Talking into the Future

Can you hear me now? Many of us have heard this catchy phrase used by Cingular Wireless to advertise their cell phones, but very little have given thought to how phones work. A man by the name of Alexander Graham Bell, very interested in sound and communication, came up with the idea of transferring sound from one point to another. There is a lot more to the phone than picking up the phone and dialing your friends' phone number to talk. Today the telephone may seem like a simple household item, but in 1876 it was a monumental task to achieve.

Born in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1847, Bell was always around ways of communication. After living out his childhood in Edinburgh, Bell moved to Canada. Being interested in sound and helping the deaf, Bell was sure to be like his father and grandfather (McCorry1 231). In 1871, Bell became a connoisseur in the field of helping the deaf. In a few weeks of hard studying, Bell's students learned some four hundred English syllables (Burlingame 41). This feat was unheard of by any other oral method. Bell's dedication to helping the deaf changed many people's lives. In 1872, Bell opened his own school in Boston for training teachers of the deaf (Burlingame 42). The opening of Bell's school was sure to be a success due to the word being spread about his teachings. People from all over the United State were sure to have heard about it. By 1873 he became a professor at Boston University and began tutoring private pupils (Burlingame 42). Bell's success as a teacher helped launch him into becoming successful at other things.

While not teaching new methods of instructing the deaf pupils, Bell put much time into learning the new science of electricity. Bell had many ideas and thoughts about sending sounds over long distances using electric currents in wires (McCorry2 1994). After a few years of experimenting, in 1875 he found that the human voice could make a thin metal plate vibrate and that it could make electric currents in a wire (McCorry2 1994). While the electric current traveled down the wire, the currents would make another plate vibrate (McCorry2 1994). The vibrations of the plate were almost identical to the one at the speaker's plate and so the sounds of the speakers voice would be reconstructed exactly ((McCorry2 1994). In autumn of 1875 Bell became confident with his telephone invention and wrote out the specifications for his patent (Burlingame 73). Bell then added a sketch of a wire plunger going up and down in a cup of dilute sulphuric acid moved by the levers of the diaphragm when words were spoken Burlingame 73).

The sulphuric acid Bell used was strong enough to burn a hole in your clothes if it wasn't quickly taken care of. While Bell was setting up his experiment in his work place, he spilt the acid on his clothes (Burlingame 74). In his hurried attempt to get it off, he yelled for Mr. Watson to come assist him. Mr. Watson had heard him, but