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89-995: The laboratories and boatyard were located on the large estate that Dr. Bell acquired in 1885. Dr. Bell bought a large portion of a peninsula that jets out into the Baddeck Bay and named the estate Beinn Bhreagh . The 600-acre estate was originally built as a summer residence, but was later used year-round by the Bell family. From the beginning the estate including laboratory facilities and a boathouse which grew in size to match Bell's interests and later wartime needs. The laboratories located on Beinn Bhreagh were used for various experiments Dr. Bell created. These included his tetrahedral kites , sheep farming, manned aerial flights and development of hydrofoils. The laboratories employed carpenter, plumbers, engineers, boatbuilders and unskilled labourers. At its peak it employed 40 people working on air and water craft, both experimental and traditional. During

178-492: A Baptist minister and family friend. The Bells soon purchased a farm of 10.5 acres (4.2 ha) at Tutelo Heights (now called Tutela Heights), near Brantford , Ontario. The property consisted of an orchard, large farmhouse, stable, pigsty, hen-house, and a carriage house , which bordered the Grand River . At the homestead, Bell set up a workshop in the converted carriage house near what he called his "dreaming place",

267-685: A cruising vacation in 1885 along the coast of eastern North America with their intended destination being Newfoundland to view a mining operation that Mabel's father, Gardiner Greene Hubbard , had invested in. Along the way, the accidental grounding of their passenger boat made them serendipitously discover Cape Breton's Bras d'Or Lake , and they were enthralled by their surroundings. Its landscape, climate, and Scottish traditions and culture were reminiscent of his birthplace in Edinburgh , Scotland . The Bells lived increasingly on Beinn Bhreagh from about 1888 until his death in 1922, initially only in

356-541: A patent application for it. Since he had agreed to share U.S. profits with his investors Gardiner Hubbard and Thomas Sanders, Bell requested that an associate in Ontario, George Brown , attempt to patent it in Britain, instructing his lawyers to apply for a patent in the U.S. only after they received word from Britain (Britain issued patents only for discoveries not previously patented elsewhere). Meanwhile, Elisha Gray

445-484: A precedent . With a change in administration and charges of conflict of interest (on both sides) arising from the original trial, the U.S. attorney general dropped the lawsuit on November 30, 1897, leaving several issues undecided on the merits . During a deposition filed for the 1887 trial, Italian inventor Antonio Meucci also claimed to have created the first working model of a telephone in Italy in 1834. In 1886, in

534-455: A submarine chaser and powered by aircraft engines , their vessel set a world watercraft speed record of 114 km/h (71 mph) in 1919, which remained unbroken for many years. The Bells were both buried atop Beinn Bhreagh mountain, on the estate, overlooking Bras d'Or Lake. The 242.8-hectare (600-acre) estate owned by the Bells is on the peninsula at the end of Beinn Bhreagh Road. It

623-486: A "talking dog". These initial forays into experimentation with sound led Bell to undertake his first serious work on the transmission of sound, using tuning forks to explore resonance . At age 19, Bell wrote a report on his work and sent it to philologist Alexander Ellis , a colleague of his father. Ellis immediately wrote back indicating that the experiments were similar to existing work in Germany, and also lent Bell

712-603: A 3,400-mile wire between New York and San Francisco. Dr. Bell, the veteran inventor of the telephone, was in New York, and Mr. Watson, his former associate, was on the other side of the continent. As is sometimes common in scientific discoveries, simultaneous developments occurred, as evidenced by a number of inventors who were at work on the telephone. Over 18 years, the Bell Telephone Company faced 587 court challenges to its patents, including five that went to

801-480: A big success. While working that summer in Brantford, Bell experimented with a " phonautograph ", a pen-like machine that could draw shapes of sound waves on smoked glass by tracing their vibrations. Bell thought it might be possible to generate undulating electrical currents that corresponded to sound waves. He also thought that multiple metal reeds tuned to different frequencies like a harp would be able to convert

890-457: A copy of Hermann von Helmholtz 's work, The Sensations of Tone as a Physiological Basis for the Theory of Music . Dismayed to find that groundbreaking work had already been undertaken by Helmholtz, who had conveyed vowel sounds by means of a similar tuning fork "contraption", Bell pored over the book. Working from his own erroneous mistranslation of a French edition, Bell fortuitously then made

