This book is about a great scientist and inventor named Alexander Graham Bell, best known as the inventor of the telephone. Alexander Graham Bell dedicated his life to the study of sound and improved the practices for teaching the deaf. His contributions and generosity to the deaf and to the whole world have made him an important part of our history.

"Mr.Watson, come here, I want to see you." Those were the first words spoken over the telephone. They were spoken by me, Alexander Graham Bell on March 10,1876.

I was born in the beautiful land of Scotland on March 3, 1847. I was the second child of my parents, Alexander and Eliza Bell. Growing up, I did not do so well academically but I always had a deep love for science!

At the age of 12, I invented my first machine. While I was playing with a friend in a flour mill, I noticed how cleaning the wheat took a lot of time and effort so I decided to built a machine that would do the work. My machine removed the husk from wheat and made husking the wheat grains an easier process. My machine was used at the mill for several years.

As the years passed by, I moved from place to place. I began to gain interest in sounds, vibrations and speech. This can be due to the fact that my father was an elocutionist and my mother began to lose her hearing when I was only 12 years old.

In an effort to find a way to communicate with my mother, I developed a system called, visible speech. I continued to carry on my research into sound and speech. Due to exhaustion of working very hard, I was in very poor health. My father convinced my family to move and settle in the United Sates. He discovered that the environment there was much healthier for me and my family.

My strong will to help people with deafness, just like my mother, led me to study acoustics. In October 1872, I opened my school in Boston Massachusetts of Vocal Physiology and Mechanics of Speech. The purpose of this school was to teach deaf people how to speak.

Vocal Physiology and Mechanics of Speech School

In the following year, I was appointed professor of vocal physiology when I was 26 years old. In this school was where I met my wife, Mabel Hubbard, who was also deaf.

Mabel Hubbard

My greatest desire was still not accomplished. I wanted to invent a machine that could produce human speech. Many of my inventions had failed, but I was not going to give up! Mechanizing human speech became an obsession for me.

I spent a lot of my time experimenting with a telegraph. but I realized I needed financial support. With the help of two wealthy business men, I was able to hire a skilled electrical engineer named, Thomas Watson.

Thomas Watson

Instead of producing electrical clicks and sending only one message at a time, I wanted the telegraph to produce human speech and transmit multiple messages simultaneously. Mr. Watson and I spent many days and many nights working on improving the telegraph.

Morse code were the electrical clicks the telegraph produced.

One summer day, while Mr. Watson was working in another room, I accidently heard the noise of a plucked metal reed coming over the telegraph wire. I was now certain that I would be able to transmit sound. My dream of sending human voice over a wire to deliver a message was getting so close.

On March 7, 1876 I received a patent for transmitting sound over a wire. This patent would protect my idea and would not allow others to copy it.

After, hard work and dedication my dream became a reality on March 10, 1876. The birth of the telephone had arrived.On this day, I successfully transmitted human speech over a wire. The first words ever spoken on a telephone were said by me. 

"Mr.Watson, come here. I want to see you!"