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Alexander Graham Bell
Born Mar 3 1847 - Died Aug 2 1922
Telephone / Telegraphy
Telephone / Telegraphy
Patent Number(s) 174,465
Inducted 1974
Alexander Graham Bell's invention of the telephone grew out of his research
into ways to improve the telegraph. On April 6, 1875, Bell was granted the patent for the
multiple telegraph, which sent two signals at the
same time. In September 1875 he began to write the specifications for the
telephone. On March 7, 1876, the U.S. Patent Office granted him Patent Number 174,465
covering, 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 sounds.
Invention Impact
The range of Bell's
inventive genius is represented only in part by the 18 patents granted in his
name alone and the 12 he shared with his collaborators. These included 14 for
the telephone and telegraph, four for the photophone,
one for the phonograph, five for aerial vehicles, four for hydroairplanes, and two for a selenium cell.
Inventor Bio
Born in Edinburgh, Scotland, the inventor spent one year at a private school,
two years at Edinburgh's Royal High School (from which he graduated at 14),
and attended a few lectures at Edinburgh
University and at University College in London, but he was largely
family-trained and self-taught. Never adept with his hands, Bell had the good fortune to discover and
inspire Thomas Watson, a young repair mechanic and model maker, who assisted
him enthusiastically in devising an apparatus for transmitting sound by
electricity. After inventing the telephone, Bell continued his experiments in
communication, which culminated in the invention of the photophone-transmission
of sound on a beam of light- a precursor of today's optical fiber systems. He
also worked in medical research and invented techniques for teaching speech
to the deaf. In 1888 he founded the National Geographic Society.
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