979-421: A couple of the original claims from the lower court cases were left undecided. By the time the trial had wound its way through nine years of legal battles, the U.S. prosecuting attorney had died and the two Bell patents (No. 174,465, dated March 7, 1876, and No. 186,787, dated January 30, 1877) were no longer in effect, although the presiding judges agreed to continue the proceedings due to the case's importance as

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1068-411: A cup of mercury, not water. He had filed the mercury application at the patent office on February 25, 1875, long before Gray described the water device. In addition, Gray abandoned his caveat, and because he did not contest Bell's priority, the examiner approved Bell's patent on March 3, 1876. Gray had reinvented the variable resistance telephone, but Bell was the first to write down the idea and test it in

1157-538: A deduction that would underpin all his future work on transmitting sound, reporting: "Without knowing much about the subject, it seemed to me that if vowel sounds could be produced by electrical means, so could consonants, so could articulate speech." He also later remarked: "I thought that Helmholtz had done it ... and that my failure was due only to my ignorance of electricity. It was a valuable blunder ... If I had been able to read German in those days, I might never have commenced my experiments!" In 1865, when

1246-581: A deep interest in the emerging science of heredity . His work in this area has been called "the soundest, and most useful study of human heredity proposed in nineteenth-century America... Bell's most notable contribution to basic science, as distinct from invention." Bell was born in Edinburgh , Scotland , on March 3, 1847. The family home was at South Charlotte Street, and has a stone inscription marking it as Bell's birthplace. He had two brothers: Melville James Bell (1845–1870) and Edward Charles Bell (1848–1867), both of whom died of tuberculosis . His father

1335-463: A family friend. To close relatives and friends he remained "Aleck". Bell and his siblings attended a Presbyterian Church in their youth. As a child, Bell displayed a curiosity about his world; he gathered botanical specimens and ran experiments at an early age. His best friend was Ben Herdman, a neighbor whose family operated a flour mill. At the age of 12, Bell built a homemade device that combined rotating paddles with sets of nail brushes, creating

1424-435: A far-reaching decision to concentrate on his experiments in sound. Giving up his lucrative private Boston practice, Bell retained only two students, six-year-old "Georgie" Sanders, deaf from birth, and 15-year-old Mabel Hubbard . Each played an important role in the next developments. Georgie's father, Thomas Sanders, a wealthy businessman, offered Bell a place to stay in nearby Salem with Georgie's grandmother, complete with

1513-637: A large hollow nestled in trees at the back of the property above the river. Despite his frail condition upon arriving in Canada, Bell found the climate and environs to his liking and rapidly improved. He continued his interest in the study of the human voice, and when he discovered the Six Nations Reserve across the river at Onondaga , learned the Mohawk language and translated its unwritten vocabulary into Visible Speech symbols. For his work, Bell

1602-463: A large open shed that was used as the primary shed to build the lifeboats. During this time the boatyard was managed by a Sydney native by the name of Walter Pinaud. The boat yard also produced the 55' yawl Elsie designed by naval architect George Owen and built by Walter Pinaud. Elsie was built as a gift for the Bells daughter Elsie Bell Grosvenor and her husband Gilbert Grosvenor. After the war, Dr. Bell and Casey Baldwin tried unsuccessfully to sell

1691-539: A patent on an invention, and starting a family, Bell continued as a teacher. In May 1870, Melville died from complications of tuberculosis, causing a family crisis. His father had also experienced a debilitating illness earlier in life and been restored to health by convalescence in Newfoundland . Bell's parents embarked upon a long-planned move when they realized that their remaining son was also sickly. Acting decisively, Alexander Melville Bell asked Bell to arrange for

1780-584: A peninsula jutting into Cape Breton Island 's scenic Bras d'Or Lake approximately three kilometres (two miles) southeast of the village of Baddeck , forming the southeastern shore of Baddeck Bay. The peninsula was known to the Mi'kmaq as Megwatpatek , roughly translated to "Red Head" due to the reddish sandstone rocks at the tip of the peninsula. The name Beinn Bhreagh —meaning "Beautiful Mountain" in Scottish Gaelic —is thought to have been given to

1869-435: A room to "experiment". Although the offer was made by Georgie's mother and followed the year-long arrangement in 1872 where her son and his nurse had moved to quarters next to Bell's boarding house, it was clear that Mr. Sanders backed the proposal. The arrangement was for teacher and student to continue their work together, with free room and board thrown in. Mabel was a bright, attractive girl ten years Bell's junior who became

