Alexander Graham Bell

Alexander Graham Bell was born on March 3, 1847, in Edinburgh, Scotland, into a family deeply involved in elocution and speech. His mother and future wife were deaf, shaping his lifelong focus on hearing and speech. Largely self-taught, Bell moved to Canada in 1870 and later to the United States, where he taught deaf students in Boston starting in 1871. In the mid-1870s, backed by investors, Bell collaborated with mechanic Thomas Watson on improving the telegraph, leading to the harmonic telegraph patent in 1875. A key breakthrough occurred on June 2, 1875, when Watson's accidental reed pluck transmitted sound over wire, inspiring the telephone prototype. On March 7, 1876, Bell received U.S. Patent No. 174,465 for 'Improvement in Telegraphy,' and on March 10, he famously spoke the first words over it: 'Mr. Watson, come here—I want to see you.' Bell demonstrated the telephone publicly at the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exposition, sparking rapid adoption. Though wealthy, Bell sold most shares by the mid-1880s, shifting focus to other inventions like the photophone, aeronautics, hydrofoils, and speech teaching for the deaf. He co-founded AT&T in 1885 and the National Geographic Society in 1888. In later years, Bell resided in Nova Scotia, Canada, pursuing medical research and aviation until his death on August 2, 1922.