Alexander Graham Bell was born in 1847. As a child He took after his grandfather who was an actor who entertained people with his
voice. Alexander’s mother, who was deaf, would have people talk to her through her ear tube, which amplifies speech by talking through an object that looked like a horn. Alexander chose to talk to his mother by speaking in low tones very close to her forehead. Alexander thought that his mother would be able to “hear” him by the vibrations his voice put on her forehead. Alexander at about the age of 14 and his brother, Melville, created a contraption that had a fake mouth, tongue, and lungs that you could force air out of. This contraption could make human-like sounds. After this Alexander manipulated his dog’s vocal cords and mouth to change growls to words. By the time Alexander was sixteen he was teaching music at a boy’s boarding school.
Alexander Bell meet Thomas Watson at an electrical machine shop, Watson and Alexander formed a friendship after Alexander told him of his idea about transmitting speech over a wire. On June 2, 1875, while working in the transmitting room Watson produced a twang when trying to loosen up a wire. Alexander working on the transmitter was able to send sounds that resembled that of a human voice. Next, Alexander discovered that a wire vibrated by speech when placed in a conducting liquid, like mercury and would produce a current. Basically speech could be transmitted by wire. On March 10, 1876 Alexander and Watson were working on the machine when Alexander knocked over battery acid. He shouted, “Mr. Watson, come here. I need you!” and Watson working in the receiver room heard his voice coming through the wire.
Later, the Bell Company was formed, which is now AT&T. Before Alexander died in 1922, he had invented an electric probe for locating metal objects in bodies, and the artificial respirator.