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1958-561: A simple dehusking machine that was put into operation at the mill and used steadily for a number of years. In return, Ben's father John Herdman gave both boys the run of a small workshop in which to "invent". From his early years, Bell showed a sensitive nature and a talent for art, poetry, and music that his mother encouraged. With no formal training, he mastered the piano and became the family's pianist. Though normally quiet and introspective, he reveled in mimicry and "voice tricks" akin to ventriloquism that entertained family guests. Bell

2047-595: A student in Latin and Greek, he instructed classes himself in return for board and £10 per session. The next year, he attended the University of Edinburgh , joining his brother Melville, who had enrolled there the previous year. In 1868, not long before he departed for Canada with his family, Bell completed his matriculation exams and was accepted for admission to University College London . Bell's father encouraged his interest in speech and, in 1863, took his sons to see

2136-595: A teaching practice and in 1871, he accompanied his father to Montreal, where Melville was offered a position to teach his System of Visible Speech. Bell's father was invited by Sarah Fuller , principal of the Boston School for Deaf Mutes (later to become the public Horace Mann School for the Deaf ) to introduce the Visible Speech System by providing training for Fuller's instructors, but he declined

2225-572: A telephone. The patent examiner , Zenas Fisk Wilber, later stated in an affidavit that he was an alcoholic who was much in debt to Bell's lawyer, Marcellus Bailey , with whom he had served in the Civil War. He said he had shown Bailey Gray's patent caveat. Wilber also said (after Bell arrived in Washington D.C. from Boston) that he showed Bell Gray's caveat and that Bell paid him $ 100 (equivalent to $ 2,800 in 2023). Bell said they discussed

2314-517: A unique automaton developed by Sir Charles Wheatstone based on the earlier work of Baron Wolfgang von Kempelen . The rudimentary "mechanical man" simulated a human voice. Bell was fascinated by the machine, and after he obtained a copy of von Kempelen's book, published in German, and had laboriously translated it, he and Melville built their own automaton head. Their father, highly interested in their project, offered to pay for any supplies and spurred

2403-474: A working model of his telephone. On August 3, 1876, from the telegraph office in Brantford, Bell sent a telegram to the village of Mount Pleasant four miles (six kilometres) away, indicating that he was ready. He made a telephone call via telegraph wires and faint voices were heard replying. The following night, he amazed guests as well as his family with a call between the Bell Homestead and the office of

2492-631: A young child, Bell, like his brothers, was schooled at home by his father. At an early age, he was enrolled at the Royal High School , Edinburgh; he left at age 15, having completed only the first four forms. His school record was undistinguished, marked by absenteeism and lackluster grades. His main interest remained in the sciences, especially biology, while he treated other school subjects with indifference, to his father's dismay. Upon leaving school, Bell traveled to London to live with his grandfather, Alexander Bell, on Harrington Square . During

2581-539: Is credited with patenting the first practical telephone . He also co-founded the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T) in 1885. Bell's father , grandfather, and brother had all been associated with work on elocution and speech, and both his mother and wife were deaf, profoundly influencing Bell's life's work. His research on hearing and speech further led him to experiment with hearing devices, which eventually culminated in his being awarded

2670-416: Is now owned by their many descendants, is not open to the public, and is not visible from Beinn Bhreagh Road. The Bells' first residence on Beinn Bhreagh , the "Lodge", was built in 1888. The second and larger home, Beinn Bhreagh Hall (known locally as "The Point") was built in 1893. Both are visible from Baddeck , across Baddeck Bay. More information and pictures of the estate can be found by visiting

2759-505: The Alexander Graham Bell National Historic Site , a national park system unit and museum managed by Parks Canada , which contains many objects that were donated to the nation by Bell's descendants. The museum was designated a National Historic Site in 1952, while Beinn Bhreagh Hall was named a National Historic Site in 2018. Alexander Graham Bell's father-in-law, Gardiner Greene Hubbard,

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2848-672: The Boston University School of Oratory. During this period, he alternated between Boston and Brantford, spending summers in his Canadian home. At Boston University, Bell was "swept up" by the excitement engendered by the many scientists and inventors living in the city. He continued his research in sound and endeavored to find a way to transmit musical notes and articulate speech, but although absorbed by his experiments, he found it difficult to devote enough time to experimentation. With days and evenings occupied by his teaching and private classes, Bell began to stay awake late into

