Alexander Grham Bell

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By Eli Hochstein
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Life and Family

• Alexander Graham Bell was born in Scotland in
  1847.
• He moved with his family to London in 1865.
• His mother was deaf and he had a special way to
  talk to her. He put his lips near his moms
  forehead and talked in a deep voice.
• He was so interested in the deaf that he taught
  the deaf a way to communicate called visible
  speech.
• He also taught other people to teach the deaf.
• He married one of his students named Mable
  Hubbard and they had 3 sons.
• Alexander died in 1922.

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Alexander Graham Bell
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Invention

• Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone in
  1875.
• He had worked on it for several years.
• He had an assistant named Thomas Watson that he
  met at a machine shop.
• At night Alexander worked on the telephone and
  in the day he taught the deaf visual speech.
• First, he changed voices into electrical signals.
• Next, he sent the electrical signals through
  wires.
• Last, he turned the signals back into voice.

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Invention (continued)

• In 1875, Alexander accidentally discovered that
  he was able to send sounds but not voices over a
  wire.
• Other people were also working to invent a
  telephone. Elisha Gray was trying to invent the
  telephone but Alexander beat him to the patent
  office by one hour.
• One year later, on March 7, 1876 (his birthday),
  Bell received a patent letter that informed him
  that he was the only person who could make
  telephones for a year. Patent - 174,465.
• On March 10, 1876, in Boston, Massachusetts, the
  first words spoken on the telephone were, Mr.
  Watson, come here I want to see you.

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Bell using a first telephone
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Other Inventions

• Alexander did not only work on the telephone. He
  also improved Thomas Edisons phonograph.
• Alexander and his brother Melly used the voicebox
  of a dead sheep to make a machine that cried
  Mama.
• He also invented the photophone which was kind of
  like todays cell phones.
• He also invented the hydro-plane. It was a boat
  with an airplane engine that could fly a few feet
  over the water and could go more than 70 miles an
  hour!

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Other Jobs

• In 1877, Alexander Graham Bell organized the Bell
  Telephone company.
• Alexander helped organize the National Geographic
  Society and between 1898-1903 he was the
  President of the National Geographic Society.
• He was a professor at Boston University .
• In 1882, he helped organize the Journal of
  Science.

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Fun Facts

• In the 1870s, the telegraph was the only way to
  send messages to other people across the country.
• Alexander went to school for only 5 years, from
  ages 10 - 14.
• His name did not always have the middle name
  Graham in it.
• He played piano for his wife and his wifes
  family.
• He never gave up on working on his inventions.