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On August 2, 1922, Alexander Graham Bell, Scottish-born British American inventor, died at the age of 75. From the article:
"Alexander Graham Bell
Alexander Graham Bell Biography
(1847–1922)
Alexander Graham Bell was one of the primary inventors of the telephone, did important work in communication for the deaf and held more than 18 patents.
Who Was Alexander Graham Bell?
Alexander Graham Bell was a Scottish-born scientist and inventor best known for inventing the first working telephone in 1876 and founding the Bell Telephone Company in 1877.
Bell’s success came through his experiments in sound and the furthering of his family’s interest in assisting the deaf with communication. Bell worked with Thomas Watson on the telephone, though his prodigious intellect would allow him to work on numerous other inventions, including flying machines and hydrofoils.
Family and Early Life
Alexander Graham Bell was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, on March 3, 1847. The second son of Alexander Melville Bell and Eliza Grace Symonds Bell, he was named for his paternal grandfather. The middle name “Graham” was added when he was 10 years old.
He had two brothers, Melville James Bell and Edward Charles Bell, both of whom died from tuberculosis.
During his youth, Bell was strongly influenced by his family and his environs. Bell’s hometown of Edinburgh, Scotland, was known as the “Athens of the North” for its rich culture of arts and science.
His grandfather and father were experts on the mechanics of voice and elocution. And Bell's mother, Eliza, became an accomplished pianist despite being deaf, inspiring him to undertake big challenges.
Eliza home-schooled her son and instilled an infinite curiosity of the world around him. He received one year of formal education in a private school and two years at Edinburgh’s acclaimed Royal High School.
Though a mediocre student, Bell displayed an uncommon ability to solve problems. At age 12, while playing with a friend in a grain mill, he noticed the slow process of husking the wheat grain. He went home and built a device with rotating paddles and nail brushes that easily removed the husks from the grain.
Early Career
Young Alexander was groomed from a young age to carry on in the family business, but his headstrong nature conflicted with his father’s overbearing manner. Seeking a way out, Alexander volunteered to care for his grandfather when he fell ill in 1862.
The elder Bell encouraged young Alexander and instilled an appreciation for learning and intellectual pursuits. By age 16, Alexander had joined his father in his work with the deaf and soon assumed full charge of his father’s London operations.
On one of his trips to North America, Alexander’s father decided it was a healthier environment and decided to move the family there. At first, Alexander resisted, for he was establishing himself in London. He eventually relented after both his brothers died of tuberculosis.
In 1870, the family settled in Brantford, Ontario, Canada. There, Alexander set up a workshop to continue his study of the human voice.
On July 11, 1877, Bell married Mable Hubbard, a former student and the daughter of Gardiner Hubbard, one of his early financial backers. Mable had been deaf since her early childhood years.
Alexander Graham Bell's Inventions
Alexander Graham Bell is credited with inventing the telephone; in all, he personally held 18 patents along with 12 he shared with collaborators.
Telephone
On March 10, 1876, after years of work, Bell perfected his most well-known invention, the telephone, and made his first telephone call.
Before then, Bell in 1871 started working on a device known as the multiple or harmonic telegraph (a telegraph transmission of several messages set to different frequencies) upon moving to Boston. He found financial backing through local investors Thomas Sanders and Gardiner Hubbard.
Between 1873 and 1874, Bell spent long days and nights trying to perfect the harmonic telegraph. But during his experiments, he became interested in another idea, transmitting the human voice over wires.
Bell’s diversion frustrated his benefactors, and Thomas Watson, a skilled electrician, was hired to refocus Bell on the harmonic telegraph. But Watson soon became enamored with Bell’s idea of voice transmission and the two created a great partnership with Bell being the idea man and Watson having the expertise to bring Bell’s ideas to reality.