2937-399: The U.S. Supreme Court , but none was successful in establishing priority over Bell's original patent, and the Bell Telephone Company never lost a case that had proceeded to a final trial stage. Bell's laboratory notes and family letters were the key to establishing a long lineage to his experiments. The Bell company lawyers successfully fought off myriad lawsuits generated initially around

3026-599: The "world's first long-distance call". It proved that the telephone could work over long distances, at least as a one-way call. The first two-way (reciprocal) conversation over a line occurred between Cambridge and Boston (roughly 2.5 miles) on October 9, 1876. During that conversation, Bell was on Kilby Street in Boston and Watson was at the offices of the Walworth Manufacturing Company. Bell and his partners, Hubbard and Sanders, offered to sell

3115-501: The Bell family moved to London, Bell returned to Weston House as an assistant master and, in his spare hours, continued experiments on sound using a minimum of laboratory equipment. Bell concentrated on experimenting with electricity to convey sound and later installed a telegraph wire from his room in Somerset College to that of a friend. Throughout late 1867, his health faltered mainly through exhaustion. His brother Edward

3204-679: The Deaf (United States) , but in his memoir Memoir upon the Formation of a Deaf Variety of the Human Race , he observed that if deaf people tended to marry other deaf people, this could result in the emergence of a "deaf race". Ultimately, in 1880, the Second International Congress on Education of the Deaf passed a resolution mandating the teaching of oral communication and banning signing in schools. In 1872, Bell became professor of Vocal Physiology and Elocution at

3293-505: The Deaf for a recommendation. Teaching his father's system, in October 1872, Alexander Bell opened his "School of Vocal Physiology and Mechanics of Speech" in Boston, which attracted a large number of deaf pupils, with his first class numbering 30 students. While he was working as a private tutor, one of his pupils was Helen Keller , who came to him as a young child unable to see, hear, or speak. She later said that Bell dedicated his life to

3382-498: The Dominion Telegraph Company in Brantford along an improvised wire strung up along telegraph lines and fences, and laid through a tunnel. This time, guests at the household distinctly heard people in Brantford reading and singing. The third test, on August 10, 1876, was made via the telegraph line between Brantford and Paris, Ontario, eight miles (thirteen kilometres) away. This test is said by many sources to be

3471-646: The HD4 to the United States Navy and the British Navy . Although both navies declined to buy or build the HD4 , they were successful in achieving the water speed record of 70.86 mph which stood for a decade. After the HD4 and the life boat program the boatyard focused more on yachts but continued experimentation with high-speed vessels. After the death of Dr. Bell in 1922, Casey Baldwin inherited many of

3560-724: The United States alone. It explains methods to instruct deaf-mutes (as they were then known) to articulate words and read other people's lip movements to decipher meaning. Bell's father taught him and his brothers not only to write Visible Speech but to identify any symbol and its accompanying sound. Bell became so proficient that he became a part of his father's public demonstrations and astounded audiences with his abilities. He could decipher Visible Speech representing virtually every language, including Latin , Scottish Gaelic , and even Sanskrit , accurately reciting written tracts without any prior knowledge of their pronunciation. As

3649-424: The ability to create a working model of his ideas. But a chance meeting in 1874 between Bell and Thomas A. Watson , an experienced electrical designer and mechanic at the electrical machine shop of Charles Williams, changed that. With financial support from Sanders and Hubbard, Bell hired Watson as his assistant, and the two experimented with acoustic telegraphy . On June 2, 1875, Watson accidentally plucked one of

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3738-433: The boys on with the enticement of a "big prize" if they were successful. While his brother constructed the throat and larynx , Bell tackled the more difficult task of recreating a realistic skull. His efforts resulted in a remarkably lifelike head that could "speak", albeit only a few words. The boys would carefully adjust the "lips" and when a bellows forced air through the windpipe , a very recognizable Mama ensued, to

3827-487: The challenges by Elisha Gray and Amos Dolbear . In personal correspondence to Bell, both Gray and Dolbear had acknowledged his prior work, which considerably weakened their later claims. On January 13, 1887, the U.S. government moved to annul the patent issued to Bell on the grounds of fraud and misrepresentation. After a series of decisions and reversals, the Bell company won a decision in the Supreme Court, though

