The Telephone (Group 2)

Alexander Graham Bell

A telephone, or a phone, is an instrument designed for the simultaneous transmission and reception of the human voice. The telephone is simple to operate, and offers its users an immediate, personal type of communication that cannot be obtained through any other medium. As a result, it has become the most widely used telecommunications device in the world. Billions of telephones are in use around the world. The telephone was invented by Alexander Graham Bell.

Alexander Graham Bell was born to Alexander Melville Bell and Eliza Grace Symonds. His mother was almost deaf, and his father taught elocution to the deaf, influencing Alexander’s later career choice as teacher of the deaf. At age 11 he entered the Royal High School at Edinburgh, but he did not enjoy it, so he left school at age 15 without graduating. In 1865 Alexander and his family moved to London. Alexander passed the entrance examinations for University College London in June 1868 and matriculated there in the autumn. However, he did not complete his studies, because the Bell family moved again in 1870. This time they immigrated to Canada after the deaths of Bell’s brothers Edward and Melville, both of tuberculosis. Alexander moved to Boston, where he taught for Deaf Mutes at the Boston School. He also taught at the Clarke School for the Deaf in Northampton, Massachusetts, and at the American School for the Deaf in Hartford, Connecticut.

One of Bell’s students was Mabel Hubbard, daughter of Gardiner Greene Hubbard, a founder of the Clarke School. She became dead at age five. Bell began working with her in 1873, when she was 15 years old. Despite a 10-year age difference, they fell in love and were married on July 11, 1877. They had four children, Elsie (1878–1964), Marian (1880–1962), and two sons who died in infancy.

At that time, Bell began researching methods to transmit telegraph messages simultaneously. These experiences allowed Bell to invent the telephone. On February 14, 1876, Bell filed a patent describing his method of transmitting sounds. On March 7, 1876, the Patent Office awarded Bell what is said to be one of the most-valuable patents in history.

When he verified his invention, he changed the world forever!

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Graham Bell (additional information)