Full name: Alexander Graham Bell Born: 3rd March 1847 Place of Birth: Edinburgh, Scotland Occupation: Scientist and Inventor of the telephone Died: 22nd August 1922

Alexander Graham Bell was a Scottish scientist born on 3rd March 1847 in Edinburgh.  Bell's father and grandfather were both experts in elocution and speech correction, which sparked his interest in the mechanics of speech.  Bell was primarily educated at home but attended Edinburgh Royal High School and Edinburgh University for a short period of time. 

After emigrating to Southern Ontario, Canada with his family in 1870, Bell moved to the US a year later to become a US citizen and a teacher.  Bell introduced and a taught a system called 'visible speech', which was invented by his father to teach deaf children.  Shortly after, Bell opened a school in Boston to train teachers to teach the deaf, which became a part of Boston University and Bell became professor of vocal physiology. 

Throughout his early career, Bell was driven and inspired by the idea of transmitting speech and made his first telephonic transmission to his assistant in June 1845, which lead to his creation of a receiver that was able to turn electricity into sound.  Other Scientists including Antonio Meucci and Elisha Gray were also researching the idea of speech transmission.  However, Bell received the patent for the telephone device in 1876 and he set up the Bell Telephone Company a year later. 

Within just three years, over 30,000 telephones were being used around the world.   Bell's revolutionary invention won him the French Volta Prize and he founded the Volta Laboratory in Washington with the prize money, which allowed him to pursue his research into communication and methods for teaching the deaf.  In 1883, Alexander Bell invented the graphophone, which was the first practical sound recording device. 

After moving to Nova Scotia in Canada, Alexander Bell also became interested in aviation and aeronautics and became a founding member and president of the National Geographic Society and aided in the establishment of the society's National Geographic Magazine.  Alexander Bell died on 22nd August 1922.