Alexander+Graham+Bell

__**Introduction**__ "One observation leads to another.",Alexander Graham Bell(Bonikowsky). Most people know his name and what he did, but this man did more than succeeded in communications. Alexander Graham Bell was the man that built the famous telephone, but that is all he was known for. For the people who recognized his name, they would think "telephone". Most people don't know his life with his inventions that driven him away from his friends and family(Shaw). He had an exciting life with his wealth from his inventions and was encouraged to do so(Johnston).

Alexander Graham Bell was born in Edinburgh, Scotland in March 3,1847. He died in August 21, 1922 from diabetes (Plans). For someone that lived in that time would have a life expectancy of thirty years, but Bell was a healthy man to live at age seventy-five. He lived a long life in his time for a man like him to be around machinery (Johnston). During his time in the United States, Franklin Roosevelt was president during the time that Bell lived. Bell never lived to see the economic crisis, which was lucky for him to never see the tragedy of the Great Depression (Muir). Bell’s parents were Eliza Grace Symonds and his father was Alexander Melville Bell. His father taught the deaf to read and write. His mother grew deaf when Bell was 12 years old. The odd thing about Bell's mother was that she lived a full life even though she was deaf. Another odd thing is that his wife was also deaf (Shaw). Alexander Graham Bell taught deaf people to read and write before he invented his famous telephone. Teaching to the deaf was the same thing for Bell and his father. He also met his wife, Mabel Hubbard at the school he taught. Bell glanced at her and instantly fell in love with her. She was one of bell's students and she liked his teachings (Shaw). Bell moved frequently because of the changes that him and his family couldn’t settle in because of the poor economy. He moved from England and Canada (Gray). He came with his family in Canada because he had other relatives living there. Bell later moved to the Eastern Seaboard of the United States where he mainly researched in his inventions (Bonikowsky).
 * __Personal Background__**

Alexander Graham Bell had many traits of some other popular people as well. Bell’s, father, Alexander Melville Bell, was a teacher and researcher of physiology of phonetics. Melville had many ideas and teacher to the deaf like Alexander Graham Bell. He was also the creator of visible speech for the deaf (Plans).Bell's mother was Eliza Grace Symonds. She was deaf and had an enterpreter named Alec. Alec later viewed Bell's work and admired it. Bell also had two brothers named Melville and Edward Bell. They both died of tuberculosis during Bell’s youth. Later, Bell had a daughter named Elsie May Bell who was born in 1878 (Shaw). He also had a cousin named Chichester Bell (Gray). Bell also had close friendship with Helen Keller (Johnston). Bell had assistants and one was named Charles Summer Fainter. Charles was a technician and helped Bell sometimes when in the making of an invention (Bonikowsky). Bell had many relatives and close friends who are well known to this world.
 * __Personality Traits__**

Alexander Graham Bell had much happiness in his life, but he had feared that it will come to a tragic end (Shaw). During Bell's observations,other inventors were on the task of creating the telephone. Other inventors blamed him for "telephone fraud". Bell had faced many court cases saying that his works were a fraud. He had to face 587 court cases and including Supreme court because others were on the task of inventing the telephone and thought that Bell was copying their idea (Plans). Bell had faced many complications during his observations on the telephone including the "court Cases" (Bonikowsky). He also had a rival between him and Thomas Edison because Edison had already invented the light bulb and gained popularity quickly while Bell was still trying to attempt to create the light bulb as well. Alexander Graham Bell disliked Edison for this and was forced to move on another idea (Gray). Bell attempted to make a tetracahedral flying machine, but failed to create it. Soon, the Wright brothers successfully made one of their own. It put Alexander Graham Bell out of the flying invention and focus on other inventions (Shaw). Bell’s setbacks on other inventions made him more and more into it than ever. He was very into his work that he lost sight of his family and friends' support (Shaw). The supportive person he had with him was his wife Mabel. Without her, he would have given up on his ideas. Bell came around his obstacles and never gived up on his inventions (Johnston).
 * __Obstacles__**

Bell had taught deaf students to read and write. After further teachings, he was able to teach his students to see and feel sound (Bonikowsky). Bell had also improved the telegraph that was invented by Samuel Morse. Bell had found out that some of the telegraphic signals was not correct and improved the signals (Bonikowsky). Another invention that came in use even today was the vacuum jacket. He invented this after his son had died from breathing after he was born (Shaw). He was also the inventor of the telephonic bullet probe. The telephonic bullet probe was a machine that locates and extracts bullets from patients (Shaw). His most famous out of all that he invented was the invention of the early telephone(Plans). Bell had many complications and achievements, but he couldn't have done it without his supportive wife (Johnston). Bell and his assistant Watson had built the first telephone and Mabel was the first to speak into it. The ironic thing about this was that she was deaf and could not hear her own words (Shaw). Soon after this major discovery, Bell was famous and rewarded. There was a trade dinner in Brantford for Bell's honor. This event was March 19, 1906 (Muir). Bell was was also awarded the U.S. Patent award for his discovery (Plans). He was also in the making of an institute with three other scientists. This institute became known as the National Geographic Society which was created in Washington D.C (Plans). Bell also attempted to invent recordings to capture his voice. He failed to build a device or machine as it never recorded. Bell was a member of the Board of Regents and saved his collection of recordings to the Smithsonian Institution. Now it is displayed at the Smithsonian museum where tourists could see his works. The one thing remained unsolved from most scientists. What kind of accent did Alexander Graham Bell had? Scientists researched his recordings and they were able to find out he spoke American and not a scottish or canadian accent as he was born and traveled there (Gray).
 * __Historical Significance__**

media type="youtube" key="ZALUgxsnCOk" height="219" width="392" __**References**__ Bonikowsky,Nielson,Laura.."Bell's good vibrations." //Times-colonist//. 14 Mar.2004: D4. //eLibrary//. Web. 08 Dec. 2014. **SE#6**

[|Gray,Charlotte]."Clear as a Bell."//Smithsonian//. 01May. 2013:58 . //eLibrary//. Web. 19 Nov. 2014.**SE#5**

Johnston,A ."Reluctant Genius: The Passionate Life and Inventive Mind of Alexander Graham Bel."//Beaver//. 01 Oct. 2006:47. //eLibrary//. Web. 08 Oct. 2014.**SE#2**

Muir,Gary."Phone Flick Failed!Alexander Graham Bell's Film Biography Set in Boston? Brantford, Ontario, birthplace of the...."//Beaver//. 01 Apr.2003. //eLibrary//. Web. 15 Oct. 2014**SE#3**

Plans,Miriam."The Telephone:America Calling!."//Antiques and Collecting Magazine//. 01 Apr. 2005:56. //eLibrary//. Web. 16 Sep. 2014.**SE#1**

Shaw,Renatav."A Century of Photographs 1846-1946:Alexander Graham Bell-A Photograph Album(part1/2)."//U.S. History.Bureau of Electronic Publishing//, 1990. n. pag. //eLibrary//. Web. 04 Nov. 2014.**SE#4**

Agency, Topical PressGraham Bell. Getty Images. 01 Jan. 1910. elibrary. Web. 30 Mar. 2015

"Alexander Graham Bell." //Bio//. A&E Television Networks, 2015. Web. 31 Mar. 2015.