'Mr. Watson, come here – I want to see you'
Through 1874 and 1875, Bell and Watson labored on both the harmonic telegraph and a voice transmitting device. Though at first frustrated by the diversion, Bell’s investors soon saw the value of voice transmission and filed a patent on the idea.
For now the concept was protected, but the device still had to be developed. In 1876, Bell and Watson were finally successful.
Legend has it that Bell knocked over a container of transmitting fluid and shouted, “Mr. Watson, come here – I want to see you.” The more likely explanation was Bell heard a noise over the wire and called to Watson. In any case, Watson heard Bell’s voice through the wire and thus, he received the first telephone call.
With this success, Bell began to promote the telephone in a series of public demonstrations. At the 1876 Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia, Bell demonstrated the telephone to the Emperor of Brazil, Dom Pedro, who exclaimed, “My God, it talks!” Other demonstrations followed, each at a greater distance than the last.
The Bell Telephone Company was organized on July 9, 1877. In January 1915, Bell was invited to make the first transcontinental phone call. From New York, he spoke with his former associate Watson in San Francisco.
Other Inventions
By all accounts, Bell was not a sharp businessman and by 1880 began to turn business matters over to Hubbard and others so he could pursue a wide range of inventions and intellectual pursuits.
In 1880, Bell established the Volta Laboratory in Washington, D.C., an experimental facility devoted to scientific discovery.
Later in his life, Bell became fascinated with flight and began exploring the possibilities for flying machines and devices, starting with the tetrahedral kite in 1890s.
In 1907, Bell formed the Aerial Experiment Association with Glenn Curtiss and several other associates. The group developed several flying machines, including the Silver Dart.
The Silver Dart was the first powered aircraft flown in Canada. Bell later worked on hydrofoils and set a world speed record for this type of boat.
Legal Challenges
After their 1877 wedding, Alexander and Mable traveled to Europe demonstrating the telephone. Upon their return to the United States, Bell was summoned to Washington D.C. to defend his telephone patent from lawsuits.
Others claimed they had invented the telephone or had conceived of the idea before Bell. Over the next 18 years, the Bell Company faced over 550 court challenges, including several that went to the Supreme Court, but none were successful.
Even during the patent battles, the company grew. Between 1877 and 1886, over 150,000 people in the United States owned telephones.
Improvements were made on the device including the addition of a microphone, invented by Thomas Edison, which eliminated the need to shout into the telephone to be heard.
Later Life
Throughout his life, Bell continued his family's work with the deaf, establishing the American Association to Promote Teaching of Speech to the Deaf in 1890.
Eight years later, Bell assumed the presidency of a small, little-known U.S. scientific group, the National Geographic Society, and helped make their journal into one of the world's most-loved publications. Bell is also one of the founders of Science magazine.
Alexander Graham Bell died peacefully on August 2, 1922, at his home in Baddeck on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, Canada. Shortly after his death, the entire telephone system was shut down for one minute in tribute to his genius."
"Alexander Graham Bell
Alexander Graham Bell Biography
(1847–1922)
Alexander Graham Bell was one of the primary inventors of the telephone, did important work in communication for the deaf and held more than 18 patents.
Who Was Alexander Graham Bell?
Alexander Graham Bell was a Scottish-born scientist and inventor best known for inventing the first working telephone in 1876 and founding the Bell Telephone Company in 1877.
Bell’s success came through his experiments in sound and the furthering of his family’s interest in assisting the deaf with communication. Bell worked with Thomas Watson on the telephone, though his prodigious intellect would allow him to work on numerous other inventions, including flying machines and hydrofoils.
Family and Early Life
Alexander Graham Bell was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, on March 3, 1847. The second son of Alexander Melville Bell and Eliza Grace Symonds Bell, he was named for his paternal grandfather. The middle name “Graham” was added when he was 10 years old.
He had two brothers, Melville James Bell and Edward Charles Bell, both of whom died from tuberculosis.
During his youth, Bell was strongly influenced by his family and his environs. Bell’s hometown of Edinburgh, Scotland, was known as the “Athens of the North” for its rich culture of arts and science.
