Alexander Graham Bell

Profession: Inventor

Nationality:

Biography: Alexander Graham Bell was a Scottish-born inventor, known for having patented the first telephone and for co-founding the American Telephone and Telegraphy Company (AT&T) in 1885.

Bell was inspired to work in hearing and speech by his family's work in the field, and the fact that his mother and wife were both deaf. It was research on hearing devices that led to the invention which would come to be known as the telephone, which he patented in 1876.

His work built upon the work of Hermann von Helmholtz, who had managed to convey vowel sounds by use of a tuning fork contraption. Bell figured that this implied the possibility of communicating articulate speech.

Bell's major break came after his use of a phonautograph, which drew the shape of sound waves on smoked glass by tracing their vibrations. He then devised a way of converting this motion to variations in electrical current which could then, at the receiving end, be converted back into sound.

Born: March 3, 1847
Birthplace: Edinburgh, Scotland
Star Sign: Pisces

Died: August 2, 1922 (aged 75)
Cause of Death: Complications from diabetes