The inventor of the telephone was Alexander Graham Bell. He was born in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1847. His father's name was Alexander Melville Bell, who taught the deaf to speak. His mother, Elisa Grace Symonds was an artist and a musician. Alexander got most of his education at Universities in London and Scotland. In 1868 his two brothers died of a disease called TUBERCLUOSIS. They all had to move to Canada so Alexander wouldn't catch it also.

A year after that, Alexander moved alone to the U.S.A. so he could teach the deaf to talk at Saral Fullers School for the Deaf. One of his students was the famous Helen Keller, who was blind and deaf.

Since he was interested in tuning forks and magnets, Alexander got interested in electricity. He first got the idea of the telephone when he experimented with the human ear, tympanum, and smoked glass. Later in the year Alexander invented the harmonic telegraph, which could receive messages at the same time. This led to the invention of the telephone.

After experiments, the telephone was invented. There was a lot of competition, so Alexander issued a patent for his invention.

Alexander Graham Bell accidentally transmitted a message over the telephone to his partner, Thomas Watson. Alexander picked up the phone and said, "Watson, come here, I need you." He didn't actually think it would work, however Watson came into the room excitedly. This happened on March 10, 1876 3 days after the patent was issued.

As soon as word got out, everybody wanted a telephone. Alexander Graham Bell also introduced it to England and France. England bought many telephone for the country. The Emperor of Brazil ordered 100 telephones for his country. The telephone was a big hit.

Alexander Graham Bell died on August 2, 1922 of a heart attack at Baddeck, Nova Scotia. 46 years after he invented the telephone. He was 75 years old.

Now, about 95% of all Americans have at least one telephone in their house.

For more information visit the following sites:

www.edserv.sjcoe.k12.ca.us/we/biographies/Bell.html

www.invent.org

http://www.att.com/technology/forstudents/brainspin/alexbell/