3916-530: The deaf could be taught to read lips and speak (known as oralism ), enabling their integration with wider society. Members of the Deaf community have criticized Bell for supporting ideas that could cause the closure of dozens of deaf schools, and what some consider eugenicist ideas. Bell did not support a ban on deaf people marrying each other, an idea articulated by the National Association of

4005-558: The degree examinations, devoting his spare time to studying. Helping his father in Visible Speech demonstrations and lectures brought Bell to Susanna E. Hull's private school for the deaf in South Kensington , London. His first two pupils were deaf-mute girls who made remarkable progress under his tutelage. While Melville seemed to achieve success on many fronts, including opening his own elocution school, applying for

4094-538: The delight of neighbors who came to see the invention. Intrigued by the results of the automaton, Bell continued to experiment with a live subject, the family's Skye Terrier , Trouve. After he taught it to growl continuously, Bell would reach into its mouth and manipulate the dog's lips and vocal cords to produce a crude-sounding "Ow ah oo ga ma ma". With little convincing, visitors believed his dog could articulate "How are you, grandmama?" Indicative of his playful nature, his experiments convinced onlookers that they saw

4183-454: The device to Queen Victoria , placing calls to Cowes, Southampton, and London. These were the first publicly witnessed long-distance telephone calls in the UK . The queen found the process "quite extraordinary" although the sound was "rather faint". She later asked to buy the equipment that was used, but Bell offered to make "a set of telephones" specifically for her. The Bell Telephone Company

4272-509: The director of the Smithsonian Institution , to ask his advice on the electrical multi-reed apparatus that Bell hoped would transmit the human voice by telegraph. Henry said Bell had "the germ of a great invention". When Bell said that he lacked the necessary knowledge, Henry replied, "Get it!" That declaration greatly encouraged Bell to keep trying, even though he had neither the equipment needed to continue his experiments nor

4361-506: The electromagnetic telephone and never used Gray's liquid transmitter in public demonstrations or commercial use. The examiner raised the question of priority for the variable resistance feature of the telephone before approving Bell's patent application. He told Bell that his claim for the variable resistance feature was also described in Gray's caveat. Bell pointed to a variable resistance device in his previous application in which he described

4450-600: The first U.S. patent for the telephone, on March 7, 1876. Bell considered his invention an intrusion on his real work as a scientist and refused to have a telephone in his study. Many other inventions marked Bell's later life, including groundbreaking work in optical telecommunications , hydrofoils , and aeronautics . Bell also had a strong influence on the National Geographic Society and its magazine while serving as its second president from 1898 to 1903. Beyond his work in engineering, Bell had

4539-454: The first of three cases in which he was involved, Meucci took the stand as a witness in hope of establishing his invention's priority. Meucci's testimony was disputed due to lack of material evidence for his inventions, as his working models were purportedly lost at the laboratory of American District Telegraph (ADT) of New York, which was incorporated as a subsidiary of Western Union in 1901. Meucci's work, like that of many other inventors of

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4628-419: The great cost of constructing new lines. When Bell mentioned to Gardiner Hubbard and Thomas Sanders that he was working on a method of sending multiple tones on a telegraph wire using a multi-reed device, the two began to financially support Bell's experiments. Patent matters were handled by Hubbard's patent attorney , Anthony Pollok . In March 1875, Bell and Pollok visited the scientist Joseph Henry , then

4717-655: The ice during the winter to its new home. It is still (2013) in use as a barn on a farm in Middle River, on the Cabot Trail . 46°06′00″N 60°43′27″W  /  46.100029°N 60.724171°W  / 46.100029; -60.724171 Beinn Bhreagh Beinn Bhreagh ( / ˌ b ɛ n ˈ v r iː ə / ben VREE -ə ) is the name of the former estate of Alexander Graham Bell , in Victoria County , Nova Scotia , Canada. It refers to

4806-404: The laboratories and staff to construct the various pieces needed. As work progressed on the hydrofoils the main focus was for them to become submarine chasers. Before a full working prototype could be completed World War I broke out. As a citizen of the neutral United States , Dr. Bell did not want to risk breaking his country's neutrality law. So he switched the boatyard's focus from developing

4895-522: The laboratory facilities and boatyard. He built a number of custom boats. These included a 30 foot high-speed boat using the hydrodrome design ordered by the British racer Marion Carstairs , intended to achieve 115 mph. Carstairs planned to compete for the Harmsworth Cup but withdrew and the boat was completed with a more economical engine delivering 57 mph. One of the last boats made at

