The Great Invention | Inventors | Alexander Graham Bell (1847 - 1922)

The Great Invention | Inventors | Alexander Graham Bell
(1847 - 1922)
“The most successful men in the end are those
whose success is the result of steady accretion”.
— Alexander Graham Bell
Alexander Graham Bell was born on March 3, 1847 in Edinburgh, Scotland. Bell
is best known for his invention of the telephone. Many inventors had been
working on the idea of sending human speech by wire, but Bell was the first to
succeed.
The invention of the telephone grew out of improvements Bell had made to the
telegraph. He had developed the "harmonic telegraph" which could send more
than one message at a time over a single telegraph wire. Bell reasoned that it
would be possible to pick up all the sounds of the human voice using an
adaptation of the "harmonic telegraph." In 1875, along with his assistant
Thomas A. Watson, Bell constructed instruments that transmitted recognizable
voice-like sounds.
Bell's first telephone patent was granted on March 7, 1876. Three days later he
and Watson, located in different rooms, were about to test the new type of
transmitter described in his patent. Watson heard Bell's voice saying, "Mr.
Watson, come here. I want you." Bell had upset a battery, spilling acid on his
clothing. He soon forgot the accident in his excitement over the success of the
telephone transmitter. The first telephone company, Bell Telephone Company,
was founded on July 9, 1877.
After inventing the telephone, Bell continued his experiments in
communication. He invented the photophone-transmission of sound on a beam

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of light, the precursor of fiber-optics. He also invented techniques for teaching
speech to the deaf. Bell was granted 18 patents in his name, and 12 he shared
with collaborators. Alexander Graham Bell died in Baddek, Nova Scotia, on
August 2, 1922.
© The Great Invention 2001.

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