BIOGRAPHY:
The personality of the scientist Alexander Bell is truly legendary, because it was this genius who invented the metal detector, the seaplane and the telephone – objects that have become an integral part of the everyday life of modern society.
Childhood and youth:
Alexander Graham Bell was born in the Scottish city of Edinburgh on March 3, 1847, into a family of philologists. The scientist’s grandfather was the founder of the school of oratory and the author of the book “Fine Passages.” It is noteworthy that my grandfather began his career as a shoemaker, but his thirst for beauty brought him to the stage.
At first the man performed in the theater, then became a reader, reciting passages from Shakespeare’s plays. Success inspired him so much that he began giving diction lessons and opened his own school of oratory in London. This is how a family business was born, which was continued by the inventor’s father, Alexander Melville Bell, who at one time even published a treatise on the art of eloquence.
The future scientist grew up in an atmosphere of music and a reverent attitude towards the sounds of the human voice. At the age of 14 he moved to London to live with his grandfather. And three years later, after receiving medical and philosophical education in Edinburgh and Wurzburg, he began an independent life, teaching music and elocution at Weston House Academy.
Having thoroughly studied the acoustics and physics of human speech, Bell became an assistant to the head of the family, who by that time was working on a method for developing competent diction.
It is known that the mother of the creator of the seaplane was hard of hearing and it was she who was destined for all the new products in the field of studying sounds. My father came up with the “Visual Speech” system, in which speech sounds were indicated by written symbols and pictures indicating what the facial expressions of the speech apparatus should be like at that time (a kind of transcription of words, but for people who have never heard sounds).
After Alexander’s brothers died of tuberculosis, the family moved first to Canada in 1870 and then to America. There they continued working with people and sound. Work in Boston was going well. The younger Bell opened his own school in the city, where he taught the basics of family methods to other teachers.
As soon as Alexander Graham had a stable source of income, the scientist returned to experiments in transmitting voice over wires, which he had become interested in back in England. Bell created a small laboratory in which he experimented at night, in his free time from classes.
Among the patients who had their hearing restored was the scientist’s future wife, Mabel, the daughter of businessman Gardner Hubbard, and the five-year-old son of a leather merchant named Thomas Sanders.
Inventions and science:
In 1876, at the World’s Science Fair in Philadelphia, Bell presented his new invention called the “telephone.” On March 7 of the same year, Alexander received a patent for his invention. It is noteworthy that at the exhibition, representatives of the scientific community called the telephone a useless toy.
Bell, in order to pay off his debts, was ready to sell the invention for $100 thousand to Western Union, but Western Union representatives did not consider the purchase profitable. Later, WU management realized that they had made a mistake and offered cooperation to the scientist.
It is also worth noting that at the initial stages the phone was not perfect – the device distorted the sound, and it was possible to talk with it only at a distance of 250 meters. Therefore, the inventor continued to constantly improve the device. In February 1880, Bell and his assistant invented a device called a photophone, designed to transmit sounds over a distance using light.
In 1881, the scientist improved a metal detector created in the 19th century to search for ore-bearing veins. Tragic events contributed to the emergence of the metal detector. In 1901, Bell invented the pyramidal kite. It consisted of four triangular sides. The device was incredibly light, strong and durable. According to some reports, he could lift a person into the air.
Together with his wife, Bell created the Experimental Aeronautics Association in 1907. In 1909, an airplane called the Silver Dart was built. The airplane made its first flight on February 23, 1909. This date is considered to be the birthday of Canadian aviation.
In 1919, according to the scientist’s drawings, the HD-4 boat was built, which set a new water speed record. It is known that this hydrofoil swimmer reached speeds of up to 113 kilometers per hour.
Business:
At the end of 1879, the Western Union company entered into an agreement with the inventor’s partners. This is how the united Bell Company appeared, the bulk of the shares of which belonged to Alexander. It is reliably known that the price of one share of the company was $1 thousand. This organization laid the foundation for the development of telephony and the emergence of new telephone companies. By 1900, 1.5 million telephones were installed in the United States, and two years later – 13 million.
Bell looked to the future and provided financial support to young professionals to train new personnel. In total, by 1900, more than two and a half thousand patents were issued for inventions related to telephony. With the money he received from his inventions, Bell opened an institute named after the Italian physicist Alessandro Volta.
Bell also did not forget about publicity. In addition to his scientific activities, the scientist was engaged in philanthropy and was a naturalist. It is known that Alexander participated in the creation of the National Geographic Society and founded the National Geographic magazine, which is still published.