4984-500: The liquid transmitter, Watson, listening at the receiving end in an adjoining room, heard the words clearly. Although Bell was, and still is, accused of stealing the telephone from Gray, Bell used Gray's water transmitter design only after Bell's patent had been granted, and only as a proof of concept scientific experiment, to prove to his own satisfaction that intelligible "articulate speech" (Bell's words) could be electrically transmitted. After March 1876, Bell focused on improving

5073-544: The military applicable HD vessels to building life boats for the Canadian Navy. The Bells often employed local women from Baddeck and other places. The main focus throughout the war was a program ran from the estate by Mabel Bell's former secretary Gretchen Schmitt. The Bells converted one of the houses on their estate into a residence for the women from out of town. During the war the Bell Boatyard consisted of

5162-536: The nearest town, are prominently displayed in National Geographic maps of the area, despite their relatively small size. 46°06′16″N 60°43′04″W  /  46.10444°N 60.71778°W  / 46.10444; -60.71778 Alexander Graham Bell Alexander Graham Bell ( / ˈ ɡ r eɪ . ə m / , born Alexander Bell ; March 3, 1847 – August 2, 1922) was a Scottish-born Canadian-American inventor, scientist, and engineer who

5251-414: The next day resumed work, drawing in his notebook a diagram similar to that in Gray's patent caveat. On March 10, Bell succeeded in getting his telephone to work, using a liquid transmitter similar to Gray's design. Vibration of the diaphragm caused a needle to vibrate in the water, varying the electrical resistance in the circuit. When Bell spoke the sentence "Mr. Watson—Come here—I want to see you" into

5340-433: The night, running experiment after experiment in rented facilities at his boarding house. Keeping "night owl" hours, he worried that his work would be discovered and took great pains to lock up his notebooks and laboratory equipment. Bell had a specially made table where he could place his notes and equipment inside a locking cover. His health deteriorated as he had severe headaches. Returning to Boston in fall 1873, Bell made

5429-481: The object of his affection. Having lost her hearing after a near-fatal bout of scarlet fever close to her fifth birthday, she had learned to read lips but her father, Gardiner Greene Hubbard, Bell's benefactor and personal friend, wanted her to work directly with her teacher. By 1874, Bell's initial work on the harmonic telegraph had entered a formative stage, with progress made both at his new Boston "laboratory" (a rented facility) and at his family home in Canada

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5518-466: The patent only in general terms, although in a letter to Gray, Bell admitted that he learned some of the technical details. Bell denied in an affidavit that he ever gave Wilber any money. On March 10, 1876, Bell used "the instrument" in Boston to call Thomas Watson who was in another room but out of earshot. He said, "Mr. Watson, come here – I want to see you" and Watson soon appeared at his side. Continuing his experiments in Brantford, Bell brought home

5607-424: The patent outright to Western Union for $ 100,000, equal to $ 2,861,250 today, but it did not work (according to an apocryphal story, the president of Western Union balked, countering that the telephone was nothing but a toy ). Two years later, he told colleagues that if he could get the patent for $ 25 million (equal to $ 789,310,345 today), he would consider it a bargain. By then, the Bell company no longer wanted to sell

5696-481: The patent. Bell's investors became millionaires while he fared well from residuals and at one point had assets of nearly $ 1 million. Bell began a series of public demonstrations and lectures to introduce the new invention to the scientific community as well as the general public. A short time later, his demonstration of an early telephone prototype at the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia brought

5785-510: The penetration of that "inhuman silence which separates and estranges". In 1893, Keller performed the sod-breaking ceremony for the construction of Bell's new Volta Bureau , dedicated to "the increase and diffusion of knowledge relating to the deaf". Throughout his life, Bell sought to assimilate the deaf and hard of hearing with the hearing world. He encouraged speech therapy and lipreading over sign language. He outlined this in an 1898 paper detailing his belief that, with resources and effort,

5874-489: The peninsula by Bell, who purchased approximately 242.8 hectares (600 acres) to form the estate in the late 1880s. In July 2005, the Nova Scotia Civic Address Project review changed the status of Beinn Bhreagh from a "generic locality" to a "community". Wealthy from his successful invention and marketing of the telephone , inventor Alexander Graham Bell and his wife, Mabel , undertook

