<strong>Alexander Graham Bell: 5 lesser-known facts about the inventor of telephone</strong>
In the age of smart phones, people seem to have almost forgotten that its predecessor, the telephone (or what we called ‘landline’ in modern times) was one of the biggest breakthroughs in the world of invention. The brain behind this innovation (in 1876) was none other than Alexander Graham Bell, a Scottish inventor, engineer and scientist. Not only was he responsible for inventing the world’s first telephone, he was also the founder of the American Telephone and Telegraph Company in 1885. Bell was born on 4th March 1847 in Edinburgh, Scotland. Today, on his birth anniversary we are here with 5 unknown trivia about this legendary inventor.
Alexander Bell’s middle name was a birthday gift
When Bell was a child, he yearned for a middle name, perhaps in an effort to differentiate himself from his grandfather and father who were both named Alexander as well. To fulfil the boy’s long-time wish, his father allowed him to choose a middle name on his 11th birthday. Bell chose Graham in honour of his father’s best student Alexander Graham.
Bell’s inspirations were his mother and wife, both of whom were deaf
While the men in Bell’s family were reputed elocutionists and speech therapists, his mother and wife were both deaf, the former due to an unknown childhood illness and the latter due to a bout of scarlet fever at the age of 10. Since the two most important women in his life suffered from hearing impairment, Bell was greatly interested in the vocal and auditory physiology. In fact, it is believed that he derived his inspiration from living and working with the hearing impaired as he indulged himself in the principles of acoustics and began his experiments with transmitting sound waves over wires.
Bell’s telephone patent was a long-drawn legal battle
Bell had filed his patent for the telephone on 14th February 1876. However, within a few hours, his rival inventor Elisha Gray claimed to the U.S. Patent Office that the patent was in fact due to him. When he was unable to prove his point, on 7th March, Bell was awarded the first ever patent for the telephone. Almost 3 days later, Bell could actually communicate through his device with his assistant Thomas Watson as the first successful telephone transmission took place. Following these, more people came forward to claim the patent to the first-of-its kind invention as Bell continued to remain involved in legal battles for years, some of which even reached the U.S. Supreme Court.
Decibel, the unit to measure sound, is named after Bell
In 1920, long after Bell’s death, as a tribute to the great man’s contribution to the field of acoustical science, the standard unit to measure the intensity of sound waves was coined as ‘bel’, drawn from Bell. Later, decibel, the most commonly used metric for measuring the magnitude of sound was derived as one-tenth of a ‘bel’.
Bell influenced the establishment of National Geographic Society
Although Alexander Bell was not one among the 33 founders of the National Geographic Society, it is believed to have been his brainchild. In fact, Bell was the society’s second President and even brought out the National Geographic Magazine during his office from 1898 to 1903.