The Legendary inventor Alexander Graham Bell

Who was Alexander Graham Bell?Best known as the inventor of the telephone but he also worked with deaf and also some of the world’s earliest airplanes. Taught “Visible Speech” (his father’s speech methods of teaching the deaf) in Boston University. He is the son of Alexander Melville and Eliza Grace Symonds.

What encouraged him to invent things?He was not an electrician nor did he have any experience with making electrical gadgets. Infect he was an expert in philosophy and anatomy but he had edge cutting interest in how the human ear works. He even worked with real human ears and cadavers which were supplied by one of his father’s doctor friend. It was the understanding and the learning about how the human ears works helped to invent the telephone.

Where was he born?He was born in Edinburgh, Scotland in March 3rd 1847.

When did he move to Canada?In August 1, 1870, at age 23 Bell moved to Canada with his family. First landed in Quebec then later they settled near Brantford, Ontario at a country cottage, now known as Tutela Heights.

How did he come up with idea of telephone?As his father Professor Alexander Melville Bell worked with the deaf, he invented the visible speech (a method to teach the deaf). Later in Boston University he taught his father’s methods and working with the human voice gave him the idea transmitting speech electrically and that’s what led him to invent the telephone.

What other things did he do besides inventing?http://www.biographi.ca/009004-119.01-e.php?&id_nbr=7894http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=J1ARTJ0000662NOTES:A human with the lack ability to express themselves by using oral communication was pretty much useless to the society. http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=J1SEC917596http://www.design-technology.org/bell.htmhttp://www.bce.ca/en/aboutbce/history/index.phphttp://www.agbell.org/DesktopDefault.aspx?linkid=1&MnuID=1http://www.fitzgerald.ca/html/bell/humanitarian.html1 space after, and 2 space after.

The Legendary inventor Alexander Graham BellVomit section:

Alexander Graham Bell is widely known for his greatest invention, the telephone. He was a well experienced teacher to the deaf, a scientist and a very inquiring inventor. Not only was Bell the inventor of the telephone but he also had a major experience with some of the earliest airplanes and had many outstanding methods and ideas on educating the deaf.

Alexander Graham Bell was born in Edinburgh, Scotland on March 3rd 1847. He was the second son of Alexander Melville Bell and Eliza Grace Symonds. In 1870, at the age of 23 the young Scottish inventor moved to Canada with his family. They first landed in Quebec City and then later they settled near Brantford, Ontario at a country cottage, now known as Tutela Heights.

His father Alexander Melville Bell was a professor and the inventor of “visible Speech”. This is a type of phonetic alphabet system, which is composed of various symbols that shows the positions and movement of the tongue, throat and lips as they make sounds of languages. This novel method was created to teach the deaf to speak. Alexander Graham Bell learned his father’s methods of visible speech and assisted him to give demonstration of this idea to the general public. Afterward, Bell took courses at University College in London, England, on anatomy and physiology, or more commonly study on functioning and physical structure of human body. As he learned and displayed his father’s techniques to the world he mastered it to the point that later he improved upon his father’s creation using his prior knowledge. Ultimately Bell became one of the exceptional characters of his generation on the education of the deaf.

Alexander Melville Bell Visible Speech Alexander Graham Bell

Until he died he saw himself as a teacher to the deaf. There were many doctors in his family and that pushed his attention to the physical and psychological structure of the human nature. Especially after working with his father’s techniques of the visible speech he became more interested in how humans interact with each other by using the sense of hearing and by

using speech. As his interest of how the humans hear and interact with each other grew more and more his innovative improved ideas of teaching a deaf to speak without the use of manual sign language led him to teach the deaf in schools. Later on, in 1872, he opened his own school where deaf children were taught to speak. Teaching a deaf to learn the language was a brilliant idea in North America. A human with the lack ability to express themselves by using oral communication was pretty much useless to the society. From the experiments from schools like Bell’s, using the oral techniques to teach the deaf progressed very quickly. By the end of the century there was more and more of schools were built where they taught the deaf to speak orally. Later in early 1873 Bell joined the University of Boston as a professor of vocal physiology. There he thought his father’s speech methods.

Bell was not an electrician nor did he have any experience with making electrical gadgets. Infect he was an expert in philosophy and anatomy but he had an edge cutting interest in how the human ear works. He even worked with real human ears and cadavers which were supplied by one of his father’s doctor friend. It was the understanding and the learning about how the human ears works gave him the idea that voice can be transmitted through wire electrically. In 1874 Bell worked out his idea of telephone when he was in his home in Brantford. In 1875, in Boston Bell developed the pre-model of the telephone with his assistant Thomas A. Watson and for first time transmitted sound through copper wire. But the sound was not as clear as to be a well-defined word sound. On March 10, 1876 Bell and Watson made a new model of the telephone as they used it to transmit the first clear distinct sound of the human voice electrically over distance! Bell was neither the only nor the first one to think up the idea of the telephone but however he was the first on to successfully transmit sound through wire electrically. Later on Bell and Watson developed the telephone and in August of 1876 they made the world’s first long distance call between Brantford and Paris, Ontario.

Bell’s life of invention just did not end with the telephone. His curious mind on the world of science leads him to invent many other things. As Bell went back and forth between Boston and Brantford because of his professor status at Boston University, he spent most of his time in the States. And soon he settled there and became an American citizen but he still had a land in Baddeck, Nova Scotia. There in 1907 he formed the Aerial Experiment Association. This institute was formed by some enthusiastic individuals who were fascinated by flight and

aviation and most of them devoted their life build air craft’s and flying machines. Around the year of 1907 Bell and the fanatic team build man controlled kite called Cygnet. It was a man flying kite that was flown by Lieutenant Thomas. E. Selfridge. After gliding throw air for approximately seven minutes the kite crash landed in to water and broke apart instantly due to some technical difficulties. On February 23, 1909 the team successfully built an engine powered flying machine called the Silver Dart. This gasoline powered air craft had had a 40 horsepower engine built by American engineer Glenn Curtiss. Silver Dart was the first airplane to fly in Canada and in the British emperor.