His grandfather and father were experts on the mechanics of voice and elocution. And Bell's mother, Eliza, became an accomplished pianist despite being deaf, inspiring him to undertake big challenges.
Eliza home-schooled her son and instilled an infinite curiosity of the world around him. He received one year of formal education in a private school and two years at Edinburgh’s acclaimed Royal High School.
Though a mediocre student, Bell displayed an uncommon ability to solve problems. At age 12, while playing with a friend in a grain mill, he noticed the slow process of husking the wheat grain. He went home and built a device with rotating paddles and nail brushes that easily removed the husks from the grain.
Early Career
Young Alexander was groomed from a young age to carry on in the family business, but his headstrong nature conflicted with his father’s overbearing manner. Seeking a way out, Alexander volunteered to care for his grandfather when he fell ill in 1862.
The elder Bell encouraged young Alexander and instilled an appreciation for learning and intellectual pursuits. By age 16, Alexander had joined his father in his work with the deaf and soon assumed full charge of his father’s London operations.
On one of his trips to North America, Alexander’s father decided it was a healthier environment and decided to move the family there. At first, Alexander resisted, for he was establishing himself in London. He eventually relented after both his brothers died of tuberculosis.
In 1870, the family settled in Brantford, Ontario, Canada. There, Alexander set up a workshop to continue his study of the human voice.
On July 11, 1877, Bell married Mable Hubbard, a former student and the daughter of Gardiner Hubbard, one of his early financial backers. Mable had been deaf since her early childhood years.
Alexander Graham Bell's Inventions
Alexander Graham Bell is credited with inventing the telephone; in all, he personally held 18 patents along with 12 he shared with collaborators.
Telephone
On March 10, 1876, after years of work, Bell perfected his most well-known invention, the telephone, and made his first telephone call.
Before then, Bell in 1871 started working on a device known as the multiple or harmonic telegraph (a telegraph transmission of several messages set to different frequencies) upon moving to Boston. He found financial backing through local investors Thomas Sanders and Gardiner Hubbard.
Between 1873 and 1874, Bell spent long days and nights trying to perfect the harmonic telegraph. But during his experiments, he became interested in another idea, transmitting the human voice over wires.
Bell’s diversion frustrated his benefactors, and Thomas Watson, a skilled electrician, was hired to refocus Bell on the harmonic telegraph. But Watson soon became enamored with Bell’s idea of voice transmission and the two created a great partnership with Bell being the idea man and Watson having the expertise to bring Bell’s ideas to reality.
'Mr. Watson, come here – I want to see you'
Through 1874 and 1875, Bell and Watson labored on both the harmonic telegraph and a voice transmitting device. Though at first frustrated by the diversion, Bell’s investors soon saw the value of voice transmission and filed a patent on the idea.
For now the concept was protected, but the device still had to be developed. In 1876, Bell and Watson were finally successful.
Legend has it that Bell knocked over a container of transmitting fluid and shouted, “Mr. Watson, come here – I want to see you.” The more likely explanation was Bell heard a noise over the wire and called to Watson. In any case, Watson heard Bell’s voice through the wire and thus, he received the first telephone call.
With this success, Bell began to promote the telephone in a series of public demonstrations. At the 1876 Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia, Bell demonstrated the telephone to the Emperor of Brazil, Dom Pedro, who exclaimed, “My God, it talks!” Other demonstrations followed, each at a greater distance than the last.
The Bell Telephone Company was organized on July 9, 1877. In January 1915, Bell was invited to make the first transcontinental phone call. From New York, he spoke with his former associate Watson in San Francisco.
Other Inventions
By all accounts, Bell was not a sharp businessman and by 1880 began to turn business matters over to Hubbard and others so he could pursue a wide range of inventions and intellectual pursuits.
