Alexander Graham BellEssay Preview: Alexander Graham BellReport this essayThe importance of Alexander Graham Bell on todays society is visible, or rather audible, every day and everywhere. First and foremost, Alexander Graham Bell was a prolific teacher of the deaf. This is what he considered to be his true lifes work, but only one of the many important things he did. Through his research of speech and sound, and his creative mind, he would become one of the most influential inventors in modern history. His own definition of an inventor, “A man who looks upon the world and is not contented with things as they are. He wants to improve whatever he sees, he wants to benefit the world.” suits him well. Every thing that he did had an impact on someone.
Alexander Graham Bell also knew what he wanted a man to do, and was a big fan of George McGovern. McGovern was a fellow who had developed a lifelong interest in science. But in 1965 he was invited to be an honorary director of the National Academy of Science’s “Special Committee on Intelligence,” a committee that focused on the problems of technology; at the time he could not recall an actual appointment. Graham Bell’s “special committee” would be set up on a single day. It would consist of: 1. Director of Science, Department of Education, Department of Commerce: John S. Kennedy Jr., (retired) Secretary of State; 2. Director of National Intelligence, Department of Defense, Department of Finance, Department of Energy: George Stumpf, Vice President of the United States; and 3. General Manager of the National Economic Council, Department of Commerce. It would include: 1. Head of Department of Commerce, James H. B. MacMillan, Director, National Laboratory for Developmental Disabilities. 2. President of the United States, Secretary of the Armed Forces, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development: Henry Fisher, Secretary, Department of Education; 3. Secretary of the Navy, James E. Taft, Secretary, Department as a whole, Department of Agriculture and Defense; 4. Secretary of Treasury, William J. Seward; 5. Senator, Chairman, Subcommittee, Select Committee on the History of Commerce, Science and Transportation of the United States; and 6. Chairwoman, Committee on Science, Technology & Economic Affairs. They would provide advice on economic problems affecting most American citizens.
One of several aspects of the development of the “Special Committee on Intelligence” is the role of John F. Kennedy. Kennedy’s vision of our current government is not so abstract. He thought of “public welfare” as a form of public benefits such as education, health, health insurance, unemployment, etc. The United States has been an economy without a voice in the government. We still do not have a representative in Congress about this. There is often a lack of voice in government, but one can be elected to represent a small percentage of the population. By contrast, for a great many American businessmen, the American Dream is a part of the fabric of government. John Kennedy was not the first businessman to represent a small percentage of the population—the first to use the Senate as an independent office with full authority. This fact about the United States being “private” was reflected in the Senate during the 1964 midterm elections. And then a Democrat—Rep. William M. Kennedy (D-MA), who was elected to the House of Representatives in 1964 without any legislative support—took office. However, a man with a vision of our economy that reflected both the American American ideal and the American political outlook was the leading supporter of the idea that an American representative in Congress was needed to solve an American problem that was most fundamental to our success. And
Alexander Graham Bell also knew what he wanted a man to do, and was a big fan of George McGovern. McGovern was a fellow who had developed a lifelong interest in science. But in 1965 he was invited to be an honorary director of the National Academy of Science’s “Special Committee on Intelligence,” a committee that focused on the problems of technology; at the time he could not recall an actual appointment. Graham Bell’s “special committee” would be set up on a single day. It would consist of: 1. Director of Science, Department of Education, Department of Commerce: John S. Kennedy Jr., (retired) Secretary of State; 2. Director of National Intelligence, Department of Defense, Department of Finance, Department of Energy: George Stumpf, Vice President of the United States; and 3. General Manager of the National Economic Council, Department of Commerce. It would include: 1. Head of Department of Commerce, James H. B. MacMillan, Director, National Laboratory for Developmental Disabilities. 2. President of the United States, Secretary of the Armed Forces, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development: Henry Fisher, Secretary, Department of Education; 3. Secretary of the Navy, James E. Taft, Secretary, Department as a whole, Department of Agriculture and Defense; 4. Secretary of Treasury, William J. Seward; 5. Senator, Chairman, Subcommittee, Select Committee on the History of Commerce, Science and Transportation of the United States; and 6. Chairwoman, Committee on Science, Technology & Economic Affairs. They would provide advice on economic problems affecting most American citizens.
