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    Ten of the Greatest Inventors Throughout Our History Part 1
    Ten of the Greatest Inventors Throughout Our History Part 1
    Ten of the Greatest Inventors Throughout Our History Part 1
    Ebook494 pages5 hours

    Ten of the Greatest Inventors Throughout Our History Part 1

    By Thomas J. Strang

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    About this ebook

    This ebook consists of 10 of the greatest inventors of our time. Innovation is the process of creating something new that makes life better. Innovation is impossible without passion. Innovators see the world differently.
    Innovators end up becoming obsessed with taking the world from as it is to as it should be. They become obsessed with making the world better. Many innovators in the for-profit sector focus incessantly on bringing value to market. Others focus incessantly on the core research needed to push the human race forward. Regardless of the sectors we play in, we are all relentlessly focused on solving problems and creating a better world than the one that exists today.
    Alexander Graham Bell. A Scottish inventor and engineer, Bell was awarded the US patent for the telephone in 1876. His work on telecommunications, aeronautics, and many other areas (he invented the metal detector) earned him a reputation as one of the great figures of the nineteenth century.
    Benjamin Franklin. One of the founding fathers of the United States, Franklin was a brilliant polymath, inventor, political theorist, scientist, statesman, and writer. He had a prodigious scientific mind, and his interests varied widely, but in addition to politics, he is perhaps best known for his experiments with lightning and electricity.
    Galileo Galilei. The legendary Italian genius whose breakthrough ideas helped usher in the scientific revolution in the seventeenth century, Galileo is often called the father of modern science. Forced to defend his views of heliocentrism against the Roman inquisition, and spending most of his life under house arrest for heresy, Galileo has become an icon of scientific integrity in the face of religious dogmatism.
    Jonathan Ive. anApple’s most innovative and pioneering designs, including the iPhone, the iPad and the Macbook.
    Leonardo Da Vinci. The original “Renaissance man,” Da Vinci is best known for his paintings (the Last Supper, the Mona Lisa) but he was also a philosopher, engineer, and inventor. He left behind him a collection of extraordinarily prescient drawings depicting future technologies (helicopter, tank, solar power).
    Marie Curie. The first female winner of the Nobel Prize in 1903 (she won it twice in both physics and chemistry), Curie was a pioneering physicist and chemist who is known for her breakthrough ideas in radioactivity and her discovery of two elements.
    Nikola Tesla. A great inventor, engineer, and futurist, Tesla helped develop the AC electrical delivery system. Infamous for his wild experiments and colorful personality, Tesla‘s creative work regarding the production and transmission of power was far ahead of his time.
    Richard Feynman. One of the great scientists of the twentieth century, Feynman’s breakthrough ideas in Quantum theory helped revolutionize that field.
    The Wright brothers. Orville & Wilbur Wright invented and flew the world’s first successful airplane in 1903. Their persistence, experimentation, and work on the principles of flight made them legendary inventors and innovators.
    Thomas Edison. One of the most significant innovators and inventors in American history, Edison is perhaps best known for inventing the first long-lasting, commercially practical incandescent light bulb. He was the father of many other breakthroughs, including the first phonograph and the motion picture camera, and he was influential in developing the first economically viable way of distributing light, heat, and power from a central station.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherThomas J. Strang
    Release dateNov 11, 2015
    ISBN9781310220531
    Ten of the Greatest Inventors Throughout Our History Part 1
    Author

    Thomas J. Strang

    Tom is semi-retired from the accounting profession where he worked for 30 years as a bookkooper, auditor, accounting manager and assistant controller. He currently operates his own accounting, bookkeeping and tax service. He is currently married to Jennifer. He has 2 children Michael and Gracie. Michael is a computer technician and Gracie is a dental assistant. He has always loved books and collecting quotes for many, many years. He tries to live by them since they provide motivation and inspiration.

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      Book preview

      Ten of the Greatest Inventors Throughout Our History Part 1 - Thomas J. Strang

      Introduction

      Title: Ten of the Greatest Inventors Throughout Our History Part 1

      Thomas J. Strang

      Published by Thomas J. Strang at Smashwords

      Copyright 2015 Thomas J. Strang

      Smashword Edition, License Notes

      ISBN #

      Smashwords License Statement

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each reader. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      Click to Return to Table of Contents

      Biography

      In this edition, I thought it would be appropriate to include a biography. I have always loved quotations and have tried to live by them. This, of course, includes The Bible as well. We live in a world where so many bad things happen, I would prefer to uplift people rather than tear them down Anyway, I am a veteran of the accounting and computer professions. My father told me to enter it many years ago and you will never be out of work. He was right! He also said, the U.S. economy is rapidly becoming a service economy where products will be made somewhere else. This was a man with a 6th grade education who worked for United States Steel Corporation for 42 years. He was an auto mechanic, plumber and carpenter. He could handle just about anything mechanical. Well, after 30 years in the professions I decided to open my own practice. Sounds easy! Just remember, you have to be willing to work 80 hours a week for yourself so you won’t have to work 40 hours a week for someone else. I have been married for 15 years to Jennifer. We have 2 children, Michael and Gracie. Michael is a computer technician and Gracie is a dentist assistant. All proceeds from the sale of this book will go to help the poor. This will help people get back on their feet again. More to follow.

