Alexander Graham Bell

2. In the bright flower fields, right outside a
cabin, young Alexander sat with his dog,
laughing at the remark he heard coming from the
dog's mouth. "Ow ah oo ga ma ma," but
Alexander's imaginative ears swore he heard the
dog say, "How are you grandmamma?" To
create the sound Alexander moved the dog's
voice box around to cause vibrations, which
make the speaking-like sounds with the
movement of the jaw. This was a major influence
on Alexander's life yet to come. Let us begin a
few years back in the mid-eighteen hundreds,
when a very special baby was born.

4. Alexander Bell was born March 3, 1847, in Edinburgh,
Scotland. Alexander was not given a middle name at
birth, so at age eleven he decided to do something about
it. After meeting a family friend from Cuba, Alexander
Graham, Alexander from Scotland decided to take
Graham for his middle name.
As a child Alexander was interested in many things,
he always kept wondering. One thing Alexander was
interested in was sounds and tones. Because of his
interest, Alexander played piano; in fact he played quite
well. Alexander was also especially interested in speech.
He even did experiments on his dog by pressing gently
on the dog's voice box to make it sound like someone
was talking. Alexander had a special love for science. As
a child he would bring home animals to study and
dissect.

6. When Alexander Graham Bell was only sixteen he
taught music. During his teachings, Alexander would
experiment with tuning forks. A tuning fork is a metal
instrument with two prongs, when one prong is hit it
vibrates and it sends the vibration through a connection
cord, internally making the other prong vibrate. The
vibration is heard as music. Alexander, after his
experiments, thought if the vibration of sound could be
sent on metal prongs, couldn't he send speech on a
wire?
At that time, a telegraph could only send one
message over a wire. Alexander was trying to send a
conversation or over one message. He called it a
multiple telegraph. When Alexander was twenty-four, he
moved to Boston, Massachusetts. During that time,
Boston was busy with inventors, scientists, colleges and
industry. What a great place for a man with high hopes
of inventing.

8. Alexander soon made a few close friends who would
help him. Mr. Sanders and Mr. Hubbard were
Alexander's financial backers. They would give him
money and a room to experiment, and would get a share
of the eventual profits. Alexander and another friend,
Tom Watson, would work endlessly during the evenings.
They worked with tuning forks, wires, batteries and
electro-magnets. Thanks to Alexander's sharp ear, they
could make adjustments more precisely. One hot night
in 1875, Alexander's invention began failing.
The sounds were bunched up as they got to the other
end, and wouldn't separate. He just couldn't get the
instrument to work. That was when he shared his idea
about the telephone.

10. During the previous summer, in 1874, he figured
out what would make speech go across the wire. He
had the basic idea of the telephone. When Alexander
shared his idea with Mr. Sanders and Mr. Hubbard, they
didn't think the telephone would be of any use, and
coaxed him to focus on the multiple telegraph. But
Alexander received encouragement from someone
important; Joseph Henry, one of the world's leading
physicists. Dr. Henry was very impressed with
Alexander's telephone idea. He thought the telephone
would be a better thing to work on instead of the multiple
telegraph. Alexander liked the feedback, however he
continued to work on the multiple telegraph.
Most nights ended in disappointment, but on
June 2, 1875, Watson sent vibration from one room, and
Bell received it from another room. After what had
happened, Bell was sure speech could be sent. The
telephone was now on its way.

12. Watson and Bell took the telephone idea and
made it a product. It took time, hard work and
patience. Bell and Watson experimented all
summer and had set aside the multiple
telegraph. Alexander and Tom could now send
messages over the phone, however nothing was
understood on the other end. Since it was still
unclear, they made another transmitter. This
transmitter was made with a wire that connected
to a metal cup that was filled with diluted sulfuric
acid. It was now the 10th of March in 1876. Tom
got the telephone ready to test. He picked up
the receiver and placed it to his ear. Moments
later, the first telephone message had been sent.

13. "Watson, come over here,
I need you"
-Alexander Graham Bell
(First Telephone Call)

14. Alexander Graham Bell's telephone has over
the years changed into a cell phone and into a
handless phone. But you know how Alexander's
curiosity, perseverance, patience and problem
solving gave the world a whole new way to
communicate. If Alexander were alive today, I
think he would find different ways to
communicate still. But tragically, Alexander died
on August 2nd, 1922 from natural causes. Bell,
at only twenty-nine years old, found that this
invention would truly change the world.