Alexander Graham BellAlexander Graham Bell was born in 1847. As a child He took after hisgrandfather who was an actor who entertained people with his voice. Alexandersmother, who was deaf, would have people talk to her through her ear tube, whichamplifies speech by talking through a object that looked like a horn. Alexanderchoose to talk to his mother by speaking in low tones very close to herforehead.
Alexander thought that his mother would be able to “hear” him by thevibrations his voice put on her forehead. Alexander at about the age of 14 andhis brother, Melville, created a contraption that had a fake mouth, tongue, andlungs that you could force air out of. This contraption could make human-likesounds. After this Alexander manipulated his dogs vocal cords and mouth tochange growls to words.
By the time Alexander was sixteen he was teaching musicat a boys boarding school. Alexander Bell meet Thomas Watson at an electrical machine shop, Watson andAlexander formed a friendship after Alexander told him of his idea abouttransmitting speech over a wire. On June 2,1875, when working in thetransmitting room Watson produced a twang when trying to loosen up a wire. Alexander working on the transmitter was able to send sounds that resembled thatof a human voice.
Next, Alexander discovered that a wire vibrated by speechwhen placed in a conducting liquid, like mercury and would produce a current. Basically speech could be transmitted by wire. On March 10,1876 Alexander andWatson were working on the machine when Alexander knocked over battery acid. Heshouted, “Mr. Watson, come here. I need you!” and Watson working in thereceiver room heard his voice coming through the wire.
Later, the Bell Company was formed, which is now AT&T. Before Alexander diedin 1922, he had invented an electric probe for locating metal objects in bodies,and the artificial respirator.Science