5963-400: The period, was based on earlier acoustic principles and, despite evidence of earlier experiments, the final case involving Meucci was eventually dropped upon Meucci's death. But due to the efforts of Congressman Vito Fossella , on June 11, 2002, the U.S. House of Representatives stated that Meucci's "work in the invention of the telephone should be acknowledged". This did not put an end to

6052-748: The post in favor of his son. Traveling to Boston in April 1871, Bell proved successful in training the school's instructors. He was asked to repeat the program at the American Asylum for Deaf-mutes in Hartford, Connecticut , and the Clarke School for the Deaf in Northampton, Massachusetts . Returning home to Brantford after six months abroad, Bell continued his experiments with his "harmonic telegraph". The basic concept behind his device

6141-452: The primacy of Bell's patent. Bell was in Boston on February 14 and did not arrive in Washington until February 26. On March 7, 1876, the U.S. Patent Office issued Bell patent 174,465. It covered "the method of, and apparatus for, transmitting vocal or other sounds telegraphically ... by causing electrical undulations, similar in form to the vibrations of the air accompanying the said vocal or other sound" Bell returned to Boston that day and

6230-623: The receiving telephone. Pedro II of Brazil was the first person to buy stock in the Bell Telephone Company. One of the first telephones in a private residence was installed in his palace in Petrópolis , his summer retreat forty miles (sixty-four kilometres) from Rio de Janeiro . In January 1915, Bell made the first ceremonial transcontinental telephone call . Calling from the AT&;T head office at 15 Dey Street in New York City, Bell

6319-410: The reeds and Bell, at the receiving end of the wire, heard the reed's overtones that would be necessary for transmitting speech. That demonstrated to Bell that only one reed or armature was necessary, not multiple reeds. This led to the "gallows" sound-powered telephone , which could transmit indistinct, voice-like sounds, but not clear speech. In 1875, Bell developed an acoustic telegraph and drew up

6408-508: The sale of all the family property, conclude all his brother's affairs (Bell took on his last student, curing a pronounced lisp), and join his father and mother in setting out for the " New World ". Reluctantly, Bell also had to conclude a relationship with Marie Eccleston, who, as he had surmised, was not prepared to leave England with him. In 1870, 23-year-old Bell traveled with his parents and his brother's widow, Caroline Margaret Ottaway, to Paris, Ontario , to stay with Thomas Henderson,

6497-468: The still contentious issue. Some modern scholars do not agree that Bell's work on the telephone was influenced by Meucci's inventions. The value of Bell's patent was acknowledged throughout the world, and patent applications were made in most major countries. When Bell delayed the German patent application, the electrical firm Siemens & Halske set up a rival manufacturer of Bell telephones under its own patent. Siemens produced near-identical copies of

6586-688: The summer and then later often year-round. Bell constructed a laboratory and boatyard on this property, conducting experiments in powered flight and hydrofoil technology, among many other things. Some of his most notable accomplishments at Beinn Bhreagh included the first manned flight of an airplane in the British Commonwealth (by the AEA Silver Dart ) in 1909, plus the HD-4 , a hydrofoil boat designed by Frederick Walker Baldwin and Bell, and built at Beinn Bhreagh . Designed as

6675-521: The telephone to international attention. Influential visitors to the exhibition included Emperor Pedro II of Brazil . One of the judges at the Exhibition, Sir William Thomson (later Lord Kelvin), a renowned Scottish scientist, described the telephone as "the greatest by far of all the marvels of the electric telegraph". On January 14, 1878, at Osborne House , on the Isle of Wight , Bell demonstrated

6764-436: The undulating currents back into sound. But he had no working model to demonstrate the feasibility of these ideas. In 1874, telegraph message traffic was rapidly expanding and, in the words of Western Union President William Orton , had become "the nervous system of commerce". Orton had contracted with inventors Thomas Edison and Elisha Gray to find a way to send multiple telegraph messages on each telegraph line to avoid

6853-522: The yard was Tolka , a 36-foot motor vessel ordered by Baldwin's brother-in-law John Lash for the Muskokas in Ontario. Completed in 1928, it included a dual-control system that was unique for the era. After production at the boatyard ceased, a large building on the site was used to store boats of the Fairchild family descendants of Mable and Dr. Bell's. That same building was eventually sold and moved on