      Enjoy and God Bless.

      Tom

      Click to Return to Table of Contents

      Forward

      Please visit www.smashwords.com to purchase any of the following books. Please show the author you appreciate his work!

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      528999-499 Funny and Serious Life Quotes Part 2 500 to 998

      543699-499 Funny and Serious Life Quotes Part 7 001 to 499

      451919-999 Quotes For Everyday Living Part 3 1999 to 2998

      455421-Celebrity Quotes

      456140-Quotations from Successful Men and Women

      457115-Famous Political Quotations

      457976-A Collection of Historical Quotations

      500509-Musicians and their Thoughts (A Collection of Thoughts from Some of Most Famous Musicians)

      477459-600 Motivational and Inspirational Quotations

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      487038-Humorous Quotes about Birthdays and Aging

      487548-A Collection of Quotes about Husband, Wife, Man and Woman

      488347-Famous Quotes about Baseball, Basketball, Football and Soccer

      488919-A Collection of Quotes (275) That Make You Think

      489181-A Collection of Quotes about Life, Living, Kindness and Integrity

      490282-An Assortment of Funny Quotes, Funny Life Quotes and Funny Sex Quotes

      A Collection of Quotations about Heaven and Hell

      An Invaluable Collection of Quotations on Aging and the Aging Process

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      Famous People Share Their Thoughts about iPad, iPhone & iPad

      500509-466108-Musicians and Non-Musicians Share Their Thoughts on Music

      502163-Biographies on Famous Comedians: Past and Present

      Youth and Age: A Collection of Quotations

      Dogs and Cats: Youth got to Love Them

      504551-War and Peace: A Collection of Quotations

      504730-Are all Lawyers Crooks? A Collection of Quotations

      Patriotism: A Collection of Quotations

      A Study Guide on the Environment

      Nature: A Collection of Quotations

      506871-America and Canada (Love of Country)

      508133-A Collection of Birthday Quotations

      509004-Failures That Lead To Success and Victory

      510099-Why Do You Like Horror Movies?

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      521066-A Collection of Quotations from Famous Saints

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      Life’s Certainties and Uncertainties Part 1: A Collection of Quotations

      Life’s Certainties and Uncertainties Part 2: A Collection of Quotations

      Life’s Certainties and Uncertainties Part 3: A Collection of Quotations

      552936-Life’s Certainties and Uncertainties Part 4: A Collection of Quotations

      Life’s Certainties and Uncertainties Part 5: A Collection of Quotations

      526774-499 Funny and Serious Life Quotes (Part 1) 001 to 499

      499 Funny and Serious Life Quotes (Part 2) 001 to 499

      499 Funny and Serious Life Quotes (Part 3) 001 to 499

      499 Funny and Serious Life Quotes (Part 4) 001 to 499

      499 Funny and Serious Life Quotes (Part 5) 001 to 499

      499 Funny and Serious Life Quotes (Part 6) 001 to 499

      499 Funny and Serious Life Quotes (Part 7) 001 to 499

      499 Funny and Serious Life Quotes (Part 8) 001 to 499

      499 Funny and Serious Life Quotes (Part 9) 001 to 499

      499 Funny and Serious Life Quotes (Part 10) 001 to 499

      554542-A Comprehensive Listing of 175 Miscellaneous Quotations

      A Book of Miscellaneous Quotations to Enlighten and Inspire

      A Book of Quotations from Political and Military Monsters

      555074-A Comprehensive Collection of Quotations by Category Part 1

      A Comprehensive Collection of Quotations by Category Part 2

      558468-A Comprehensive Collection of Quotations by Category Part 3

      A Comprehensive Collection of Quotations by Category Part 4

      A Comprehensive Collection of Quotations by Category Part 5

      A Comprehensive Collection of Quotations by Category Part 6

      A Book of Quotations from Political and Evil Monsters

      A Comprehensive Collection of Quotations by Category Part 7

      A Comprehensive Collection of Comedic Quotations (Part 1)

      A Comprehensive Collection of Comedic Quotations (Part 2)

      A Retrospect on Rock Music Legends

      An Historical Perspective on the National Football League

      Ten Wealthy Americans And How They Achieved Their Wealth! Part 1

      Ten Wealthy Americans And How They Achieved Their Wealth! Part 2

      Ten Wealthy Americans And How They Achieved Their Wealth! Part 3

      Ten Wealthy Americans And How They Achieved Their Wealth! Part 4

      Serial Killers of the U.S. Why Do They Do What They Do?