In 1880, Bell established the Volta Laboratory in Washington, D.C., an experimental facility devoted to scientific discovery.
Later in his life, Bell became fascinated with flight and began exploring the possibilities for flying machines and devices, starting with the tetrahedral kite in 1890s.
In 1907, Bell formed the Aerial Experiment Association with Glenn Curtiss and several other associates. The group developed several flying machines, including the Silver Dart.
The Silver Dart was the first powered aircraft flown in Canada. Bell later worked on hydrofoils and set a world speed record for this type of boat.
Legal Challenges
After their 1877 wedding, Alexander and Mable traveled to Europe demonstrating the telephone. Upon their return to the United States, Bell was summoned to Washington D.C. to defend his telephone patent from lawsuits.
Others claimed they had invented the telephone or had conceived of the idea before Bell. Over the next 18 years, the Bell Company faced over 550 court challenges, including several that went to the Supreme Court, but none were successful.
Even during the patent battles, the company grew. Between 1877 and 1886, over 150,000 people in the United States owned telephones.
Improvements were made on the device including the addition of a microphone, invented by Thomas Edison, which eliminated the need to shout into the telephone to be heard.
Later Life
Throughout his life, Bell continued his family's work with the deaf, establishing the American Association to Promote Teaching of Speech to the Deaf in 1890.
Eight years later, Bell assumed the presidency of a small, little-known U.S. scientific group, the National Geographic Society, and helped make their journal into one of the world's most-loved publications. Bell is also one of the founders of Science magazine.
Alexander Graham Bell died peacefully on August 2, 1922, at his home in Baddeck on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, Canada. Shortly after his death, the entire telephone system was shut down for one minute in tribute to his genius."
Alexander Graham Bell
Posted from biography.com
Inventing
World History
American History
Innovation
Science
Posted >1 y ago
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This Is Alexander Graham Bell's Voice
Plucked from the Smithsonian archives, the liberated recording features Bell, through must and static, saying "Hear my voice, Alexander Graham Bell."
Thank you, my friend SGT (Join to see) for making us aware that August 2 is the anniversary of the death of Scottish-born scientist, inventor, engineer, and innovator Alexander Graham Bell who is credited with patenting the first practical telephone and founding the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T) in 1885.
I am very thankful and grateful for his invention of the telephone.
Rest in peace Alexander Graham Bell.
"Plucked from the Smithsonian archives, the liberated recording features Bell, through must and static, saying "Hear my voice, Alexander Graham Bell."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lJ6Pwb15JY
Background from lemelson.mit.edu/resources/alexander-graham-bell
"Alexander Graham Bell
The Telephone
When the word "inventor" is mentioned, Alexander Graham Bell, creator of the telephone, is undoubtedly one of the first names that springs to mind.
Bell was born on March 3, 1847 in Edinburgh, Scotland and was educated at the University of Edinburgh and the University of London. He immigrated to Canada in 1870 and to the United States in 1871. He was an early student of sound and speech, inspired, perhaps, by the fact that his mother, Eliza, was almost totally deaf, and his father, Melville, developed the first international phonetic alphabet. In his early 20s, Bell himself taught deaf children to speak and gave speech lessons at schools in his community.
As a boy, Bell built a speaking robot and found that he could touch his dog's throat in ways that seemed to form his barks and growls into words. Once, he successfully obtained a human ear from a medical school, which he used to conduct experiments tracing sound patterns. Bell was also a gifted pianist, who learned to discriminate pitch very well. As a teenager, he noticed that a chord struck on a piano in one room would be echoed by a piano in another room. He realized that chords could be transmitted through the air, vibrating at the other end at exactly the same pitch.
With this discovery, Bell set out to develop a multiple telegraph, using Morse code to convey several messages simultaneously, each at a different pitch. He knew his greatest challenge would be finding a way to convey pitch across a wire. He ascertained, eventually, that this could be accomplished by reproducing sound waves in a continuous, undulating current. That's when he realized that this could also apply to human speech, which is composed of many complex sound vibrations.
