Alexander Graham Bell Biography

Alexander Graham Bell was one of the primary inventors of the

telephone, did important work in communication for the deaf and held
more than 18 patents.
Alexander Graham Bell was born on March 3, 1847, in Edinburgh,
Scotland. The second son of Alexander Melville Bell and Eliza Grace
Symonds Bell. He had two brothers, Melville James Bell and Edward
Charles Bell, both of whom died from tuberculosis.

During his youth, Alexander Graham Bell experienced strong influences

that had a profound effect on his later life. Bells hometown of
Edinburgh, Scotland, was known as the Athens of the North, for its rich
culture of arts and science. His grandfather and father were experts on
the mechanics of voice and elocution. Alexanders mother, who was
nearly deaf, became an accomplished pianist and inspired him to
undertake big challenges.

In 1871, Alexander Graham Bell moved to Boston and began work on a

device that would allow for the telegraph transmission of several
messages set to different frequencies. Between 1873 and 1874, Bell
spent long days and nights trying to perfect the harmonic telegraph.
During his experiments, he became interested in another idea,
transmitting the human voice over wires. The diversion frustrated Bells
benefactors and Thomas Watson, a skilled electrician, was hired to
refocus Bell on the harmonic telegraph. But Watson soon became
enamored with Bells idea of voice transmission and the two created a
great partnership with Bell being the idea man and Watson having the
expertise to bring Bells ideas to reality. Through 1874 and 1875, Bell
and Watson labored on both the harmonic telegraph and a voice
transmitting device. On March 10, 1876, Bell and Watson were
successful.

On July 11, 1877, Alexander Graham Bell married Mable Hubbard.

Bell died peacefully on August 2, 1922, at his home in Baddeck on Cape

Breton Island, Nova Scotia, Canada, on August 2, 1922. The entire
telephone system was shut down for one minute in tribute to his life.