35 Interesting Facts About Alexander Graham Bell

World's Greatest Scientists/Inventors

One of the most famous inventors of all-time is Alexander Graham Bell. He is well remembered for his invention of the telephone. Here’s a list of interesting things about this very intellectual inventor.

1.) Alexander Graham Bell was born on March 3, 1847 in Edinburgh, Scotland.

2.) Alexander Graham Bell is an American inventor and teacher of the deaf.

3.) Bell is most famous for his work on the telephone.

4.) He was educated at the universities of Edinburgh and London.

5.) Bell immigrated to Canada in 1870 and to the United States in 1871.

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6.) In the United States he began teaching deaf-mutes, publicizing the system called visible speech.

7.) In 1872, he founded a school to train teachers of the deaf in Boston, Massachusetts and became part of Boston University

8.) Bell was appointed professor of vocal physiology in Boston University.

9.) He became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1882.

10.) Since the age of 18, Bell had been working on the idea of transmitting speech.

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11.) In 1874, while working on a multiple telegraph, he developed the basic ideas of the telephone.

12.) On March 10, 1876, his experiments with his assistant Thomas Watson finally became a reality.

13.) The statement that Bell transmitted was “Watson, come here; I want you.”

14.) At the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, telephone was introduced to the world.

15.) The Bell Telephone Company was established in 1877.

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16.) In 1880 France bestowed on Bell the Volta Prize, worth 50,000 francs, for his invention.

17.) He used the money in founding the Volta Laboratory in Washington, D.C. and invented the photophone with his associates.

18.) Other inventions include the audiometer, the induction balance, and the first wax recording cylinder, introduced in 1886.

19.) Bell was one of the cofounders of the National Geographic Society, and he served as its president from 1896 to 1904.

20.) He also helped to establish the journal Science by financing it from 1883-1894.

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21.) Bell’s summer home is located at Baddeck on Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia, Canada.

22.) Most of his inventions on aeronautics were first tested near his summer home in Canada.

23.) His study of flight began with the construction of large kites, and in 1907 he devised a kite capable of carrying a person.

24.) Bell, with the American inventor and aviator Glenn Hammond Curtiss, developed the aileron and the tricycle landing gear.

25.) His group also started working on hydrofoil boats, which travel above the water at high speeds.

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26.) Bell’s final full-sized “hydrodrome,” developed in 1917, reached speeds in excess of 113 km/h for many years were the world’s fastest boat.

27.) His book Duration of Life and Conditions Associated with Longevity was published in 1918.

28.) Alexander Graham Bell died on August 2, 1922, at Baddeck, Cape Breton Island.

29.) A museum is located in his home and contains several of his original inventions. The museum is maintained by the Canadian government.

30.) Alexander Graham Bell, who was unable to complete the university program of his youth, received numerous Honorary Degrees from academic institutions.

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31.) Close relatives and friends called him Aleck.

32.) His two brothers, Melville James and Edward Charles, both died of tuberculosis.

33.) His father was a professor.

34.) His two brothers both have middle name. At age 10 he asked his father that he should have a middle name too. On his 11^th birthday his wish was granted.

35.) At age 16, Bell secured a position as a "pupil-teacher" of elocution and music, in Weston House Academy located at Elgin, Moray, Scotland.