10 Interesting Facts About Alexander Graham Bell

Alexander Graham Bell left a long legacy. The name Bell at one point was synonymous with the telephone. Here a few facts about him that you may not know:

• Alexander Graham Bell was born on March 3, 1847 in Edinburgh, Scotland.
• He was an influential scientist, engineer and inventor.
• His close friends and family called him Aleck.
• He is widely credited with the invention of the first practical telephone.
• Bell’s mother and wife were both deaf, which had a major impact on his work.
• When he was 11 years old, his father gave him the middle name Graham as a birthday present since he didn't have one like his older brothers.
• Bell’s first words spoken on the first functioning telephone to his assistant Watson were somewhere along the lines of “Mr Watson, come here. I want to see you.”
• Bell was one of the co-founders of the National Geographic Society, and was its serving president from 1896 to 1904.
• Bell also had very strong interest in other scientific fields such as, conducting medical research, searching for alternative fuel sources, experimenting with metal detectors, developing hydrofoil watercraft and much more.
• Alexander Graham Bell died on August 2, 1922, at Baddeck, Cape Breton Island and as a tribute to his life the entire phone system was shut down for one minute.

If you know any interesting facts we may have left off, make sure to leave them in the comments!

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The History of the Landline Telephone

The invention of the landline telephone made it possible for people to have verbal communications over long distances, drastically changing the way the world communicated. 

As technology has improved in telecommunications, landline telephones became cheaper, easier to operate and more accessible. Making it possible for billions of people all over the world to remain in contact with each other.

The first practical telephone derived from the creation of the electrical telegraph. It's invention is most often credited to Alexander Graham Bell in 1876 who was the first to patent the technology. There is much controversy surrounding this as Bell may have stolen the invention from Elisha Gray (who is not the only person who claims to have invented the phone before Bell.) The modern telephone that we use today is the result of many people working together.

The first long-distance telephone line was installed in 1877, covering a distance of 58 miles across Nevada County, California. This trend continued during the 20th century, increasing accessibility and usage dramatically. Between 1955 and 1956, the first transatlantic cable was installed, carrying 36 telephone channels, making international calls possible. It ran from Gallanach Bay, Scotland to Clarenville, Newfoundland.   In a little over 90 years after the first long-distance telephone line was installed, landline service reached 100 million users worldwide.

During the 21st century, landline telephone usage reached its highest point. In 2000, there were 16 fixed lines per 100 people in the world. In more developed countries the numbers peaked in 2000 and 2001 at 57 fixed lines per 100 people.

The landline telephone has recently seen usage decreases due to wireless telecommunication technologies. Statistics show nearly 16 percent of Americans receive almost all of their calls on a wireless device. While it took 90 years for the landline to reach 100 million users, it only took the cell phone 17 years.

9 Quotes About the Telephone

Take a look at Datavo's favorite quotes on the telephone.

• "Grand telegraphic discovery today ... Transmitted vocal sounds for the first time ... With some further modification I hope we may be enabled to distinguish ... the 'timbre' of the sound. Should this be so, conversation viva voce by telegraph will be a fait accompli." ~ Alexander Graham Bell

• 'Watson, ... if I can get a mechanism which will make a current of electricity vary in its intensity, as the air varies in density when a sound is passing through it, I can telegraph any sound, even the sound of speech.' ~ Alexander Graham Bell

• I have read somewhere that the resistance offered by a wire ... is affected by the tension of the wire. If this is so, a continuous current of electricity passed through a vibrating wire should meet with a varying resistance, and hence a pulsatory action should be induced in the current ... [corresponding] in amplitude, as well as in rate of movement, to the vibrations of the string ... [Thus] the timbre of a sound [a quality essential to intelligible speech] could be transmitted ... [and] the strength of the current can be increased ad libitum without destroying the relative intensities of the vibrations. ~ Alexander Graham Bell

• I then shouted into M [the mouthpiece] the following sentence: 'Mr. Watson-—Come here—I want to see you.' To my delight he came and declared that he had heard and understood what I said. I asked him to repeat the words. He answered 'You said—'Mr. Watson—-come here—I want to see you.' We then changed places and I listened at S [the reed receiver] while Mr. Watson read a few passages from a book into the mouth piece M. It was certainly the case that articulate sounds proceeded from S. The effect was loud but indistinct and muffled. If I had read beforehand the passage given by Mr. Watson I should have recognized every word. As it was I could not make out the sense—but an occasional word here and there was quite distinct. I made out 'to' and 'out' and 'further'; and finally the sentence 'Mr. Bell do you understand what I say? Do—you—un—der—stand—what—I—say' came quite clearly and intelligibly. No sound was audible when the armature S was removed. ~ Alexander Graham Bell

• As to Bell's talking telegraph, it only creates interest in scientific circles, and, as a toy it is beautiful; but ... its commercial value will be limited. ~ Elisha Gray

• TELESCOPE, n. A device having a relation to the eye similar to that of the telephone to the ear, enabling distant objects to plague us with a multitude of needless details. Luckily it is unprovided with a bell summoning us to the sacrifice. ~ Ambrose Bierce

• TELEPHONE, n. An invention of the devil which abrogates some of the advantages of making a disagreeable person keep his distance. ~ Ambrose Bierce

• Every improvement that is put upon the real estate is the result of an idea in somebody's head. The skyscraper is another idea; the railroad is another; the telephone and all those things are merely symbols which represent ideas. An andiron, a wash-tub, is the result of an idea that did not exist before. ~ Mark Twain

• If you had come to me a hundred years ago, do you think I should have dreamed of the telephone? Why, even now I cannot understand it! I use it every day, I transact half my correspondence by means of it, but I don’t understand it. Thnk of that little stretched disk of iron at the end of a wire repeating in your ear not only sounds, but words—not only words, but all the most delicate and elusive inflections and nuances of tone which separate one human voice from another! Is not that something of a miracle? ~  Sir William Crookes

6 Quotes from Alexander Graham Bell

If you don't know who Alexander Graham Bell is you must live under a rock! Most likely you use his invention everyday - the TELEPHONE of course!

Alexander Graham Bell c. 1914-1919

Not only was he credited for inventing the telephone he also invented many other things in the fields of  optical telecommunications, aeronautics, and hydrofoils. He went into the field of researching hearing and speech technologies due to this mother and wife being deaf.

Here are 6 of his most profound quotes:

"When one door closes, another opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us."

"Before anything else, preparation is the key to success."

"A man, as a general rule, owes very little to what he is born with - a man is what he makes of himself."

"Concentrate all your thoughts upon the work at hand. The sun's rays do not burn until brought to a focus."

"Great discoveries and improvements invariably involve the cooperation of many minds. I may be given credit for having blazed the trail, but when I look at the subsequent developments I feel the credit is due to others rather than to myself."

"The most successful men in the end are those whose success is the result of steady accretion."

In 1888, he helped found the National Geographic Society and is looked at as one of the most influential people in human history. Datavo salutes him!