhreagh, Victoria Co., Nova Scotia: Showing the Origin of the Multi-Nippled Sheep of Beinn Breagh, and Giving All the Descendants Down to 1903
(Bell perfected the phonograph and created graphophone.)
Bell perfected the phonograph and created graphophone.
https://www.britannica.com/technology/Graphophone
1886
AEA Silver Dart
(On February 23, 1909, Bell was present as the Silver Dart...)
On February 23, 1909, Bell was present as the Silver Dart flown by J. A. D. McCurdy from the frozen ice of Bras d'Or made the first aircraft flight in Canada.
(On September 9, 1919, the HD-4 set a world marine speed r...)
On September 9, 1919, the HD-4 set a world marine speed record of 70.86 miles per hour (114.04 kilometres per hour), a record which stood for ten years.
Alexander Graham Bell was a famous American inventor, scientist, and educator. His most famous invention was the telephone, which was the single most valuable patent ever issued. Bell had a total of 18 patents he held alone and 12 he shared with colleagues. These included graphophone, a refined version of the phonograph, and a metal detector. He spent his life teaching at various schools for deaf people and worked on improving their life.
Background
Alexander Graham Bell was born on March 3, 1847, in Edinburgh, Scotland. He was the second son of Alexander Melville Bell and Eliza Grace Symmonds Bell. He was named after his grandfather, and his middle name "Graham" was added when he was 10 in honor of the family friend Alexander Graham, whom he respected very much. His hometown of Edinburgh was thought to be "Athens of the North" due to its rich science culture. In combination with his family, these had great influence on Alexander's youth, which will show later in his life. His mother was nearly deaf but managed to became a reputable pianist, and his father and grandfather were teaching elocution to the deaf, which very much influenced Alexander's career.
Education
Alexander Bell's education began at a very early age since he was home-schooled by Eliza, his mother, who helped him develop a great curiosity and taught him to use logic and not be afraid of big challenges. After receiving one year of formal education in a private school, he entered Edinburgh's Royal High School at age 11, where he studied for two years until his graduation. Despite not being a great student, he showed incredible ability to solve problems with an innovative approach.
Before enrolling to the Edinburgh's University, he was offered a post of pupil-teacher of music and elocution in Weston House Academy at Elgin, Scotland when he was 16. Bell failed to graduate due to the family moving to London in 1865. The move followed after the deaths of his two brothers from tuberculosis. Bell didn't have much trouble passing entrance examinations for University College of London in 1868. However, he didn't graduate that University either, because his family moved again in 1870. This time the destination was Brentford, Ontario, Canada. Bell didn't spend a lot of time there and moved to Boston in 1871.
Later in his life, Alexander Bell was granted the honorable Doctor of Science degree from numerous universities including foreign, such as the University of Würzburg in Würzburg, Bavaria (1882), Heidelberg University in Heidelberg, Germany (Doctor of Medicine) in 1886, Gallaudet College (then named National Deaf-Mute College) in Washington in 1880. He was also a recipient of the honorable Doctor of Law degree which was given to him by a vast number of academic institutions, such as Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1896, Illinois College, in Jacksonville, Illinois in 1896, Amherst College in Amherst, Massachusetts in 1901, the St. Andrew's University in St Andrews, Scotland in 1902, the University of Oxford in Oxford, England in 1906, the University of Edinburgh in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1906, the George Washington University in Washington, D.C. in 1913, Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada in 1908, Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire in 1914.
When Bell moved to Boston, Massachusetts, in 1871, Bell started teaching at Sarah Fuller's School for the Deaf, which was the first school of that type in the world. He was appointed as the professor of voice and speech at Boston University and there started up organizing conventions for teachers of deaf people. He never gave up his teaching profession and tried to help the deaf during his whole life, which is why he founded the American Association for Promoting the Teaching of Speech to the Deaf.
Aside from teaching, Bell started experimenting with different inventions. He secured funding for these experiments from two local investors, one of which was Gardiner Hubbard, a father of a deaf daughter who Bell later married. In summer 1874, Bell conducted different experiments with the human ear, smoked glass, magnets, and other things. This is when he came up with a theory of an electric speaking telegraph (the telephone). His idea was to change the force of an electric current as the pressure of air changes during the production of the sound. During that year, he patented a telegraph able to send more messages simultaneously using just one wire.