J.A.D. McCurdy steers the "Silver Dart" over Baddeck Bay in the first airplane flight in Canada, 23 February 1909.

The image above shows Bell holding one of his kites. The kite on the above is a huge twelve-sided The kite is made up of two hexagons. giant radial-winged kite.

Bell was a mastermind when came to inventing. He invented many stupefying invention throughout his life. Bell invented the one of the world’s earliest metal detector as he attempted to use it to locate the assassin’s bullet in U.S. President James Garfield’s body. He developed a way to create phonograph records out of wax. He invented the worlds one of the

fastest water vehicle of his time called the hydrofoil. Once when the world’s greatest steamships use to get as far as 60km/h, Bell’s created HD-4 hydrofoil reached up to 114km/h as it dashed over the unruffled water of the Lake Bras d’or. Even though he was very attentive to the world of science in the intervening time he sustained working with the deaf throughout his life. Bell spent his final years of his life in his homestead at Baddeck. In August 2nd 1922, this pioneer inventor died at the age of 75.

Bell’s creation the HD-4 hydrofoil

Impact:Not only Bell invented the telephone but he had a novel idea to make business out of it.

At that time the idea of telegraph became really popular and soon it would be used in homes, offices, and in business place and Bell was well aware of it. He thought that one day the telegraph wire would be laid on houses like water or gas and friends and families would be gossiping through telegraph without even leaving their homes. Bell realized it would more convenient for the users if the telephone took place instead of the telegraph as they can use their speech to interact with each other. He consulted his idea with his father-in-law Gardiner Greene Hubbard as he incorporated his idea with Watson, Gardiner Hubbard, and Thomas Sanders, his equipment supplier, to open the Bell Telephone Company of Boston in 1877. The next day Graham Bell assigned 75% of the Canadian rights of the telephone to his father Melville Bell. If to be precise it was not Graham Bell but his father Melville Bell who actually introduced the use of telephone to the general public in Canada. Melville Bell offered a manufactured a product but not service to the clients. At that time the telephone was made of wood and had a shape of a wooden box or a butter stamp. The same device was used as the

transmitter and the receiver. In order to communicate they had to move the device back and forth between their ear and mouth. Clients had to lease the device at cost of $40 per year and it was their duty to connect these prototypes of the telephone by themselves.

The early wooden box telephone Brantford Ontario, in 1879. Streets were invaded by poles and wires.

In 1879 Melville Bell decided to sell his rights to the telephone as Melville and his wife were desperate to join their son in Washington D.C. All the rights were sold to the National Bell of Boston, the owners of Graham Bells patent in the United States. The president of the National Bell W.H. Forbes chooses Charles Fleetford Sise, a Boston businessman as General Manager to set up a national Canadian company. The Bell Telephone Company of Canada was incorporated by the federal charter on April 29, 1880 and the head office was located in Montreal. By the end of the year of 1880 the Bell telephone company of Canada purchased all the existing telephone interest in Canada, including those of the Dominion Telegraph Company and Montreal Telegraph Company. The Bell telephone Company of Canada offered services in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba and in British Columbia. The Company had 150 employees and had over 2100 subscribers.

The number of telephones in some cities in Canada: Cities Telephones

Charles Fleetford Sise

Montréal 546Toronto 353Hamilton 181Québec 79Ottawa 230Others 711

Helen Keller holds her Oscar award for the documentary, "Helen Keller In Her Story", circa 1954.

HELEN KELLER Awarded by President Lyndon B. Johnson September 14, 1964

Even though Bell was working really hard trying to spread the idea of telephone to people, he continued working hard on developing the idea of teaching the deaf to speak using his father’s visible speech. He travelled place to places in the United States to give lectures and speeches on this cause and to let people know that there is a solution to make the deaf fit in the cultured society once and for all. As he went throughout the United States he appealed to establish day-schools for the deaf. Eventually Bell became well-known to the society for his work. More and more people started to show up at his schools to be educated to speak, among them was a little girl named Helen Keller. At the age of six, her father took her to Washington D.C. where she was examined by Bell. After few years when she was taught to read Brail, she was sent to a deaf school where she did not only learned to speak English but also German and French. This charming young girl later graduated from Radcliffe College in 1904. This gifted student of Bell travelled around world to raise awareness for the blinds and deaf and wrote many books.

Helen Keller and Alexander Graham Bell

As Helen, there were many deaf students of Bell who were taught to communicate and many of succeed in their life. When Bell first began his career, only 40% of deaf children were taught to speak but later as more people became aware of Bell’s occupation that number kept increasing. In fact at the time of his death the number had increased to 80%.

Helen Keller graduated from Radcliffe College in 1904.

Reveal:It has been over seventy years from Bell’s death but even in this day we could see the

impact of his work. His greatest and most well-known invention the telephone is now one of the important parts of our daily life. The telephone has made communication way much easier. From business places to homes, in just couple seconds we can communicate with families and friends or do business transactions from anywhere in the world. Not only that the telephone has increased the networking in our social life but it has also reduced the distance among people as it brings our loved once more closer. Nowadays a simple phone call can save a lot of lives as we can call for help anytime when we are in danger. This source of good communications helped urbanizing many countries, cities or even communities that we see or live in today and as the time passes this source of communication helps us to improve our growing community that we live in. Even more the most substantial part of daily life the internet is getting more common through the telephone. So as we can see without Bell’s invention of the telephone we probably would not have accomplished many of the things we see in this day and age in our society.