      About this Ebook

      Innovation is the process of creating something new that makes life better. Innovation is impossible without passion. Innovators see the world differently.

      Innovators end up becoming obsessed with taking the world from as it is to as it should be. They become obsessed with making the world better. Many innovators in the for-profit sector focus incessantly on bringing value to market. Others focus incessantly on the core research needed to push the human race forward. Regardless of the sectors we play in, we are all relentlessly focused on solving problems and creating a better world than the one that exists today.

      Here’s a list of the greatest innovators of all time, followed by some of the greatest innovators of the last 30 years and the best up and coming Gen Y innovators.

      Alexander Graham Bell. A Scottish inventor and engineer, Bell was awarded the US patent for the telephone in 1876. His work on telecommunications, aeronautics, and many other areas (he invented the metal detector) earned him a reputation as one of the great figures of the nineteenth century.

      Benjamin Franklin. One of the founding fathers of the United States, Franklin was a brilliant polymath, inventor, political theorist, scientist, statesman, and writer. He had a prodigious scientific mind, and his interests varied widely, but in addition to politics, he is perhaps best known for his experiments with lightning and electricity.

      Galileo Galilei. The legendary Italian genius whose breakthrough ideas helped usher in the scientific revolution in the seventeenth century, Galileo is often called the father of modern science. Forced to defend his views of heliocentrism against the Roman inquisition, and spending most of his life under house arrest for heresy, Galileo has become an icon of scientific integrity in the face of religious dogmatism.

      Jony Ive. A world renowned product designer, Ive is the person responsible for many of the Apple’s most innovative and pioneering designs, including the iPhone, the iPad and the Macbook.

      Marie Curie. The first female winner of the Nobel Prize in 1903 (she won it twice in both physics and chemistry), Curie was a pioneering physicist and chemist who is known for her breakthrough ideas in radioactivity and her discovery of two elements.

      Leonardo Da Vinci. The original Renaissance man, Da Vinci is best known for his paintings (the Last Supper, the Mona Lisa) but he was also a philosopher, engineer, and inventor. He left behind him a collection of extraordinarily prescient drawings depicting future technologies (helicopter, tank, solar power).

      Nikola Tesla. A great inventor, engineer, and futurist, Tesla helped develop the AC electrical delivery system. Infamous for his wild experiments and colorful personality, Tesla ‘s creative work regarding the production and transmission of power was far ahead of his time.

      Richard Feynman. One of the great scientists of the twentieth century, Feynman’s breakthrough ideas in Quantum theory helped revolutionize that field.

      The Wright brothers. Orville & Wilbur Wright invented and flew the world’s first successful airplane in 1903. Their persistence, experimentation, and work on the principles of flight made them legendary inventors and innovators.

      Thomas Edison. One of the most significant innovators and inventors in American history, Edison is perhaps best known for inventing the first long-lasting, commercially practical incandescent light bulb. He was the father of many other breakthroughs, including the first phonograph and the motion picture camera, and he was influential in developing the first economically viable way of distributing light, heat, and power from a central station.

      Table of Contents

      Introduction

      Biography

      Forward

      About this Ebook

      Alexander Graham Bell

      Benjamin Franklin

      Galileo Galilei

      Jonathan Ive

      Leonardo da Vinci

      Midpoint

      Marie Curie

      Nikola Tesla

      Richard Feynman

      The Wright Brothers

      Thomas Edison

      Alexander Graham Bell

      Portrait photo taken between 1914–1919.

      Born: March 3, 1847, Edinburgh, Scotland

      Died: August 2, 1922 (age 75), Beinn Bhreagh, Nova Scotia, Canada

      Cause of death: complications from diabetes

      Residence: United Kingdom, Canada, United States

      Citizenship: birth-1882 British, 1870-1871 Canada, 1882-death America

      Alma mater: University of Edinburgh, University College, London

      Occupation: inventor, scientist, engineer, professor, teacher of the deaf

      Known for: invention of the telephone

      Spouse(s): Mabel Hubbard (married 1877-1922)

      Children: 4

      Parent(s): Alexander Melville Bell, Eliza Grace Symonds Bell

      Awards: 190l2 Albert Medal, 1907 John Fritz Medal, 1912 Elliot Cresson Medal

      Signature:

      Alexander Graham Bell (March 3, 1847 – August 2, 1922) was a Scottish-born scientist, inventor, engineer and innovator who is credited with inventing the first practical telephone.

