Alexander Graham Bell

I have chosen Mr. Bell because he is both a famous American and a famous Canadian. I am glad the USA Postal Service chose him to be place on a stamp in 1940.

Alexander was born in Edinburgh, Scotland on March 3, 1847. He graduated from high school when he was fourteen and then went to Edinburgh University for awhile and then the University College of London. He did not graduate from either school but was taught mainly by his family and by his own studies.

Many inventors had worked on the idea of sending human speech by wire but Bell was the first to do it. His telephone came from his improvements of the telegraph. He made the harmonic telegraph . He started working with a young repair mechanic and model maker, Thomas Watson. Together they made a machine for transmitting sound by electricity. On MArch 10, 1876, Watson heard Bell's voice through their machine say,"Mr. Watson, come here, I want you." He had spilled some battery acids on his clothes.

The US Patent Office gave Bell Patent Number 174,465 for his new invention. The first telephone company was the Bell Telephone Company founded July 9, 1877.

After this famous invention Bell went on to invent other things and earned a total of 18 patents by himself and another 12 with other inventors. Another important invention by Bell was the photophone-transmission of sound on a beam of light. Today this invention is used in optic fibre systems. He also worked in medical research and invented ways for teaching speech to the deaf. In 1888 he founded the National Geographic Society.

Alexander died in Baddek, Nova Scotia, Canada August 2, 1922. He really was a great American and Canadian. The telephone must be one of the greatest inventions of the past two hundred years.

Shawn Mitchell
Canada