Alexander Graham Bell, Inventor of the Telephone

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Alexander Graham Bell was a notable scientist and engineer that changed the world with his invention of the telephone. Without the telephone, everyone would not have a reliable communication device. Alexander Graham Bell is considered one of the most influential people in human history.
Early Life ~ Alexander Graham Bell was born on March 3rd, 1847 at his family home, 16 South Charlotte Street, in Edinburgh, Scotland. He was born to Professor Alexander Melville Bell and Eliza Grace (nee Symonds). He had two brothers, Melville James Bell and Edward Charles Bell, both who died of tuberculosis. Bell originally did not have a middle name; he was allowed to adopt the middle name “Graham” for his eleventh birthday, after pleading with his father. To friends and family, he was known as “Aleck”.
Bell, from a young age, displayed a level of intelligence. He was known to experiment and collect plant specimens, and invented a wheat-dehusking machine for his neighbor. While Bell attended school, though, he often skipped school and had poor grades. He dropped out of high school when he was fifteen. However, Bell had a great interest in multiple areas of science. He earned a renewed thirst for learning after spending a year with his elocutionist grandfather. Bell soon earned a job in elocution and music and attended the Universities of England and London.
Later Life ~ After the tragic deaths of his brothers, the Bell family and his brother’s widow Caroline decided to move to the “New World”. They settled in Tutelo (Tutelary) Heights, Canada. His father was offered a job at the Boston School for Deaf Mutes, but it contradicted with his tour on visible speech. Bell asked for the job, and his father let him take it. Later, Bell married a former st...

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...he Telephone ~ Bell worked on the harmonic telegraph with his assistant, the electrician Thomas Watson. However, Bell thought of another idea; he believed that he could create a device that would transmit speech electrically. Secretly, he and Watson worked on this device. The first successful two-way conversation of clear speech by Bell and Watson was made on March 10, 1876 when Bell spoke into the device, “Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you.” The men were jubilant after Watson heard the message and came to Bell’s side. Bell did not want to patent the device, since he believed that he needed to improve on it. However, Hubbard found out about the device and applied a patent for it without Bell’s permission. Coincidentally, Bell’s rival Elisha Gray applied for a patent for a telephone-like device, but since Bell’s patent was applied for first, he won the patent.

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