      Bell's father, grandfather, and brother had all been associated with work on elocution and speech, and both his mother and wife were deaf, profoundly influencing Bell's life's work. His research on hearing and speech further led him to experiment with hearing devices which eventually culminated in Bell being awarded the first U.S. patent for the telephone in 1876. Bell considered his most famous invention an intrusion on his real work as a scientist and refused to have a telephone in his study.

      Many other inventions marked Bell's later life, including groundbreaking work in optical telecommunications, hydrofoils and aeronautics. In 1888, Bell became one of the founding members of the National Geographic Society.

      Early life

      Alexander Bell was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, on March 3, 1847. The family home was at 16 South Charlotte Street, and has a stone inscription marking it as Alexander Graham Bell's birthplace. He had two brothers: Melville James Bell (1845–70) and Edward Charles Bell (1848–67), both of whom would die of tuberculosis. His father was Professor Alexander Melville Bell, a phonetician, and his mother was Eliza Grace (née Symonds). Born as just Alexander Bell, at age 10 he made a plea to his father to have a middle name like his two brothers. For his 11th birthday, his father acquiesced and allowed him to adopt the name Graham, chosen out of respect for Alexander Graham, a Canadian being treated by his father who had become a family friend. To close relatives and friends he remained Aleck.

      First invention

      As a child, young Bell displayed a natural curiosity about his world, resulting in gathering botanical specimens as well as experimenting even at an early age. His best friend was Ben Herdman, a neighbor whose family operated a flour mill, the scene of many forays. Young Bell asked what needed to be done at the mill. He was told wheat had to be dehusked through a laborious process and at the age of 12, Bell built a homemade device that combined rotating paddles with sets of nail brushes, creating a simple dehusking machine that was put into operation and used steadily for a number of years. In return, John Herdman gave both boys the run of a small workshop in which to invent.

      From his early years, Bell showed a sensitive nature and a talent for art, poetry, and music that was encouraged by his mother. With no formal training, he mastered the piano and became the family's pianist. Despite being normally quiet and introspective, he reveled in mimicry and voice tricks akin to ventriloquism that continually entertained family guests during their occasional visits. Bell was also deeply affected by his mother's gradual deafness, (she began to lose her hearing when he was 12) and learned a manual finger language so he could sit at her side and tap out silently the conversations swirling around the family parlor. He also developed a technique of speaking in clear, modulated tones directly into his mother's forehead wherein she would hear him with reasonable clarity. Bell's preoccupation with his mother's deafness led him to study acoustics.

      His family was long associated with the teaching of elocution: his grandfather, Alexander Bell, in London, his uncle in Dublin, and his father, in Edinburgh, were all elocutionists. His father published a variety of works on the subject, several of which are still well known, especially his The Standard Elocutionist (1860), which appeared in Edinburgh in 1868. The Standard Elocutionist appeared in 168 British editions and sold over a quarter of a million copies in the United States alone. In this treatise, his father explains his methods of how to instruct deaf-mutes (as they were then known) to articulate words and read other people's lip movements to decipher meaning. Bell's father taught him and his brothers not only to write Visible Speech but to identify any symbol and its accompanying sound. Bell became so proficient that he became a part of his father's public demonstrations and astounded audiences with his abilities. He could decipher Visible Speech representing virtually every language, including Latin, Scottish Gaelic, and even Sanskrit, accurately reciting written tracts without any prior knowledge of their pronunciation.

      Education

      As a young child, Bell, like his brothers, received his early schooling at home from his father. At an early age the first four forms. His school record was undistinguished, marked by absenteeism and lackluster grades. His main interest remained in the sciences, especially biology, while he treated other school subjects with indifference, to the dismay of his demanding father. Upon leaving school, Bell travelled to London to live with his grandfather, Alexander Bell. During the year he spent with his grandfather, a love of learning was born, with long hours spent in serious discussion and study. The elder Bell took great efforts to have his young pupil learn to speak clearly and with conviction, the attributes that his pupil would need to become a teacher himself. At age 16, Bell secured a position as a pupil-teacher of elocution and music, in Weston House Academy, at Elgin, Moray, Scotland. Although he was enrolled as a student in Latin and Greek, he instructed classes himself in return for board and £10 per session. The following year, he attended the University of Edinburgh; joining his older brother Melville who had enrolled there the previous year. In 1868, not long before he departed for Canada with his family, Bell completed his matriculation exams and was accepted for admission to the University of London.

