". . . rarely have inventor and invention been better served than in this book." – New York Times Book Review Here, Edwin Grosvenor, American Heritage's publisher and Bell's great-grandson, tells the dramatic story of the race to invent the telephone and how Bell's patent for it would become the most valuable ever issued. He also writes of Bell's other extraordinary inventions: the first transmission of sound over light waves, metal detector, first practical phonograph, and early airplanes, including the first to fly in Canada. And he examines Bell's humanitarian efforts, including support for women's suffrage, civil rights, and speeches about what he warned would be a "greenhouse effect" of pollution causing global warming.

[Must Read Personalities] A life Story of Alexander Graham Bell

The popular image of Alexander Graham Bell is that of an elderly American patriarch, memorable only for his paunch, his Santa Claus beard, and the invention of the telephone. In this magisterial reassessment based on thorough new research, acclaimed biographer Charlotte Gray reveals Bell’s wide-ranging passion for invention and delves into the private life that supported his genius. The child of a speech therapist and a deaf mother, and possessed of superbly acute hearing, Bell developed an early interest in sound. His understanding of how sound waves might relate to electrical waves enabled him to invent the “talking telegraph” be- fore his rivals, even as he undertook a tempestuous courtship of the woman who would become his wife and mainstay. In an intensely competitive age, Bell seemed to shun fame and fortune. Yet many of his innovations—electric heating, using light to transmit sound, electronic mail, composting toilets, the artificial lung—were far ahead of their time. His pioneering ideas about sound, flight, genetics, and even the engineering of complex structures such as stadium roofs still resonate today. This is an essential portrait of an American giant whose innovations revolutionized the modern world.

Alexander Graham Bell Educator. Innovator. Inventor. These three words sum up Alexander Graham Bell, one of the greatest scientific men of his era. He is most famous for the invention of the telephone, a device which he predicted would transform human society. And it did. But the telephone is just one of the many innovations and inventions that Bell brought into being. Inside you will read about... - Childhood - Emigration to North America - The Bell Telephone Company - The Race to Save the President - A Rival to the Wright Brothers - Later Years and Death And much more! A man who epitomizes the word visionary, Alexander Graham Bell predicted the use of light as a medium for transmitting information and how humanity would be transformed by flight. This is his story.

A revelatory revisionist biography of Alexander Graham Bell — renowned inventor of the telephone and powerful enemy of the deaf community. When Alexander Graham Bell first unveiled his telephone to the world, it was considered miraculous. But few people know that it was inspired by another supposed miracle: his work teaching the deaf to speak. The son of one deaf woman and husband to another, he was motivated by a desire to empower deaf people by integrating them into the hearing world, but he ended up becoming their most powerful enemy, waging a war against sign language and deaf culture that still rages today. The Invention of Miracles tells the dual stories of Bell’s remarkable, world-changing invention and his dangerous ethnocide of deaf culture and language. It also charts the rise of deaf activism and tells the triumphant tale of a community reclaiming a once-forbidden language. Katie Booth has researched this story for over a decade, poring over Bell’s papers, Library of Congress archives, and the records of deaf schools around America. Witnessing the damaging impact of Bell’s legacy on her deaf family set her on a path that upturned everything she thought she knew about language, power, deafness, and technology.

Did you know that Bell's amazing invention--the telephone--stemmed from his work on teaching the deaf? Both his mother and wife were deaf. Or, did you know that in later years he refused to have a telephone in his study? Bell's story will fascinate young readers interested in the early history of modern technology!

An introduction to the life and career of the inventor of the telephone, who was also accomplished in many other ways.

Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone during the years of the Industrial Age in Europe and America. It was the day and age for new innovations and new devices that exploded in the field of manufacturing. While many of those instruments were suited for large companies and the wealthy, why not invent devices that everyone could use? This is the story of Alexander Graham Bell, of his telephone and of all the other inventions that sprung from his fruitful mind. Although he worked with the deaf, he never lived in a world of silence, and neither did his hearing-impaired family and friends. Inside you'll read about Budding Inventor A Lovely Wife: A Loving Life Mixing Business with Pleasure And much more!Alexander Graham Bell was a precious young man, and it didn't dismay him that many others, who were older and more experienced than he, were scrambling to build the world's first telephone. There was a stampede to the patent office toward the latter half of the 19th Century. Patent attorneys were shown anything from rough pencil drawings to scribbled out explanations of how these devices were sure to work. Many, many of the applicants presented verbal ideas. Others, though, designed carefully engineered diagrams and prototypes. Only Alexander Graham Bell and his assistant, James Watson, had demonstrated it in front of influential scientists and notable statesmen at a University.

Growing up, Alexander Graham Bell was fascinated with music, speech, and sounds. He worked hard to invent things that would not only help those with impaired hearing, but also bring people together in new and special ways. What he didn't know was that his simple idea--to help people communicate--would change the world when he invented the telephone.

A reprint of the 1973 biography of the American inventor. Divided into pre-telephone, telephone, and post-telephone sections, also covers his work with the Smithsonian, the deaf, the National Geographic Society, and Science magazine. Paper edition ($12.95) not seen. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR