Alexander Graham Bell; The making of Telephone

 

Today, you can pick up a telephone and speak to someone anywhere in the World. Before the invention of the telephone in 1876, people had to send telegrams, write letters or visit each other when they wanted to communicate.

The telephone was invented by Alexander Graham Bell, a teacher of the deaf. Bell born and grew up in 1847 in the Scotland but when was twenty-three he contracted tuberculosis and his family emigrated to Canada, where the climate was drier. He later moved to Boston in the USA where he continued to teach deaf children to speak.

The making of Telephone

His interest in speech sounds gave him the idea that somehow, speech could be sent along a wire. Bell knew that sound waves cause vibrations in the eardrum, and that this is what makes it possible for people to hear. He decided to make an electrical transmitter with a vibrating disc which would pick up sound waves in the same way as the eardrum.

This transmitter would be linked by a wire to receiver which also contained a vibrating disc. Sound vibrations would pass along the wire to the receiver which would convert them back into words.

Bell and a young mechanic, Thomas Watson worked for two years to make a successful transmitter. One evening in 1875, Bell set up the transmitter in his receiver in another room, heard him. The telephone had been inverted.

Bell improved his equipment and transmitted telephone calls over longer distances. At first people were afraid gradually go used to the idea and the telephone system began to develop into the vast network we have today

Death of Alexander Graham Bell

Bell died on August 2, 1922, at the age of 75 in Nova Scotia, Canada. The cause of his death was complications from diabetes. He was survived by his wife and two daughters.