Alexander Graham Bell: Alexander Graham Bell: Inventor and Teacher

Time line of Alexander Graham Bell 1847-1922

March 3, 1847

-Alexander Graham Bell born to Alexander Melville Bell and Eliza Symonds Bell in Edinburgh, Scottland.

May 21, 1868

-Bell begins teaching speech to the deaf at Susanna Hull's School for deaf children in London.

1876

-At the age of twenty-nine, Bell invented the telephone.

1877

-Bell formed the Bell Telephone Company.

1880

-The National Bell Telephone Company becomes the American Bell Telephone Company.

July-August 1881

-When President Garfield is shot, Bell attempts unsuccessfully to locate the bullet inside his body by using and electromagnetic device called an introduction balance.

March 3,1885

-American Telephone and Telegraph Company is formed to manage the expanding long-distance business of the American Bell Telephone Company.

February 1887

-Bell meets six-year-old blind and deaf Helen Keller in Washington D.C. He helps her family find a private teacher by recommending that her father seek help from Michael Anagnos, director of the Perkins Institute for the Blind.

August-September 1890

-Bell and his supporters form the American Association to Promote the Teaching of Speech to the Deaf.

October 1892

-Bell participates in the formal opening of long-distance telephone service between New York and Chicago.

Winter of 1901

-Bell invents the tetrahedral kite, whose shape of four triangular sides would prove to be light, strong, and rigid.

September 9, 1919

-Bell and Casey Baldwin's HD-4, a hydrofoil craft, set a world marine speed record.

August 2, 1922

-Bell dies and is buried at Beinn Bhreagh, Nova Scotia.

What is Alexander Graham Bell famous for?

Alexander Graham Bell was a very creative and ingenious man. He was a teacher for the deaf and creator and inventor extraordinaire. You may know Bell from one of his most famous inventions. The telephone. Bell invented the telephone when he was twenty-nine years old. How did we find Bell's telephone you may ask? Well in the year of 1876, the one-hundredth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, there were many celebrations going on. Including one of the biggest world's fairs in Philadelphia. Bell knew that this world fair was going on, but he was to busy grading students' papers. Bell was hesitant present his telephone. Perhaps it didn't work properly. Maybe he thought it needed more work. Bell's fiancee Mabel Hubbard thought differently. Mabel and her father were very eager for Bell to show off his telephone. Bell still refused to go. Bell was very relieved when he found out that he missed the deadline to apply for a space in the electrical inventions pavilion at the world's fair. On June 24, it was a typical day for Bell. He was working hard at the university. Mabel surprised Bell that afternoon by arranging an carriage ride for the two of them. What Bell didn't know was that this carriage was taking them to the train station to go to Philadelphia. Mabel had hidden a packed suitcase for Bell in the carriage.When they got to the train station Bell refused to board the train. Although Mabel was deaf, she could read people's lips and could pronounce some words. Mabel said, "If you don't love me enough to do this for me, I won't ,marry you!" Bell then boarded the train. Bell's telephone would be judged on June 25. It was brutally hot and the Philadelphians were suffering. Bell hated the heat. It gave him piercing headaches. Then suddenly Bell recognized someone. The man was Dom Pedro. Bell and Pedro spent time discussing methods of teaching the deaf or hearing-impaired. Dom Pedro was also one of the judges at the world fair. Pedro asked to see Bell's invention. So Bell led Pedro over to the transmitter five hundred feet away and began reciting a speech from Hamlet. Pedro's eyes lit up. "I hear! hear!, he called out.All of the other judges were amazed and rushed over to hear the talking machine. Everyone ignored the heat and humidity to examine this wonderful machine. When Bell returned to Boston he had been give a Centennial Exhibition award for his telephone.

What about some of Alexander Graham Bell's other Inventions?

Telephone

Alexander Graham Bell set about developing a "harmonic telegraph," a telegraph capable of carrying sound, in the 1870's. Inspired by a mistranslated passage from a writing of German physicist Hermann Von Helmhotz, Bell believed the human voice could be carried over a wire. Bell worked with Thomas Watson on the invention, and their first major breakthrough came on June 2, 1875, when the pair managed to produce an audible "twang" noise that carried from the transmitting room to the receiving room. Their efforts eventually led to the filing for a patent for the telephone, on March 7, 1876; the first sentence wasn't spoken over a telephone line until three days later, on March 10.

Photophone

Alexander Graham Bell's photophone, invented in 1880, preceded Marconi's radio by 16 years. It transmitted the human voice over wavelengths of light, thus serving as the world's first wireless communication device.

Hydrofoil

Inspired by Italian engineer Enrico Forlanini's work with hydrofoil, Alexander Graham Bell and the engineer Casey Baldwin designed a hydrofoil boat in 1919. It broke the speed records at the time by moving at speeds of 60 knots (about 70 miles per hour).

Pictures of some of Alexander Graham Bell's Inventions

One of Bell's telephones

The Hydrofoil

The Photophone

Another one of Bell's telephones

Bibliography

"Alexander Graham Bell Family Papers: Home." Global Gateway: World Culture & Resources (Library of Congress). Web. 13 Apr. 2011. <http://international.loc.gov/ammem/bellhtml/bellhome.html>.

"Bell Family Papers: Time Line of Alexander Graham Bell, 1847-1869." Global Gateway: World Culture & Resources (Library of Congress). Web. 13 Apr. 2011. <http://international.loc.gov/ammem/bellhtml/belltime.html>.

"Bell Family Papers: Time Line of Alexander Graham Bell, 1880-1889." Global Gateway: World Culture & Resources (Library of Congress). Web. 13 Apr. 2011. <http://international.loc.gov/ammem/bellhtml/1880.html>.

"Bell Family Papers: Time Line of Alexander Graham Bell, 1890-1899." Global Gateway: World Culture & Resources (Library of Congress). Web. 13 Apr. 2011. <http://international.loc.gov/ammem/bellhtml/1890.html>.

"Bell Family Papers: Time Line of Alexander Graham Bell, 1900-1922." Global Gateway: World Culture & Resources (Library of Congress). Web. 13 Apr. 2011. <http://international.loc.gov/ammem/bellhtml/1900.html>.

Leonard, John. "List of Alexander Graham Bell's Inventions | EHow.com." EHow | How to Videos, Articles & More - Trusted Advice for the Curious Life | EHow.com. Web. 13 Apr. 2011. <http://www.ehow.com/list_7271074_list-alexander-graham-bell_s-inventions.html>.

Schuman, Michael. "Chapter 1." Alexander Graham Bell: Inventor and Teacher. Springfield, NJ: Enslow, 1999. 9-15. Print.

Alexander Graham Bell

Thursday, April 28, 2011

Alexander Graham Bell: Inventor and Teacher

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