Biography of Alexander Graham Bell
Early life and education
Alexander Graham Bell was born on 3 March 1847 in Edinburgh, Scotland.
His education was largely received through his experiments in sound and continuing his father’s work on Visible Speech for the deaf. His grandfather and father were both experts on the mechanics of voice and elocution.
His mother home schooled Alexander and gave him a big curiosity of the world around him. He received one year of formal education in a private school and two years at Edinburgh’s Royal High School. Though an average student, he displayed a huge problem solving ability.
He was interested in sound and music and became a good piano player at an early age. Later he studied the human voice and worked with schools for the deaf. His study and later work was influenced by both his mother and wife's deafness.
Influencing factors
Young Alexander was destine to carry on in the family business, but his headstrong nature conflicted with his father’s overbearing manner. To get out, Alexander volunteered to care for his grandfather when he was ill in 1862. His grandfather encouraged him and instilled an appreciation for learning and intellectual pursuits. By age 16, Alexander had joined his father in his work.
On one of his trips to America, Alexander’s father discovered it was a better place to live and decided to move the family there. At first, Alexander didn't want to go but eventually he gave in after both his brothers had become ill with tuberculosis. In July, 1870, the family and Alexander who was 23 at the time settled in Brantford, Ontario, Canada. There, Alexander set up a workshop to continue his study of the human voice. Alexander experimented with sound, sending messages over a single wire (harmonic telegraph) and recording of sound.
Defining challenges
Bell spent long days and nights trying to perfect the harmonic telegraph. During his experiments, he became interested in the idea of transmitting the human voice over wires. On 14 February 1876 Alexander filed patents for devices that could send sounds telegraphically. Another patent was filed by Gray, an American, at the same time but Alexander was awarded it. A few days later he got his telephone to work.
His first words were to his assistant when he said “Mr Watson, come here. I want to see you.”
Over the next 18 years, the Bell Company faced over 550 court challenges for his patent but none were successful. Alexander made improvements and by 1886 over 150,000 owned phones in the USA.
Later life and wider interests
He also had interests in science generally, engineering and invention including water craft, metal detectors and fuel sources. He was also a visionary.
With this success, Alexander began to promote the telephone in a series of public demonstrations including at the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia,
Alexander was not as interested in the business side of things and by 1880 began to turn business matters over to others so he could pursue a wide range of inventions and other pursuits. In 1880, he established the Volta Laboratory, an experimental facility devoted to scientific discovery. He also continued his work with the deaf, establishing the American Association to Promote Teaching of Speech to the Deaf in 1890.
In the remaining years of his life Bell worked on a number of projects. He devoted a lot of time to exploring flight, starting with the tetrahedral kite in 1890s. In January 1915, Alexander was invited to make the first transcontinental phone call. From New York, he spoke with his former associate Thomas Watson in San Francisco.
Alexander died peacefully with his wife by his side in Baddeck, Nova Scotia, Canada, on August 2, 1922. The entire telephone system was shut down for one minute in tribute to his life.
Quotes
Alexander was known for quotes such as “Before anything else, preparation is the key to success” and “The day will come when the man at the telephone will be able to see the distant person to whom he is speaking” .
140 years after his patent that vision has been realised and is commonly available in the common office telephone and mobile phone.
