Alexander Graham Bell
Born March 3, 1847, at Edinburgh, Scotland; died August 2, 1922, at Baddeck, Nova ScotiaSource
In 1870, Bell moved with his parents to Brantford, Ontario, from Scotland.
He taught his father's "visible speech" techniques at Boston University.
Bell recruited Thomas A. Watson in Boston to work on and perfect the telephone.
In 1875 unintelligible voice sounds were transmitted with an early telephone model.
In March 1876 clearly intelligible words were transmitted on a refined telephone model.
In August 1876, the first long distance telephone call was made from Brantford to Paris, Ontario.
In 1907, Bell formed the Aerial Experiment Association (AEA) in Nova Scotia to develop and build flying machines.
In 1909 the AEA flew the first airplane in Canada, named the Silver Dart.
Citizenship controversy: Bell was born in Scotland, moved to Canada, lived for a time in America and died in Canada.
Invention controversy: Bell claimed the telephone was invented in Canada but made in the United States of America. In 1880, Bell's father, Alexander Melville Bell filed his own telephone patent stating his residence as Brantford, Ontario. (Improvements on Electric Telephones. Patent no. 10705. Filing Date 1880.)
Sample of inventions patented in Canada by Bell
Patent Number | Filing Date | Title |
7789 | 1877 | Improvements on Electric Telephony |
13809 | 1881 | Improvements in Electric Telephony |
13810 | 1881 | Improvements in Electric Telephony |
26701 | 1887 | Transmitting and Recording Sounds by Radiant Energy |
26710 | 1887 | Reproducing Sounds from Phonograph Records |