Alexander Graham Bell, whose name is so clearly associated with the
invention and the development of the telephone, was born in Edinburgh,
Scotland, March 3, 1847. He was educated at the Edinburgh and London
universities, and on graduating went to Canada in 1870, in which
country he spent two years endeavoring to decide on a vocation. Later
he located in Boston, where he became professor of vocal physiology
at the Boston university. It was during this period that he became
interested in and made an exhaustive series of experiments culminating
in an application for a patent which was granted February 14, 1876. The
history of the invention, which is second in importance only to the
electric telegraph, is well known to the public. Without going into
details, it is only necessary to say that Mr. Bell, like all other
successful inventors, had to face and overcome the popular prejudices,
and had to protect his rights in the courts through interminable
law suits. The place that the telephone fills in the social and
commercial economy of the world to-day is also too well known to need
emphasis. Professor Bell is also the inventor of the photophone,
and is interested in the current scientific efforts of the American
association to promote the teaching of the deaf and dumb. Scientific
honors have been showered upon him in connection with his inventions.
In 1881 the French government awarded him the Volta prize, and he
is the founder of the Volta bureau. He is also the author of many
scientific and educational monographs.