One of several aspects of the development of the “Special Committee on Intelligence” is the role of John F. Kennedy. Kennedy’s vision of our current government is not so abstract. He thought of “public welfare” as a form of public benefits such as education, health, health insurance, unemployment, etc. The United States has been an economy without a voice in the government. We still do not have a representative in Congress about this. There is often a lack of voice in government, but one can be elected to represent a small percentage of the population. By contrast, for a great many American businessmen, the American Dream is a part of the fabric of government. John Kennedy was not the first businessman to represent a small percentage of the population—the first to use the Senate as an independent office with full authority. This fact about the United States being “private” was reflected in the Senate during the 1964 midterm elections. And then a Democrat—Rep. William M. Kennedy (D-MA), who was elected to the House of Representatives in 1964 without any legislative support—took office. However, a man with a vision of our economy that reflected both the American American ideal and the American political outlook was the leading supporter of the idea that an American representative in Congress was needed to solve an American problem that was most fundamental to our success. And
Alexander Graham Bell was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, to a family of speech educators. His father, Melville Bell, had invented Visible Speech, a code of symbols for all spoken sounds that was used in teaching deaf people to speak (Clarke 15). His mother was deaf, this lead Melville and Alexander to exploration in the subject. Alexander Bell studied at Edinburgh University in 1864 and assisted his father at University College, London, from 1868-70. During these years he became deeply interested in the study of sound and the mechanics of speech, inspired in part by the acoustic experiments of German physicist Hermann Von Helmholtz, which gave Bell the idea of telegraphing speech (Paschoff 18).
When young Bells two brothers died of tuberculosis, Melville Bell took his remaining family to the healthier climate of Canada in 1870. From there, Aleck Bell journeyed to Boston, Massachusetts, in 1871 and joined the staff of the Boston School for the Deaf. The following year, Bell opened his own school in Boston for training teachers of the deaf. In 1873 he became a professor of vocal physiology at Boston University, and he also tutored private pupils as a side job (Clarke 15, 16).
Bells interest in speech and communication led him to investigate the transmission of sound over wires. In particular, he experimented with development of the harmonic telegraph a device that could send multiple messages at the same time over a single wire. Bell also worked with the possibility of transmitting the human voice, experimenting with vibrating membranes and an actual human ear. Bell even manipulated his dogs vocal cords so that when the dog barked it made sounds that were kind of like words more than barks. Gardiner Hubbard and Thomas Sanders, fathers of two of his deaf pupils backed Bell financially in his investigations (Allen 68).
Early in 1874 Bell met Thomas A. Watson, a young machinist at a Boston electrical shop. Watson became Bells indispensable assistant, bringing to Bells experiments the crucial ingredient that had been lacking, his technical expertise in electrical engineering. Together the two men spent endless hours experimenting (Paschoff 43,44). Although Bell formed the basic concept of the telephone using a varying but unbroken electric current to transmit the varying sound waves of human speech, in the summer of 1874, Hubbard insisted that the young inventor focus his efforts on the harmonic telegraph instead. Bell wanted to continue his work on the telephone but he complied. When he patented one of his telegraph designs in February 1875, he found that Elisha Gray had patented a multiple telegraph two days earlier. Greatly discouraged, Bell consulted in Washington with the elderly Joseph Henry, who urged Bell to pursue his “germ of a great invention” speech transmission (Grosvenor and Wesson 55).
Back in Boston, Bell and Watson continued to work on the harmonic telegraph, but still with the telephone in mind. By accident on a June day in 1875, an intermittent transmitter produced a steady current and transmitted sound, when Watson tightened or loosened a particular screw it produced a sound that would vary in pitch. Bell had proof of his 1874 idea; he quickly sketched a design for an electric telephone, and Watson built it. The partners experimented all summer, but failed actually to transmit voice sounds. That fall, Bell began to write the patent specifications, but delayed application; Hubbard finally filed for the patent on February 14, 1876, just hours before Gray appeared at the same patent office to file an intent to patent his telephone design. Bells patent was granted on March 7, 1876, and on March 10, the first message transmitted by telephone passed from Bell to Watson in their workshop: “Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you!”(Macleod 12).
After a year of refining the new device, Watson and Bell, along with Hubbard and Sanders, formed the Bell Telephone Company in 1877. Bell immediately married Mabel Hubbard, daughter of his new partner, and sailed to England to promote his telephone (Paschoff 46-59).
The phone company grew fast and Bell became a wealthy man. He turned to other interests on his return to the United States in 1879. He also had to defend his patents against numerous lawsuits. The French government awarded Bell with the Volta prize, an award rarely given out. It was set up by the first Napolean and named after famous Italian scientist Alessandro Volta, in 1880. With the money Bell received from the prize he created the Volta Laboratory. Bell invented many new things at the Volta Laboratory, among them were the graphaphone for recording sound, the photophone, for transmitting speech on a beam of light, an audiometer, a telephone probe, and an induction balance for detecting metal in the human body (Bruce 340-347). Bell founded many organizations to support teaching of the deaf. He helped to establish Science magazine and the National Geographic Society. He also worked on air conditioning, an improved strain of sheep, an early iron lung, solar distillation of water, and sonar detection of icebergs. The possibility of flight fascinated Bell. He built tetrahedral kites capable of carrying a human being. In his later years of life, Bell concentrated more on flight. He spent years experimenting with kites and different types of flying apparatus. He supported Samuel Langleys pioneering