Alexander Graham Bell By Nicole Najpaver Early Life

Alexander Graham Bell By: Nicole Najpaver

Early Life n Alexander Graham Bell was born on March 3, 1847, in Edinburgh, Scotland. n He was homeschooled by his nearly deaf mother. n His grandfather and father were experts on the mechanics of voice and speech. n By 16, he joined his father in working with the deaf, and soon was in charge of his fathers London operations.

In 1872, Alexander moved to Boston and established a school for the deaf. n The following year, he became a professor in speech and vocal physiology at Boston University. n While he was teaching, he experimented with a means of transmitting several telegraph messages at the same time, through one wire. n He also experimented with many devices to help the deaf learn to speak. n

The First Telephone n n n In 1874, the idea of the first telephone formed in his mind. “If I could make a current of electricity vary in intensity precisely as the air varies in density during the production of sound, I should be able to transmit speech telegraphically. ” Two years later he applied for a patent, which was granted on March 7 th, 1876. On March 10, the first coherent complete sentence was transmitted in his laboratory; “Mr. Watson, come here; I want you. ” By the summer of 1876, Bell was transmitting voice messages several miles long in Ontario.

n Alexander Graham Bell’s patent for the telephone.

n The first telephone (on right) n The first telephone diagram (on left)

After the Telephone n Bell offered to sell his patent to Western Union for $100, 000, but they believed the telephone was just a “fad”. n By 1878, Western Union’s opinion had changed and tried to get the patent for $25 million (which would have been cheap), but failed due to the creation of the Bell Telephone Company in 1877.

Not Just the Telephone n Alexander Graham Bell continued to invent and come up with new ideas after the telephone. n In 1880, Bell and his assistant, Charles Summer Tainter, transmitted wireless voice messages a distance of over 200 meters in Washington D. C. n The voice message was carried by a light beam.

Bell patented the photophone. n “This was two decades before the first radio messages were sent without wires and a century before optic fiber communications became commercially viable. ” n

Other Great Accomplishments In 1881 after President James Garfield was shot, Bell invented the metal detector to locate the bullet precisely. n The metal detector worked in tests, but the bullet was too deep to be detected. n Also, in 1888 Bell was one of the founders of the National Geographic Society, and in 1887 he became its second president. n

His Death n Alexander Graham Bell died at the age of 75 on August 2 nd, 1922 in Nova Scotia, Canada. n He was ill for several months with complications from diabetes. n In his honor, every phone in North America was silenced for his funeral.

Fun Facts More than 150, 000 people owned telephones in the United States, in 1886. n An American electrical engineer named Elisha Gray filed a patent on the same day as Bell covering the transmission of sounds telegraphically. (There was 600 lawsuits between the two of them, but Bell won) n The unit of sound intensity, the bel, more usually seen as the decibel, was named after Bell. n

Catalog Entry If someone was to google my concept on Alexander Graham Bell, I would like google to talk about his great accomplishments. I would also like for them to include facts other than facts about the telephone for people to become more intrigued about Alexander Graham Bell.