Alexander Graham bell the inventor of telephone

Alexander Graham Bell was born in 1847 in Edinburgh, Scotland. This is someone's description of him: tall, slender, quick-motioned, pale face, droopy mustache, and big nose with a high sloping forehead crowned with bushy jet-black hair.

Bell had a background of learning about sound and was a teacher for the deaf. He used Visible Speech to help him teach the kids how to speak. Visible Speech, which his father invented to help Eliza, his deaf wife, consists of pictures of a mouth moving in different ways. Since the deaf can't hear what they're saying, they at least can know how their mouth is supposed to move when they're saying a word.

In 1875 Alexander Graham Bell moved to Boston and hired Mr. Watson to help him on the harmonic telegraph (the telephone). Mr. Watson was very smart, and he was a good person to have around. Mr. Watson worked on the transmitter day and night, and was very good at it. Alexander Graham Bell worked on the receiver and about every other day they would check it together. His first sentence was, "Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you."

If you want to see a web site that has a copy of his notebook, click here.

It took forty weeks to get the telephone to carry the sound of human talk. The telephone used a transmitter, receiver, and wires. Alexander Graham Bell wanted to invent it so that people could talk to one another without having to stand right next to them. Or if you have family or friends that don't live near you, you can keep in touch with them by calling. Or if you have an emergency you will always have a phone to call a doctor, hospital, fire department, or ambulance. The computer or a fax machine is just the same idea as the telephone. The computer transmits data and a fax machine transmits written information.

When they finally made a successful telephone in 1875, Bell wanted to show it to the public. He brought it to the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition where the judges thought it was a silly instrument, and only gave him a little corner of the building. When the judges finally came to him, they were very tired from their long day of work. They said that they were too tired to check his telephone and they thought it was stupid, anyway.

Then a fortunate thing happened. Dom Pedro, the Emperor of Brazil who had once visited Alexander Graham Bell's class for the deaf stepped forward. He recognized Bell, and said that he was a very smart man. The judges were very tired, but they said O.K. When they looked at it they exclaimed that it had to be put in a higher place in the building and that he had won!

Alexander Graham Bell is most known for the telephone, and it is very useful to people now. He was a very thoughtful person and he thought about whatever he did. You should be thankful for him.

Here are some links that I found and I think you will enjoy them:

The Alexander Graham Bell Family of Papers at the Library of Congress

Alexander Graham Bell's Path to the Telephone

Alexander Graham Bell - The Inventor