Alexander Graham Bell
Inventor of the Telephone
By Mary Louise Shore
2005
Alexander Graham Bell
*Born: March 3, 1847
*Parents: Alexander Melville Bell and Elisa Grace
Symonds
*Siblings: 2 brothers, Melville and Edward
Childhood
 Alexander Graham Bell grew up in Edinburgh,
Scotland with his family.
Learning From the Family
 As a child, Bell
inherited a musical
talent from his mother,
who was a musician and
also a portrait painter.
He was taught by his
grandfather and father
about public speaking.
Hello Grandpa!
When Bell was 13 years old, he spent a year with his
grandfather in London. To Graham, this year was the
“turning point of his life.”
Herman von Helmholtz
Bell read books in
the library about
Herman von
Helmholtz, a German
scientist who
experimented with
electrical vibrations
to make vowel
sounds.
He researched his experiments so that someday he
might be able to reconstruct them in his own home.
Early Life
Bell at age 29
At the Age of
16, Graham began
to teach music
and speech at a
boys school.
Years later, Bell
started teaching
his fathers visual
speech to deaf
and hearing
impaired children.
Tuberculosis-1870
In 1870, Bell’s two
brothers died of
tuberculosis.
Since Bell was also
threatened his family
decided to move to a
healthier environment,
Canada.
Hello Boston! Good-bye Canada!
After Graham was safe from catching the
disease, his job led him to be a physiology
professor at Boston University in the United
States.
Boston University
While Bell was in Massachusetts, he invented the
harmonic telegraph, an instrument that makes it
possible to send multiple telegraphs on one line.
The Telephone
is Patented
On March 7, 1876,
Bell recieved his
patent for the
telephone.
“Mr.Watson, come here, I want you.”
On March 10, 1876, Alexander Graham Bell was
in his testing room with his partner, Watson.
Reeds
The experiment they were working with had
reeds that were thin and steel. One of the reeds
was stuck so Watson plucked it to try to fix it.
Successful!
When he did, Graham heard the vibration
clearly through the newly invented ‘telephone’.
The Simple Telephone
There are three parts to the simple telephone.
The Speaker, the Microphone and the Switch,
also known as the Hook Switch.
The Hook Switch
The Hook Switch
connects and
disconnects the
phone from the
telephone network.
The network is
connected when you
pick up the phone.
The Speaker
The speaker picks up
the sounds waves from
the other line, and
sends them through
the network to your
ear drums. The sounds
vibrate in your ear, and
you then have sound.
The Microphone
The microphone has a
diaphragm where the
sounds waves vibrate
the area. The
amplifier, a small part
of the telephone then
sends it through to the
other line’s speaker,
reinterpreting the
sounds into physical
vibrations.
A More Modernized Telephone
To make up the real telephone there are the 3
major parts, like the simple phone, and 3 more
new parts,
these include
the Duplex coil,
the keypad and
the ringer.
The Duplex Coil
In the simple phone, you can hear yourself
through the speaker when you talk. The Duplex
coil is a device that enables you to speak into
the microphone without hearing your voice.
The Ringer
The Ringer was also
an improvement
made from the
simple telephone.
The ringer is made
up of a bell so that
you are aware when
another line is
calling you.
Keypad
The touch tone
keypad consists of
twelve buttons. It
has the digits 1-9,
and zero. To the left
of the zero is the
star key. Located on
it’s right is the
pound key.
The Telephone
The telephone may seem
like a complicated machine,
but it really is one of the
simplest devices that you
may find in your home, or
anywhere else you can
imagine.
The Telephone Today
Today, phones have been able to get even smaller and
even have no cords. In the bottom left, there is a
palm pilot that can also be used at a phone. The
telephone is a unique piece of equipment. No one can
imagine our world without it.
A Sad day in
History
On August 2, 1922,
Alexander Graham Bell
died at his home in
Baddek Nova Scotia.
Bibliography
---. “Alexander Graham Bell.” Lucid Café. ---.---. April 27, 2005
< http://www.lucidcafe.com/library196mar/bell.htmlL#related
>
“Bell, Alexander Graham.” The New Book of Knowledge. B,
2000 edition
“Bell, Alexander Graham.” Academic American Encycopedia. B
1991
---. “Telephone.” How Stuff Works. ---.---. April 30, 2005 <
http://www.howstuffworks.com/telephone5.htm >
About Me!
My name is Mary
Louise Shore and
I love to travel,
play volleyball,
watch Ncstate
basketball and
smile! I love
skittles and oreos.