5 min
October 4, 2021
Alexander Graham Bell is probably best known for inventing the first practical telephone, but as well as doing that, there are many things that made his life such a rich, interesting and unusual one. So, who was Alexander Graham Bell and what did he achieve?
Alexander Graham Bell was born on 3 March 1847 in Edinburgh, Scotland. He was born to Professor Alexander Melville Bell – a phonetician – and Eliza Grace Bell.
He was actually born as just ‘Alexander Bell’, and he asked his father for a middle name, just like his two brothers had. On his 11th birthday, he got his wish and picked ‘Graham’, after family friend Alexander Graham.
He was aged 12 when he created his first invention. The parents of his friend and neighbour Ben Herdman ran a flour mill, and Bell noticed how slow the process of dehusking the wheat grain was. So he invented a device with rotating nails and paddle brushes to make it much easier to separate the grain from the husks. It worked so well that it was used in the mill for a number of years and that he was given his own small workshop by mill owner John Herdman to create more things in.
Bell’s interest with sound developed partly because of his father’s encouragement, but also because his mother was slowly losing her hearing. He learnt things like manual finger language and speaking in clear tones directly to his mother’s forehead to help her hear him better.
He would often help his father demonstrate a system known as ‘Visible Speech’, which used symbols to show the position and movement of the throat, tongue and lips to create speech. Whilst Alexander Graham Bell mastered it, it was seen as too complicated to use for deaf people and was phased out after 12 or so years.
In 1870, at aged 23, he moved with his mother, father and older brother’s widow to Ontario, Canada after both his younger and older brother both tragically died from tuberculosis.
Two years later in 1872, Bell opened his own school in Boston, Massachusetts in the United States called the ‘School of Vocal Physiology and Mechanics of Speech’, which attracted a number of deaf pupils.
As a private tutor, one of his pupils was Helen Keller, who eventually became the first deafblind person to earn a university degree.
Despite his work with deaf people, some of his views were seen as controversial. He wrongly believed that two deaf people shouldn’t get married because they were more likely to have deaf children, thought that deaf teachers shouldn’t be teaching deaf people, and he discouraged the use of sign language in the classroom.
Whilst working with deaf people, Alexander Graham Bell was still trying to invent things, and it was his aim to translate voices into electrical currents. In 1874, he started working with an electrician called Thomas Watson.
Together they created the telephone in 1876, with the words “Mr Watson, come here. I want to see you!” being the first to be spoken through the telephone.
Bell managed to successfully patent the idea, despite challenges from other inventors. A patent is a legal document which protects an inventor from others stealing, making or selling the same inventions without permission.
In 1877, he created the Bell Telephone Company which eventually grew to become the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, also known as AT&T. To this day, the company is still going strong.
Alexander Graham Bell Learning Resources
If you wanted to introduce children to Alexander Graham Bell, his life and his inventions, then there are a few teaching resources you can use in your lessons or at home.
Alexander Graham Bell Information PowerPoint
A great starter would be something like this information PowerPoint which includes information about his early life, his first invention, his work with deaf people and the invention of the telephone. Because it’s packed with a lot of text, it’s best used for a 5th/6th class in a science lesson.
Also something you could use in your lesson is this Alexander Graham Bell fact file, which features handy print outs for a range of reading and comprehension abilities. However, if it’s more generic telephone and technology resources you’re after, then this cut and stick Changing Technology Worksheet might come in handy.
And if you’re looking for more resources about other famous inventors, then you might be interested in this Thomas Edison PowerPoint.
All of our resources are teacher-made, meaning you can download them safe in the knowledge that they’ve been made with curriculum guidelines in mind. And, by using our resources, you can massively cut down on the time it takes to plan and prepare for your lessons, as creating resources as bright and detailed as ours could take you hours.
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