Alexander Graham Bell - Famous Scots



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Famous Scots: Alexander Graham Bell

Born

1847, Edinburgh

Died

1922

Alexander Graham Bell had a life long interest in helping the deaf to communicate. When a young man he taught in Elgin but was encouraged by his family to emigrate to N America. Lung disease had killed his two brothers and it was felt that Alexander should leave in 1870. So at the age of 23 Bell moved first to Brantford, Ontario with his family and then to Boston.
He became a Professor at Boston University helping deaf children during the day while experimenting with communications in the evening.
In 1875 Bell received financial backing to prove his theory that the human voice could be communicate over copper wire. Bell used his first crude telephone to say to his assistant in an ajoinging room - "Come here, Mr Watson, I want to see you" - the first telephone conversation had taken place. The following year he filed a patent for his telephone just ahead of rivals. He was challenged over 500 times in the courts regarding his company's right to the patent and never once lost!
It was his amateur experimenting with electricity and sound which made Bell a millionaire rather than his vocation of helping the deaf. In fact he made many inventions including a metal detector and deaf aids. Even when rich and famous he continued to devote time, effort and cash in his pursuit of helping the deaf to communicate.
He lived latterly in Nova Scotia.