Alexander Graham Bell - A Pioneer In The Field Of Telecommunications

A pioneer in the field of telecommunications, Alexander Graham Bell was born in 1847 in Edinburgh, Scotland.He scientist, inventor and innovator at the same time.Despite Bell`s declaration ("I am not one of those hyphenated Americans who claim allegiance to two countries" ), he was claimed as a "native son" by Canada, Scotland and the United States.
Born and raised in Edinburgh, Scotland, he was home schooled by his mother up until the age of ten, when unfortunately she began to go deaf, hindering her ability to teach effectively.It is also true that he was educated at the Edinburgh high school and Edinburgh University.
He immigrated to Canada in 1870, and then to the United States in 1871, with his father.Perhaps Bell’s father’s most important invention was that of the visible speech system. This was a series of diagrams that showed the exact throat shape, and position of tongue and lips, for many different vocal sounds.In 1872, he introduced with success his father's system of deaf-mute instruction, and became professor of vocal physiology in Boston University.
Both his mother and wife were deaf, fact which profoundly influenced Bell's life's work.Throughout his life, Bell had been interested in the education of deaf people. This interest lead him to invent the microphone and, in 1876, his "electrical speech machine", called telephone.
He had been interested for many years in the transmission of sound by electricity.With the aid of an electrician friend, Thomas Watson, Alexander Graham Bell invented a device that converted a particular sound into a particular electrical current.Voice sounds were developed and after much work, in 1879, the first intelligible sentence had been spoken over the telephone.His many laboratory notebooks demonstrate that this first fully intelligible telephone call occurred on March 6, 1876, when Bell, in one room, called to his assistant, Thomas Watson, in another room.The famous first words were "Mr. Watson -- come here -- I want to see you."
In 1880, Bell received the Volta Prize of 50,000 francs ($10,000) for the invention of the telephone from L’Académie française.The French government also conferred on him the decoration of the Légion d'honneur.
Among one of his first innovations after the telephone was the "photophone," a device that enabled sound to be transmitted on a beam of light.
Even if Alexander Graham Bell is most often associated with the invention of the telephone, his interests were extremely varied.Bell worked extensively in medical research and invented techniques for teaching speech to the deaf.Bell's own home used a primitive form of air conditioning.These are some of the many examples which demonstrate that Bell had many interests in science.
Bell is also credited with the invention of the metal detector in 1881.The first metal detector was quickly assembled by the famous inventor to locate a bullet in US president James Garfield. It did not work as planned, because the metal bed frame the president was lying on disturbed the instrument.
After that Graham Bell continued to test out new ideas through a long and productive life. Bell began hydrofoil experimentation in the summer of 1908.Bell spent the last decade of his life improving hydrofoil designs, and in 1919 he and Casey Baldwin built a hydrofoil that set a world water-speed record that was not broken until 1963.Bell considered the invention of the hydroplane as a very significant achievement.
Bell was a supporter of aerospace engineering research through the Aerial Experiment Association.After 1895 Bell's interest turned mostly to aeronautics. Many of his inventions in this area were first tested near his summer home at Baddeck on Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia, Canada.
Bell was connected with the eugenics movement in the United States.Bell’s second chief interest was the study of heredity and animal breeding, and he became an early supporter of the eugenics movement to improve human breeding.In 1884, Bell published a paper “Upon the Formation of a Deaf Variety of the Human Race”.
Bell died of pernicious anemia on 2 August 1922, at his private estate, Beinn Bhreagh, Nova Scotia, at age 75.On the day of his burial, all telephone service in the US was stopped for one minute in his honor.

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