The Influence of Alexander Graham Bell

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The Influence of Alexander Graham Bell
Alexander G. Bell was born on 3rd March 1847 in Edinburg, Scotland (Osborne, 1). Bell’s family dwelt in Scotland, he spent most of his childhood life there. In most of his earlier life, his father was tutoring him. He later joined the Royal High School in Edinburgh, Scotland, where he studied for four semesters. He was driven to the field of science by his father and grandfather who both were scientists. He was once a teacher of music and speech at the Weston House Academy, in Scotland. Later he studied Greek and Latin courses at Weston House. After which he joined the University of Edinburg; following the footsteps of his elder brothers who had joined campus earlier. He and his family moved to Ontario, Canada, and Boston. Besides studying, Bell spent his life as a teacher, scientist, and inventor. For instance, he invented the telephone. Besides, he made other scientific discoveries of great importance to humanity.
Bell displayed a natural inquisitiveness about the world at a tender age. He began doing scientific experiments at childhood. He could gather biological samples for his studies (Osborne, 1). At twelve he started working in a neighbor’s mill where he learned how the process of de-husking wheat was tedious. He later invented the simple de-husking machine (Hochfelder, 3). And that was his first invention. The device facilitated the de-husking process that period. The success of the machine stirred the owner of the mill to set aside a quota of the mill for innovation. Hence, he set up a workshop for invention purpose. In the workshop, Bell came up with new ideas on how to improve the device. Bell’s projects facilitated the processing of wheat. For instance, he solved the tediousness problem in de-husking.
In Boston, Bell taught students at Boston school for the deaf mutes (Osborne, 2). He also taught at the American school and Clarke School both for the deaf (Hochfelder, 3). On his teaching profession, Bell started to research on means to transfer telegraph messages instantaneously by one wire. Henceforth, he invented the harmonic telegraphs (Gorman and Carlson 144). However, Bell’s interest was to develop a device that would transmit human voice. In 1876, Bell filed a patent telling his technique of transmitting sound. Thus, Bell invented the telephone, which he termed as ‘’an electrical speech the machine’’ (Gorman and Carlson 144). Most likely Bell devised his telephone schemes as an outcome of harmonic telegraphy (Hochfelder, 5). It took a few months after discovery to make the device functional and suitable for public exhibition. On March 10th 1876, Bell produced a first intelligible speech summoning its assistant (Farley 29). His first long-distance call was in August the same year, transmitted over a telegraph cable between Brantford and Ontario.
In June 1976 Bell demonstrated his telephone to the Philadelphia judges in the Centennial exhibition (Osborne, 2). Afterward, Bell’s telephone technique was adopted and implemented by Gardiner Hubbard (Farley 31). Hubbard established the Bell Telephone Company where Bell became the technical advisor (Gorman and Carlson 156). Though his invention rendered him wealth, Bell did stay in the company. He even acquired shares in the company, which he sold. Had he remained with the telephone company he could have much benefited. Hence, Bell shifted his interests to the technology of soundtrack and replay. Later he turned his attention to lighting, electrical power and his machine, a device that recorded and reproduced sound (Kramer 242). In 1880 the government of France granted Bell the Volta Price, based on his accomplishments in electrical science. The award had money which Bell used to set up the Volta Laboratory. The lab was dedicated to studying deafness and refining the lives of the deaf.
In the Volta Laboratory, Bell devoted his time to improving phonograph, the machine that had been invented by Edison in 1877 (Hochfelder, 2). In the company of his cousin and colleague, Chi Chester A. Bell, he produced the Graphophone. A phonograph device appropriate for commercial use that had a detachable cardboard cylinder painted with mineral wax. They were granted a patent for the innovation in 1886. Together with Chi Chester, they formed the Volta Graphophone Company (Osborne, 3). The firm produced Graphophones. Later they sold the company to America Graphophone Company, which later became the Columbia Phonograph Company. Bell used the revenue from the s...