Alexander Graham Bell

Inventor

1847-03-03 – 1922-08-02

Alexander Graham Bell was a Scottish-born inventor and engineer associated with the development of practical telephony. He also worked on communication systems for the deaf and on aeronautics and hydrofoils. He remains a central historical figure in communications technology.

Books by Alexander Graham Bell

The Bell Telephone
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The Question of Sign-language and the Utility of Signs in the Instruction of the Deaf
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Quotes by Alexander Graham Bell

Concentrate all your thoughts upon the work in hand. The Sun's rays do not burn until brought to a focus
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Mr. Watson — Come here — I want to se
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Man is the result of slow growth; that is why he occupies the position he does in animal life. What does a pup amount to that has gained its growth in a few days or weeks, beside a man who only attains it in as many years.
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When one door closes another door opens; but we so often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door, that we do not see the ones which open for us.
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When one door closes another door opens; but we so often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door, that we do not see the ones which open for us.
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Mr. Watson — Come here — I want to se
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Concentrate all your thoughts upon the work in hand. The Sun's rays do not burn until brought to a focus
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Man is the result of slow growth; that is why he occupies the position he does in animal life. What does a pup amount to that has gained its growth in a few days or weeks, beside a man who only attains it in as many years.
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Educate the masses, elevate their standard of intelligence, and you will certainly have a successful nation.
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The most successful men in the end are those whose success is the result of steady accretion.
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From my earliest childhood, my attention was specially directed to the subject of acoustics, and specially to the subject of speech, and I was urged by my father to study everything relating to these subjects, as they would have an important bearing upon what was to be my professional work.
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In this experiment, made on the 9th of October, 1876, actual conversation, backwards and forwards, upon the same line, and by the same instruments reciprocally used, was successfully carried on for the first time upon a real line of miles in length.
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Sometimes we stare so long at a door that is closing that we see too late the one that is open.
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Great discoveries and improvements invariably involve the cooperation of many minds. I may be given credit for having blazed the trail, but when I look at the subsequent developments I feel the credit is due to others rather than to myself.
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Concentrate all your thoughts upon the work at hand. The sun's rays do not burn until brought to a focus.
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Such a chimerical idea as telegraphing vocal sounds would indeed, to most minds, seem scarcely feasible enough to spend time in working over. I believe, however, that it is feasible and that I have got the cue to the solution of the problem.
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It is hardly an exaggeration to say that oral teachers and sign teachers found it difficult to sit down in the same room without quarreling, and there was intolerance upon both sides. To say 'oral method' to a sign teacher was like waving a red flag in the face of a bull, and to say 'sign language' to an oralist aroused the deepest resentment.
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When one door closes, another opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us.
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It is not, of course, complete yet - but some sentences were understood this afternoon... I feel that I have at last struck the solution of a great problem - and the day is coming when telegraph wires will be laid onto houses just like water or gas - and friends converse with each other without leaving home.
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