Who was Alexander Graham Bell?
Telephone and Aeronautics Engineer and Inventor
of Aids for Teaching the Deaf.
Date and Place of Birth:
3rd March 1847, Edinburgh, Scotland.
Family Background:
Second of three sons of Alexander Melville Bell
and Elise Grace Symonds Bell noted elocutionists. His mother was
deaf.
Education:
Royal High School, Edinburgh. Edinburgh University.
University College, London.
Chronology/Biography
of Alexander Graham Bell:
Bell first took up teaching and then went on
to medical studies.
1871: Emigrats to
the United States of America where he studied sound waves with Hermann
von Helmholtz. He set up a training school for the deaf in Boston,
Massachusetts.
1873: Became Professor
of Vocal Physiology at Boston University.
1875: (2nd June)
First transmission of sound heard by Bell and his assistant Thomas
Watson.
1876: (7th March)
Patent No 174,465 for the telephone is granted. (10th March) "Mr
Watson, come here I want you" are the first words heard over
copper wires. (June 25th) Demonstrates his one way voice transmission
system at the Philadelphia Centennial exposition. (9th October)
First two way telephone conversation between Bell and Watson.
1877: (9th July)
Forms the Bell telephone Company.
1878: Birth of Daughter
Elsie May.
1879: invents the
audiometer which tested schoolchildren for deafness.
1880: Birth of Daughter
Marion (Known as Daisy). The bell Telephone Company is restructured
to become American Telephone and Telegraph (ATandT). Establishes
the Volta Laboratory. Invents the photophone.
1883: Opens a school
in Washington ostensibly for deaf children although any child is
accepted. Founds the Journal "Science"
1885: School closes
due to shortage of money due to patents claims ranged against him.
1887: Is introduced
to the blind girl Helen Keller. Invents the Graphophone.
1888: Is a Founder
member of the National Geographic Society.
1890: Conducts the
first nationwide survey of deafness.
1891: Begins experiments
in flight at Cape Breton, Canada.
1894: Develops wings
and propellers.
1898: Experiments
with kites. Becomes President of the National Geographic Society
of America.
1901: First flight
of his box kite.
1906: Begins to
work on the hydrofoil instead of the aeroplane.
1907: Thomas Selfridge
unsuccessfully pilots one of his kites Cygnet 1.
1915: (25th January
) First transcontinental telephone conversation between Bell in
New York and Watson in San Francisco.
1919: Sets world
speed record of 70 mph with the HD4 hydrofoil.
Marriage:
1877 to Mabel Hubbard. (Mabel was also deaf)
(died 1923).
Places of Interest:
Edinburgh:
Royal High School.
Date and Place of Death:
2nd August 1922, Beinn Bhreag, Cape Breton Island,
Nova Scotia, Canada.
Age at Death:
75.
Site of Grave:
Beinn Bhreag Estate, Cape Breton Island,
Nova Scotia.
