How The Telephone Was Invented by Alex Alex Graham Bell's Early Life It all started when Alex was 15 years old and he saw a "speaking automaton" machine that was "disappointingly crude" so Alex's father challenged him and his brother to build a better machine, which they did. [citation needed], Bell's patent 174,465, was issued to Bell on March 7, 1876, by the U.S. Patent Office. In 1868 Joseph Stearns had invented the duplex, a system that transmitted two messages simultaneously over a single wire. [189][194], Honors and tributes flowed to Bell in increasing numbers as his invention became ubiquitous and his personal fame grew. In 1875, Bell developed an acoustic telegraph and drew up a patent application for it. This effect was of great importance to Alexander Graham Bell's telephone idea. [178] In the paper, Bell delved into social commentary and discussed hypothetical public policies to bring an end to deafness. Methane gas, he reasoned, could be produced from the waste of farms and factories. By the 1870s, telegraph wire connected cities across the globe. Although the trio briefly experimented with the concept, they could not develop a workable prototype. [27] At the age of 16, Bell secured a position as a "pupil-teacher" of elocution and music, in Weston House Academy at Elgin, Moray, Scotland. ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL invented the telephone. [96][97] The final test certainly proved that the telephone could work over long distances, at least as a one-way call. Bell used his proceeds from the sale to endow the Volta Laboratory. [111] Over a period of 18 years, the Bell Telephone Company faced 587 court challenges to its patents, including five that went to the U.S. Supreme Court,[112] but none was successful in establishing priority over the original Bell patent[113][114] and the Bell Telephone Company never lost a case that had proceeded to a final trial stage. [34] These initial forays into experimentation with sound led Bell to undertake his first serious work on the transmission of sound, using tuning forks to explore resonance. It was a bright twang, and it sounded the same on the receiver as when Watson plucked it. Baldwin studied the work of the Italian inventor Enrico Forlanini and began testing models. However, Antonio Meucci also developed a talking telegraph, called. Since he had agreed to share U.S. profits with his investors Gardiner Hubbard and Thomas Sanders, Bell requested that an associate in Ontario, George Brown, attempt to patent it in Britain, instructing his lawyers to apply for a patent in the U.S. only after they received word from Britain (Britain would issue patents only for discoveries not previously patented elsewhere). These so-called harmonic telegraphs used reeds or tuning forks that responded to specific acoustic frequencies. Bell was in Boston on February 14 and did not arrive in Washington until February 26. A copy of a draft of the patent application is shown, described as "probably the most valuable patent ever.". Alexander Graham Bell Invented the Photophone. Watson, come here, I want to see you!. Although Alexander Graham Bell is best remembered as the inventor of the telephone, he invented other devices too. [166], Bell was a supporter of aerospace engineering research through the Aerial Experiment Association (AEA), officially formed at Baddeck, Nova Scotia, in October 1907 at the suggestion of his wife Mabel and with her financial support after the sale of some of her real estate. In 1872 Bell founded a school in Boston, Massachusetts, to train teachers of the deaf. On September 9, 1919, the HD-4 set a world marine speed record of 70.86 miles per hour (114.04 kilometres per hour),[164] a record which stood for ten years. In 1865 the family moved to London. [28] The following year, he attended the University of Edinburgh, joining his older brother Melville who had enrolled there the previous year. [79], In 1874, telegraph message traffic was rapidly expanding and in the words of Western Union President William Orton, had become "the nervous system of commerce". [101] Bell's investors would become millionaires while he fared well from residuals and at one point had assets of nearly one million dollars. In the 1830s he moved to Cuba and, while working on methods to treat illnesses with electric shocks, found that sounds could travel by electrical impulses through copper wire. Their final aircraft design, the Silver Dart, embodied all of the advancements found in the earlier machines. His wedding present to his bride was to turn over 1,487 of his 1,497 shares in the newly formed Bell Telephone Company. Alexander began to promote the telephone and improve on the telegraph. Controversy remains as to whether Bell or his father-in-law might have had access to the details of Grays patent through a patent office clerk in Hubbards pay. [162] The experimental boats were essentially proof-of-concept prototypes that culminated in the more substantial HD-4, powered by Renault engines. In 1867, Bell and his family moved to London so that he and his remaining brother could study at better schools. On March 10th, 1876, his invention worked: the first telephone! Throughout his lifetime, Bell sought to integrate the deaf and hard of hearing with the hearing world. This led him and Bell to the development of practical hydrofoil watercraft. Bell's March 10, 1876, laboratory notebook entry describing his first successful experiment with the telephone. In 1898, Bell was elected as the second president of the National Geographic Society, serving until 1903, and was primarily responsible for the extensive use of illustrations, including photography, in the magazine. Working from his own erroneous mistranslation of a French edition,[36] Bell fortuitously then made a deduction that would be the underpinning of all his future