He was working closely with Thomas Watson, who was in charge of creating the equipment needed for Bell's ideas. Finally, in 1875, they managed to transmit a musical note. The transmitter and receiver were completely identical - an electromagnet with a thin disk in front.
In 1876, Bell and Watson finally made it. The legend has it that Bell had made a call to Watson who was in the other room and told him "Mr. Watson, come here, I want to talk to you!" which was the very first phone call made in the human history. Bell was granted the patent for the "electric speaking telephone", which was the most valuable patent ever issued.
A series of public demonstrations were made during 1876. Emperor of Brazil was present at one of them and was so fascinated that he immediately ordered 100 of them for his country. Demonstrations of telephone quickly became a big hit throughout the United States.
In 1877, telephone reached private homes and a conversation was done between Boston and New York with the help of telegraph lines. Bell decided to create a company called "Bell Telephone Company" which became the first organization to earn from making telephones. During that year, Bell married Mable Hubbard and used his honeymoon to present his invention in France and England.
However, despite the invention of the telephone made him incredibly wealthy, he lost interest in telephony in the years to follow, so he sold most of his stock holdings in the company in the 1880s. Instead, he got interested in sound recording and playback technology. When he received the Volta Prize from the French government, he created Volta laboratory, where deafness and improving the quality of deaf people's lives were studied. Bell took phonograph, the invention that Thomas Edison created in 1877, and improved it significantly, making it fit for commercial use. The device was called Graphophone and was granted a patent in 1886. The money he made with that invention was used to improve the Volta laboratory.
Bell also developed an electrical bullet to be used by surgeons. When the president of the United States James A. Garfield was shot in 1881, doctors couldn't locate the bullet using physical probing. Bell used an induction balance to make a device that will emit a tone when there was a metal object in its proximity. Unfortunately, he couldn't help the President, but when he perfected the probe, surgeons accepted it and a lot of lives were saved during World War I (1914-18) thanks to this invention.
In 1885, Bell took a vacation in Nova Scotia, Canada and was amazed by the landscape over there. Soon after that, Bell bought more that 50 acres of land on Cape Breton Island and started constructing an estate he called "Beautiful Mountain" (Beinn Bhreagh).
By the end of the 19th century, Bell got interested in flying. Although he hasn't made any serious progress himself, he founded the Aerial Experiment Association in 1907, which made great progress when it comes to aircraft design and helped Glenn Hammonds Curtiss, a pioneer aviator, during his career.
Bell tried to help the scientific world throughout his life. He was the investor for the Science journal, which the American Association for the Advancement of Science later published as their official journal. He also founded National Geographic Society in 1888, along with Gardiner Hubbard, his father-in-law.
There is little information about his family religious beliefs. it is thought they belonged to the Church of Scotland and were of Anglican/Presbyterian/Episcopalian faith. Later in his life, Bell declared himself to be an Agnostic attracted to the Unitarian Church and its theology of many theories. "Concerning death and immortality, salvation, faith and all other points of theoretical religion, I know absolutely nothing and can frame no beliefs whatsoever," stated Bell at one point of his life.
Politics
Alexander Bell was mostly Machiavellian and somewhat fascist when it comes to his political views. He thought that politics were about dominance, power and the greater good for most of the people, even if the minority has to pay the price. Considering that the assassination of James A. Garfield influenced him to make the world's first metal detector, it can be thought that he was inclined towards the American President that ruled at that time.
Views
Bell was a man of science. He was highly rational and looked for a logical explanation for every problem. He was known for using mechanics and innovation to overcome any obstacle that was before him. He looked at the world as a place it could be, and not a place it is. He looked at the world as another of his machines that needed perfecting.
He was very methodical and believed that preparation is a very important part of the working process. He considered every experiment to be extremely important, even the ones that didn't succeed because they produced results people can learn from.
Bell was very interested in ecology and how to save the planet and improve life of people on it. Bell's interests also included alternative fuels, believing that the Earth will soon run out of oil and coal, which were main sources of energy. This is why Bell believed that people should invest in harvesting solar power.
