Alexander Graham Bell Biography Home | add famous canadian | edit person

"Leave the beaten track behind occasionally and dive into the woods. Every time you do you will be certain to find something you have never seen before." Alexander Graham Bell

The inventor of the telephone’s stature as increased recently with the telecommunication revolution. The rapid expansion of telephone systems which now include internet and wireless technologies has given the 21st century its own identity. Bell’s popularity is shown in the recent national series where he was the named the ninth greatest Canadian, the 57th greatest Britton, and he was one of the top 100 Greatest Americans. No other person world-wide has made it to more than one list. Bell is arguably mostly Canadian. He was born in Scotland but imigrated to Canada to recover from tuberculosis.

Alexander Graham Bell made many inventions ranging from the metal detector, aircraft, the hydrofoil and of course the telephone. Bell came from a family obsessed with enunciation. His mother and wife were both deaf. In the US and Canada he established schools for the deaf. His passion for the deaf and interest of how speech was developed led to the invention of the telephone. He first invented a machine which transmitted musical signals and a few years he patented the first telephone. Even though US Congress has revoked him as the inventor in 2002 (the next year they renamed French fries- freedom fries) , he is far more of a qualified applicant than Antonio Meucci whose models were incomplete and didn’t understand why it worked.

Bell didn’t stop there he invented the precursor to fibre optics and was also interested in aviation. Bell’s Silver Dart was the first controlled power flight in Canada. Also at the age of 72, Bell set a water speed record of over seventy miles an hour.

Bell helped the deaf but wasn’t necessarily a supporter. He didn’t hire deaf teachers and supported sterilizing deaf people. Ironically he married and had children with a deaf woman.