work on transmitting sound, reporting: "Without knowing much about the subject, it seemed to me that if vowel sounds could be produced by electrical means, so could consonants, so could articulate speech." By then, the Bell company no longer wanted to sell the patent. When Bell was just a teenager, he and his brother invented a speaking machine that could mimic the voice of a baby saying mama. They studied their fathers anatomy books and recreated the elements of a human mouth and vocal cords. His misunderstanding ultimately led to his discovery of how speech could be transmitted electrically. On March 3, 1847, Alexander Graham Bell was born, the man who is credited in popular culture with the invention of the first working telephone. Alexander Graham Bell's invention of the telephone in 1876, was a world-changing event which was also a breakthrough in communication. Prior to perfecting the telephone, Alexander Graham Bell invented and demonstrated the harmonic telegraph at the Centennial Exposition of 1876, held in Philadelphia's Fairmount Park. [116][117] By the time that the trial wound its way through nine years of legal battles, the U.S. prosecuting attorney had died and the two Bell patents (No. Gardiner Hubbard organized a group that established the Bell Telephone Company in July 1877 to commercialize Bells telephone. With a change in administration and charges of conflict of interest (on both sides) arising from the original trial, the US Attorney General dropped the lawsuit on November 30, 1897, leaving several issues undecided on the merits. [12], Bell was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, on March 3, 1847. And while Bell was responsible for radically. In 1875, the year before Bell obtained his patent for the telephone, the U.S. Patent Office granted him a patent for the telautograph, a primitive fax machine that used liquid transmitters. He could decipher Visible Speech representing virtually every language, including Latin, Scottish Gaelic, and even Sanskrit, accurately reciting written tracts without any prior knowledge of their pronunciation. By way of reply, Bell signed "no", lost consciousness, and died shortly after. [78] Bell also thought that multiple metal reeds tuned to different frequencies like a harp would be able to convert the undulating currents back into sound. The Scottish-born Bell worked in London with his father,. Bell's father was invited by Sarah Fuller, principal of the Boston School for Deaf Mutes (later to become the public Horace Mann School for the Deaf)[56] to introduce the Visible Speech System by providing training for Fuller's instructors, but he declined the post in favour of his son. Alexander Graham Bell Was a Prolific Inventor From a young age, Alexander Graham Bell showed a keen interest in the science of sound and how it could be used for communication. [115], On January 13, 1887, the U.S. Government moved to annul the patent issued to Bell on the grounds of fraud and misrepresentation. Bell Company engineers made numerous other improvements to the telephone, which emerged as one of the most successful products ever. The first patent for such a device was his, but the . While recovering, he discovered his wife had sold everything in his lab for $6. Wow, that's pretty neat. To give the organization scientific credibility, Davenport set up a Board of Scientific Directors naming Bell as chairman. He spent the rest of his life with Mabel and their family in Canada, working on a series of varied projects including flight, sheep breeding, developing a vacuum jacket to aid artificial breathing, and the founding of the National Geographic magazine. [N 12] While working that summer in Brantford, Bell experimented with a "phonautograph", a pen-like machine that could draw shapes of sound waves on smoked glass by tracing their vibrations. Birth date: September 4, 1848. Soon after filing their patents, Bell and Watson had perfected their new invention, and the telephone was ready for the public. Alexander Graham Bell died on 2 August 1922 aged 75. Professor Alexander Graham Bell's New Machine, Built After Plans by Lieutenant Selfridge, Shown to Be Practicable by Flight Over, The aileron had been conceived of as early as 1868 by British inventor. [182] Other members of the board included Luther Burbank, Roswell H. Johnson, Vernon L. Kellogg, and William E. A year later Bell moved to the United States, where he taught speech to deaf students. Bell's principle rival, Elisha Gray, also presented an invention at this . Bell was in his laboratory with this latest experimental version of a telephone transmitter. Alexander Graham Bell, (born March 3, 1847, Edinburgh, Scotlanddied August 2, 1922, Beinn Bhreagh, Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, Canada), Scottish-born American inventor, scientist, and teacher of the deaf whose foremost accomplishments were the invention of the telephone (1876) and the refinement of the phonograph (1886). [148], Until the end of his life, Bell and his family would alternate between the two homes, but Beinn Bhreagh would, over the next 30 years, become more than a summer home as Bell became so absorbed in his experiments that his annual stays lengthened. SCIENTISTS (1847-1922); SCOTLAND For most people, the name Alexander Graham Bell conjures up the man who helped invent the telephone in 1876. In 1910, Davenport opened the Eugenics Records office at Cold Spring Harbor. The family settled in Brantford, Ontario, but in April 1871 Alexander moved to Boston, where he taught at the Boston School for Deaf Mutes. His dedication and eagerness to create would eventually make him one of the defining inventors of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. [73] Mabel was a bright, attractive girl who was ten years Bell's junior but became the object of his affection. You