Bell was heavily involved in American eugenics. His personal views on eugenics were quite complex. Although he supported eugenics in principle, he had reservations about the methods used in the United States. In correspondence with Charles Davenport, for example, Bell stressed the need to study the heritability of desirable traits, rather than exclusively focusing on undesirable traits. By focusing on heredity, Bell believed the race could be advanced, not just preserved. Bell was also particularly interested in issues of marriage and wished to encourage couplings between people with desirable traits. He felt this attitude towards eugenics interfered less with the "liberty of the individual in his pursuit of happiness" (Bell, n.d.).
Bell applied his study of eugenics to his goal of preventing the creation of a deaf race and presented his paper Memoir Upon the Formation of a Deaf Variety of the Human Race to the National Academy of Sciences in 1883. Bell stated, "Those who believe as I do, that the production of a defective race of human beings would be a great calamity to the world, will examine carefully the causes that will lead to the intermarriage of the deaf with the object of applying a remedy." In this paper, he proposed to reduce the number of the deaf by discouraging deaf-mute to deaf-mute marriages, advocating speech reading and articulation training for an oral-only method of education, removing the use deaf teachers and sign language from the classroom.
Quotations:
"Sometimes we stare so long at a door that is closing that we see too late the one that is open."
"Before anything else, preparation is the key to success."
"A man, as a general rule, owes very little to what he is born with - a man is what he makes of himself."
“Concentrate all your thoughts upon the work at hand. The sun’s rays do not burn until brought to focus.”
“When one door closes, another door opens; but we so often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door, that we do not see the ones which open for us.”
“Great discoveries and improvements invariably involve the cooperation of many minds.”
“The most successful men, in the end, are those whose success is the result of steady accretion.”
“You cannot force ideas. Successful ideas are the result of slow growth.”
“The achievement of one goal should be the starting point of another.”
“The only difference between success and failure is the ability to take action.”
“Leave the beaten track behind occasionally and dive into the woods. Every time you do you will be certain to find something you have never seen before.”
“The inventor… looks upon the world and is not contented with things as they are. He wants to improve whatever he sees, he wants to benefit the world; he is haunted by an idea. The spirit of invention possesses him, seeking materialization.”
“The day will come when the man at the telephone will be able to see the distant person to whom he is speaking.”
"Leave the beaten track occasionally and dive into the woods. Every time you do so you will be certain to find something that you have never seen before. Follow it up, explore all around it, and before you know it, you will have something worth thinking about to occupy your mind. All really big discoveries are the results of thought."
"The day is coming when telegraph wires will be laid on to houses just like water or gas - and friends will converse with each other without leaving home."
Membership
Bell was a member and one of the founders of the National Geographic Society, that was founded in 1888. He later became President of the society, the position he was at from 1897 to 1903. He was also a member and the founder of the American Association for Promoting the Teaching of Speech to the Deaf and the Aerial Experiment Association. Bell was elected to membership in the National Academy of Sciences in 1883.
National Geographic Society
,
United States
1888 - 1922
Personality
Bell was very formal in his behavior, charismatic, driven, elegant, held himself with dignity, and well-deserved importance. From an early age, he had an inquisitive mind and became fascinated with acoustics and voice patterns. He was stubborn and often conflicted with his father and other famous inventors of the time. Although Bell had a tense relationship with his own father, he was heavily influenced by him and his grandfather, both of whom devoted their careers to voice mechanics and elocution.
While not the best student, Bell had an uncanny talent for problem-solving. At 12 years old, he invented a farming device for his friend’s father that quickly and efficiently removed the husks from wheat grain.
It's not widely known that Bell was a brilliant piano player, something that his mother taught him during the early ages of his life. His mother also instilled his curiosity for learning and knowledge.
Physical Characteristics:
Bell almost all his life suffered from Dyslexia. He had a voluptuous beard that he grew as a young man. The beard grew in size and became a sort of a statement in his later years. Later in life, Bell developed a bad case of diabetes that became fatal for him and he died of complications on August 2, 1922.
Interests
ecology, piano, medicine
Politicians
James A. Garfield
Connections
Bell married American Mabel Hubbard in 1877 and became a naturalized American citizen in 1882. Mabel was ten years younger than Bell and also was his former student. She was completely deaf. Bell and Mabel had four children, two daughters - Elsie Bell and Marian Hubbard Bell - and two sons - Robert Bell and Edward Bell. From the mid-1880s, he and his family spent their summers near Baddeck on Cape Breton Island, where they built a large home, Beinn Bhreagh.