Alexander Graham Bell

(1847-1922), the
Scottish-born
American scientist best
known as the inventor
of the telephone,
worked at a school for
the deaf while
attempting to invent a
machine that would
transmit sound by
electricity.






In 1874 the essential
idea of the telephone
formed in his mind. As
he later explained it,
If I could make a
current of electricity
vary in intensity
precisely as the air
varies in density during
the production of
sound, I should be able
to transmit speech
telegraphically.





Two years later he applied for a patent, which
was granted on March 7, 1876. On March 10,
the first coherent complete sentencethe
famous Mr. Watson, come here; I want you
was transmitted in his laboratory.
He died in 1922 at his summer home on Cape
Breton Island, Nova Scotia. People throughout
North America were urged to refrain from
making phone calls during his burial so that
telephones would remain silent as a tribute.