6942-486: The year he spent with his grandfather, a love of learning was born, with long hours spent in serious discussion and study. The elder Bell took great efforts to have his young pupil learn to speak clearly and with conviction, attributes he would need to become a teacher himself. At age 16, Bell secured a position as a "pupil-teacher" of elocution and music at Weston House Academy in Elgin, Moray , Scotland. Although enrolled as

7031-597: The years after the flight of the Silver Dart and up to the start of the First World War , Bell used his laboratories to develop hydrofoils. Dr. Bell and, long-time collaborator, Casey Baldwin started their first major designs of hydrofoils in 1911 after viewing Enrico Forlanini 's hydrofoil while on a world tour in Italy in 1910. In order to build the experiments labelled HD 1 , HD 2 , HD 3 , and HD 4 , (HD standing for Hydrodrome) Dr. Bell and Casey used

7120-407: Was Alexander Melville Bell , a phonetician , and his mother was Eliza Grace Bell ( née Symonds). Born as just "Alexander Bell", at age 10 he made a plea to his father to have a middle name like his two brothers. For his 11th birthday, his father acquiesced and allowed him to adopt the name "Graham", chosen out of respect for Alexander Graham, a Canadian being treated by his father who had become

7209-494: Was also deeply affected by his mother's gradual deafness (she began to lose her hearing when he was 12), and learned a manual finger language so he could sit at her side and tap out silently the conversations swirling around the family parlor. He also developed a technique of speaking in clear, modulated tones directly into his mother's forehead, whereby she would hear him with reasonable clarity. Bell's preoccupation with his mother's deafness led him to study acoustics . His family

7298-401: Was also experimenting with acoustic telegraphy and thought of a way to transmit speech using a water transmitter. On February 14, 1876, Gray filed a caveat with the U.S. Patent Office for a telephone design that used a water transmitter. That same morning, Bell's lawyer filed Bell's application with the patent office. There is considerable debate about who arrived first and Gray later challenged

7387-434: Was awarded the title of Honorary Chief and participated in a ceremony where he donned a Mohawk headdress and danced traditional dances. After setting up his workshop, Bell continued experiments based on Helmholtz's work with electricity and sound. He also modified a melodeon (a type of pump organ) to transmit its music electrically over a distance. Once the family was settled, Bell and his father made plans to establish

7476-427: Was created in 1877, and by 1886, more than 150,000 people in the U.S. owned telephones. Bell Company engineers made numerous other improvements to the telephone, which emerged as one of the most successful products ever. In 1879, the company acquired Edison's patents for the carbon microphone from Western Union. This made the telephone practical for longer distances, and it was no longer necessary to shout to be heard at

7565-465: Was heard by Thomas Watson at 333 Grant Avenue in San Francisco. The New York Times reported: On October 9, 1876, Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas A. Watson talked by telephone to each other over a two-mile wire stretched between Cambridge and Boston. It was the first wire conversation ever held. Yesterday afternoon [on January 25, 1915], the same two men talked by telephone to each other over

7654-607: Was long associated with the teaching of elocution: his grandfather, Alexander Bell, in London, his uncle in Dublin , and his father, in Edinburgh, were all elocutionists. His father published a variety of works on the subject, several of which are still well known, especially The Standard Elocutionist (1860), which appeared in Edinburgh in 1868. The Standard Elocutionist appeared in 168 British editions and sold over 250,000 copies in

7743-474: Was similarly affected by tuberculosis . While Bell recovered (by then referring to himself in correspondence as "A. G. Bell") and served the next year as an instructor at Somerset College, Bath , England, his brother's condition deteriorated. Edward never recovered. Upon his brother's death, Bell returned home in 1867. Melville had married and moved out. With aspirations to obtain a degree at University College London , Bell considered his next years preparation for

7832-483: Was that messages could be sent through a single wire if each was transmitted at a different pitch, but work on both the transmitter and receiver was needed. Unsure of his future, he contemplated returning to London to complete his studies, but decided to return to Boston as a teacher. His father helped him set up his private practice by contacting Gardiner Greene Hubbard , the president of the Clarke School for

7921-524: Was the first president of the National Geographic Society and Bell was its second president. Bell's son-in-law Gilbert Hovey Grosvenor was president of the National Geographic Society for many years, and his grandson, Melville Bell Grosvenor , and great-grandson Gilbert Melville Grosvenor were editors of the National Geographic Magazine and also presidents of the society. Perhaps as a result, both Beinn Bhreagh or Baddeck,

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