In 1875, Bell developed his first version of what came to be known as the telephone. He received a patent for it on March 7, 1876, just after his 29th birthday. Five days later, on March 12, he tested his device, speaking into the phone to his associate, Thomas Watson, when he said, "Mr. Watson, come here. I want to see you."
Bell first demonstrated his most famous invention on June 25, 1876 at the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia. There, he showed that the sound of the human voice could be reproduced, which confirmed his theory that speech patterns can be made to change the intensity of an electrical current.
A year after Bell's initial public demonstration, he placed the world's first phone call over telegraph wires between two towns in Ontario, Canada – a span of eight miles. Just two months later, the long-distance reach of telephone technology was expanded to 143 miles. Today, of course, telephone calls may be placed to virtually any location around the globe. The Bell Telephone Company was established in 1877 to bring telephones to the masses. The company provided the foundation for today's telecommunications industry.
While Bell is best known for his telephone invention, he worked on hundreds of projects throughout his life and received a number of patents in various fields.
In 1880, Bell patented the photophone, which applied his telephone principle in order to transmit words on a beam of light. This has been recognized as the first wireless transmission of speech. Not until more than a century later would this idea have any widespread use. The principles behind the process enabled the development of what we know today as the cellular phone.
Bell was also an aviation enthusiast. He worked on designs for airplanes, kites, and helicopters with members of the Aerial Experiment Association. In 1909, Bell's Silver Dart airplane flew for a half mile in Baddeck, Nova Scotia, six years after the Wright Brothers took their first flight in North Carolina. Later, Bell developed the tetrahedron while he worked on the design for a kite that could carry a man. The figure, made up of four equilateral triangles, is one of nature's most stable structures and forms the basis for many modern bridges and towers. At the age of 75, Bell received a patent on one of the fastest watercrafts in the world, the HD-4.
To sum up his approach to invention, Bell once said, "Leave the beaten track behind occasionally and dive into the woods. Every time you do 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."
Bell's notebooks are still available for public consultation. Researchers believe his early ideas may still hold clues that can help provide the solutions for modern technological problems."
FYI COL Mikel J. Burroughs Lt Col Charlie Brown LTC Greg Henning LTC Jeff Shearer Maj Bill Smith, Ph.D. Maj William W. "Bill" Price Maj Marty Hogan CPT Scott Sharon CWO3 Dennis M. SSG William Jones SGT John " Mac " McConnell SP5 Mark Kuzinski PO1 H Gene Lawrence PO2 Kevin Parker PO3 Bob McCord
LTC Stephen C. LTC (Join to see) SGT Jim Arnold Maj Robert Thornton
I am very thankful and grateful for his invention of the telephone.
Rest in peace Alexander Graham Bell.
"Plucked from the Smithsonian archives, the liberated recording features Bell, through must and static, saying "Hear my voice, Alexander Graham Bell."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lJ6Pwb15JY
Background from lemelson.mit.edu/resources/alexander-graham-bell
"Alexander Graham Bell
The Telephone
When the word "inventor" is mentioned, Alexander Graham Bell, creator of the telephone, is undoubtedly one of the first names that springs to mind.
Bell was born on March 3, 1847 in Edinburgh, Scotland and was educated at the University of Edinburgh and the University of London. He immigrated to Canada in 1870 and to the United States in 1871. He was an early student of sound and speech, inspired, perhaps, by the fact that his mother, Eliza, was almost totally deaf, and his father, Melville, developed the first international phonetic alphabet. In his early 20s, Bell himself taught deaf children to speak and gave speech lessons at schools in his community.
As a boy, Bell built a speaking robot and found that he could touch his dog's throat in ways that seemed to form his barks and growls into words. Once, he successfully obtained a human ear from a medical school, which he used to conduct experiments tracing sound patterns. Bell was also a gifted pianist, who learned to discriminate pitch very well. As a teenager, he noticed that a chord struck on a piano in one room would be echoed by a piano in another room. He realized that chords could be transmitted through the air, vibrating at the other end at exactly the same pitch.