may know that a telephone uses electricity to send voice communications. You likely already know that Alexander Graham Bells telephone invention changed the world. Birth Year: 1848. [182], In 1921, a Second International Congress of Eugenics was held in New York at the Museum of Natural History and chaired by Davenport. His mother was almost deaf, and his father taught elocution to the deaf, influencing Alexanders later career choice as teacher of the deaf. He called it the photophone. On 14 February 1876, sensing the danger of rival developments for this valuable invention, Bells future father-in-law, Gardiner Hubbard, filed a patent application for Improvements in Telegraphy. With financial support from Sanders and Hubbard, Bell hired Thomas Watson as his assistant,[N 13] and the two of them experimented with acoustic telegraphy. However, the AEA had depleted its initial reserves and only a $15,000 grant from Mrs. Bell allowed it to continue with experiments. Bell was inspired in part by Australian aeronautical engineer, "Selfridge Aerodrome Sails Steadily for 319 feet (97m). Meucci was not involved in the final trial. His older brother Melville had married and moved out. After a series of decisions and reversals, the Bell company won a decision in the Supreme Court, though a couple of the original claims from the lower court cases were left undecided. [215] [N 28][216] Since 1976, the IEEE's Alexander Graham Bell Medal has been awarded to honor outstanding contributions in the field of telecommunications. Yesterday afternoon [on January 25, 1915], the same two men talked by telephone to each other over a 3,400-mile wire between New York and San Francisco. In the 1870s, Elisha Gray and Alexander Graham Bell independently designed devices that could transmit speech electrically. [175] This interest in animal breeding caught the attention of scientists focused on the study of heredity and genetics in humans. By the summer of 1875 he had succeeded in transmitting sounds, though still not recognisable speech, on a gallows frame telephone like this one. Gray had reinvented the variable resistance telephone, but Bell was the first to write down the idea and the first to test it in a telephone. He also anticipated modern concerns with fuel shortages and industrial pollution. 1876 1876 In 1936, the US Patent Office declared Bell first on its list of the country's greatest inventors,[217] leading to the US Post Office issuing a commemorative stamp honoring Bell in 1940 as part of its 'Famous Americans Series'. While pursuing his teaching profession, Bell also began researching methods to transmit several telegraph messages simultaneously over a single wirea major focus of telegraph innovation at the time and one that ultimately led to Bells invention of the telephone. Score: 4.1/5 (16 votes) . The Siemens company produced near-identical copies of the Bell telephone without having to pay royalties. The origin of this effort was the shooting of U.S. President James A. Garfield in July 1881. [160] Alternatively, although Bell had detected a slight sound on his first test, the bullet may have been lodged too deeply to be detected by the crude apparatus. [158][159] Its master patent was issued in December 1880, many decades before the photophone's principles came into popular use. [61][62] While he was working as a private tutor, one of his pupils was Helen Keller, who came to him as a young child unable to see, hear, or speak. The first telephone had two parts: a transmitter and a receiver. alexander graham belltelephonealexander graham bell telephonehistory of the telephone,what did alexander graham bell invent,who invented the telephonetelepho. Alexander Graham Bell was a remarkable man who overcame many obstacles in his life. Birth Country: United States. In our version of the story, Bell only sees the fun advantag. Before Bell's invention, the fastest method to send a message was by using the Morse code through telegraph lines. Sensing potential, he. [citation needed]. Bells idea was that he could speak into it, and when his pupil mimicked him, they could compare the lines and help the deaf improve their pronunciation. After the hard work of Bell and his team, the first message of Alexander Graham Bell was delivered to his assistant Mr. Watson. Alexander Graham Bell was a Scottish scientist and inventor who founded the Bell Telephone Company in 1877 and invented the first working telephone in 1876. [32] After he taught it to growl continuously, Bell would reach into its mouth and manipulate the dog's lips and vocal cords to produce a crude-sounding "Ow ah oo ga ma ma". [41] Throughout late 1867, his health faltered mainly through exhaustion. The arrangement was for teacher and student to continue their work together, with free room and board thrown in. On the morning of February 14, 1876, a representative for Alexander Graham Bell handed in a patent application to the patent office in Washington for an apparatus for transmitting vocal sounds via electricity lines. The covered end of the drumlike device was attached to the needle. Then in 1887 they sold their patents to the American Graphophone Company, which later evolved into the Columbia Phonograph Company. Alexander Graham Bell certainly invented other things besides the telephone. Alexander Graham Bell had pioneered a system called visible speech, developed by his father, to teach deaf children. Thomas Edison invented the carbon microphone which produced a strong telephone signal. Alexander (Graham was not added until he was 11) was born to Alexander Melville Bell and Eliza Grace Symonds. Henry replied that Bell had "the germ of a great invention". This depth of knowledge made Alexander Graham Bell one of the greatest inventors of all time. Bell made life easier by inventing the telephone so we can communicate from far away.