As a result, Alexander Graham received worldwide recognition, and his company was and remains to this day a world leader in the production of telecommunications, computer and electronic systems. A scientist once said that the day will come when a person will be able to see an image of the person he is talking to on his phone, and that day has long come.
The company founded by Bell remains true to its founder. Innovative technologies such as the C++ programming language, the first prototypes of DNA machines and the cosmic map of dark matter were all created in the scientific laboratories of his institution.
Personal life:
Most of Bell’s scientific works and inventions were devoted to improving the means of communication. It is also known that for a couple of years the scientist lectured and studied with deaf-mute students. Thanks to these activities, the scientific genius met his first and only wife, Mabel Hubbard.
They met when the chosen one of the creator of the phone was barely 15 years old. On the day of their beloved’s 18th birthday, their engagement took place. Since then, this date has become a special holiday for lovers. After a year and a half, Bell had saved a sufficient amount of money and convinced Mabel’s parents that his financial situation allowed him to provide for both their daughter and their future children together. As a result, Hubbart’s father and mother agreed to the wedding, and Mabel and Alexander became husband and wife.
In Mabel’s correspondence with her mother, the girl often wrote that every day she got to know Bell from a new, hitherto unseen side. These small discoveries let the young lady know that she had made the right choice and now there was a person next to her whom she could trust.
Hubbart expressed his boundless love through food, so it is not surprising that a couple of years after the wedding, the scientist’s weight reached 100 kg (40 kg more than he weighed before marriage).
After the wedding, which took place in 1877, the newlyweds spent their honeymoon in the town of Niagara Falls, located in the southern part of Ontario (Canada). Bell often went on business trips. During the separation, the scientist missed his wife and, in order not to torment his soul, decided to take Mabel with him on all trips.
It is also worth noting that the only reason for conflicts in the Bell family was Alexander’s habit of working only at night. The scientist’s working day ended at 4 o’clock in the morning, and until that time Hubbart dutifully waited for her husband in the bedchamber, since she could not sleep without his presence nearby.
A couple of times Alexander tried to change his work schedule to please his wife, but these attempts were unsuccessful. Over the years of married life, the chosen one gave birth to her husband two daughters and two sons, but both boys died in early childhood. Their deaths were a big blow for the couple, but Mabel was philosophical about it, declaring that her sons would remain with her forever, in her memories.
The teacher and his student lived together for 45 years of happy family life.
Death:
Bell suffered from a serious illness for a couple of years and was bedridden for a long time. On the day of his death, the businessman came to his senses only for a couple of minutes. Then Alexander saw his beloved Mabel sitting near his bed and smiled at her. The woman tearfully asked not to leave her, but there was no response from the creator of the phone. The man weakly squeezed his wife’s hand and closed his eyes forever.
The famous inventor died on August 2, 1922 (75 years old), on his estate in the province of Nova Scotia, located in eastern Canada. It is reliably known that on August 4, 1922, all telephones in the United States were turned off for a minute. Thus, the country paid its last respects to the man who gave people the opportunity to communicate with each other, regardless of distance.
The name of the scientist is immortalized in his inventions and documentaries, which are based on biographical facts from the life of the genius. Few people know, but in 2002 the US Congress admitted that the phone was not invented by Bell, but by the Italian Antonio Meucci. The man created the invention a couple of years earlier than Alexander, but did not receive a patent for it and died in poverty. After this news, the world scientific community began to believe that Bell simply took advantage of his competitor’s failure and appropriated his discovery for himself.
Interesting Facts:
- The inventor of the telephone, Alexander Bell, suggested using the word “Ahoy” from the vocabulary of German sailors as a telephone greeting. Later, Thomas Edison proposed a more traditional “Hello”, which penetrated into the Russian language, changing to “Hello!” Alexander Bell, in addition to inventing innovative devices, tried to teach his dog to speak.
- Being a deeply religious man, Alexander Graham Bell sincerely believed that his invention – the telephone – would help communicate with the souls of the dead.
- The inventor of the telephone never called his mother and wife: they were both deaf.
Inventions:
- 1858 – Machine for peeling grain
- 1874 – Phonautograph
- 1876 - Telephone
- 1879 – Audiometer
- 1880 – Photophone
- 1881 – Metal detector, vacuum pump
- 1901 – Pyramid Kite
- 1909 – Airplane “Silver Dart”
- 1919 – Hydrofoil HD-4