With this discovery, Bell set out to develop a multiple telegraph, using Morse code to convey several messages simultaneously, each at a different pitch. He knew his greatest challenge would be finding a way to convey pitch across a wire. He ascertained, eventually, that this could be accomplished by reproducing sound waves in a continuous, undulating current. That's when he realized that this could also apply to human speech, which is composed of many complex sound vibrations.
In 1875, Bell developed his first version of what came to be known as the telephone. He received a patent for it on March 7, 1876, just after his 29th birthday. Five days later, on March 12, he tested his device, speaking into the phone to his associate, Thomas Watson, when he said, "Mr. Watson, come here. I want to see you."
Bell first demonstrated his most famous invention on June 25, 1876 at the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia. There, he showed that the sound of the human voice could be reproduced, which confirmed his theory that speech patterns can be made to change the intensity of an electrical current.
A year after Bell's initial public demonstration, he placed the world's first phone call over telegraph wires between two towns in Ontario, Canada – a span of eight miles. Just two months later, the long-distance reach of telephone technology was expanded to 143 miles. Today, of course, telephone calls may be placed to virtually any location around the globe. The Bell Telephone Company was established in 1877 to bring telephones to the masses. The company provided the foundation for today's telecommunications industry.
While Bell is best known for his telephone invention, he worked on hundreds of projects throughout his life and received a number of patents in various fields.
In 1880, Bell patented the photophone, which applied his telephone principle in order to transmit words on a beam of light. This has been recognized as the first wireless transmission of speech. Not until more than a century later would this idea have any widespread use. The principles behind the process enabled the development of what we know today as the cellular phone.
Bell was also an aviation enthusiast. He worked on designs for airplanes, kites, and helicopters with members of the Aerial Experiment Association. In 1909, Bell's Silver Dart airplane flew for a half mile in Baddeck, Nova Scotia, six years after the Wright Brothers took their first flight in North Carolina. Later, Bell developed the tetrahedron while he worked on the design for a kite that could carry a man. The figure, made up of four equilateral triangles, is one of nature's most stable structures and forms the basis for many modern bridges and towers. At the age of 75, Bell received a patent on one of the fastest watercrafts in the world, the HD-4.
To sum up his approach to invention, Bell once said, "Leave the beaten track behind occasionally and dive into the woods. Every time you do 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."
Bell's notebooks are still available for public consultation. Researchers believe his early ideas may still hold clues that can help provide the solutions for modern technological problems."
FYI COL Mikel J. Burroughs Lt Col Charlie Brown LTC Greg Henning LTC Jeff Shearer Maj Bill Smith, Ph.D. Maj William W. "Bill" Price Maj Marty Hogan CPT Scott Sharon CWO3 Dennis M. SSG William Jones SGT John " Mac " McConnell SP5 Mark Kuzinski PO1 H Gene Lawrence PO2 Kevin Parker PO3 Bob McCord
LTC Stephen C. LTC (Join to see) SGT Jim Arnold Maj Robert Thornton
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LTC Stephen F.
FYI SPC Douglas Bolton Cynthia Croft SSgt Boyd Herrst TSgt Joe C. CPL Dave Hoover SPC Margaret Higgins SSG William Jones PO3 Craig Phillips PVT Mark Zehner Cynthia Croft PO3 Phyllis Maynard SPC Diana Rodriguez SPC Diana D. SP5 Jeannie Carle LTC Hillary Luton SMSgt Lawrence McCarter
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One of the few inventors whose work has touched virtually every person in the civilized world.
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LTC Stephen C.
I’ve even talked to a number of people on the telephone that sounded most uncivilized, Lt Col John (Jack) Christensen! ;)
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