      First experiments with sound

      His father encouraged Bell's interest in speech and, in 1863, took his sons to see a unique automaton, developed by Sir Charles Wheatstone based on the earlier work of Baron Wolfgang von Kempelen. The rudimentary mechanical man simulated a human voice. Bell was fascinated by the machine and after he obtained a copy of von Kempelen's book, published in German, and had laboriously translated it, he and his older brother Melville built their own automaton head. Their father, highly interested in their project, offered to pay for any supplies and spurred the boys on with the enticement of a big prize if they were successful. While his brother constructed the throat and larynx, Bell tackled the more difficult task of recreating a realistic skull. His efforts resulted in a remarkably lifelike head that could speak, albeit only a few words. The boys would carefully adjust the lips and when a bellows forced air through the windpipe, a very recognizable Mama ensued, to the delight of neighbors who came to see the Bell invention.

      Intrigued by the results of the automaton, Bell continued to experiment with a live subject, the family's Skye Terrier, Trouve. After he taught it to growl continuously, Bell would reach into its mouth and manipulate the dog's lips and vocal cords to produce a crude-sounding Ow ah oo ga ma ma. With little convincing, visitors believed his dog could articulate How are you grandma? More indicative of his playful nature, his experiments convinced onlookers that they saw a talking dog. However, these initial forays into experimentation with sound led Bell to undertake his first serious work on the transmission of sound, using tuning forks to explore resonance.

      At the age of 19, he wrote a report on his work and sent it to philologist Alexander Ellis, a colleague of his father (who would later be portrayed as Professor Henry Higgins in Pygmalion). Ellis immediately wrote back indicating that the experiments were similar to existing work in Germany, and also lent Bell a copy of Hermann von Helmholtz's work, The Sensations of Tone as a Physiological Basis for the Theory of Music.

      Dismayed to find that groundbreaking work had already been undertaken by Helmholtz who had conveyed vowel sounds by means of a similar tuning fork contraption, he pored over the German scientist's book. Working from his own erroneous mistranslation of a French edition, Bell fortuitously then made a deduction that would be the underpinning of all his future work on transmitting sound, reporting: Without knowing much about the subject, it seemed to me that if vowel sounds could be produced by electrical means, so could consonants, so could articulate speech. He also later remarked: I thought that Helmholtz had done it ... and that my failure was due only to my ignorance of electricity. It was a valuable blunder ... If I had been able to read German in those days, I might never have commenced my experiments!

      Family tragedy

      In 1865, when the Bell family moved to London, Bell returned to Weston House as an assistant master and, in his spare hours, continued experiments on sound using a minimum of laboratory equipment. Bell concentrated on experimenting with electricity to convey sound and later installed a telegraph wire from his room in Somerset College to that of a friend. Throughout late 1867, his health faltered mainly through exhaustion. His younger brother, Edward Ted, was similarly bed-ridden, suffering from tuberculosis. While Bell recovered (by then referring to himself in correspondence as A.G. Bell) and served the next year as an instructor at Somerset College, Bath, England, his brother's condition deteriorated. Edward would never recover. Upon his brother's death, Bell returned home in 1867. His older brother Melville had married and moved out. With aspirations to obtain a degree at University College London, Bell considered his next years as preparation for the degree examinations, devoting his spare time at his family's residence to studying.

      Helping his father in Visible Speech demonstrations and lectures brought Bell to Susanna E. Hull's private school for the deaf in South Kensington, London. His first two pupils were deaf mute girls who made remarkable progress under his tutelage. While his older brother seemed to achieve success on many fronts including opening his own elocution school, applying for a patent on an invention, and starting a family, Bell continued as a teacher. However, in May 1870, Melville died from complications due to tuberculosis, causing a family crisis. His father had also suffered a debilitating illness earlier in life and had been restored to health by a convalescence in Newfoundland. Bell's parents embarked upon a long-planned move when they realized that their remaining son was also sickly. Acting decisively, Alexander Melville Bell asked Bell to arrange for the sale of all the family property, conclude all of his brother's affairs (Bell took over his last student, curing a pronounced lisp), and join his father and mother in setting out for the New World. Reluctantly, Bell also had to conclude a relationship with Marie Eccleston, who, as he had surmised, was not prepared to leave England with him.

      Canada

      Melville House, the Bells' first home in North America, now a National Historic Site of Canada.

      In 1870, at age 23, Bell, his brother's widow, Caroline (Margaret Ottaway), and his parents travelled on the SS Nestorian to Canada. After landing at Quebec City the Bells transferred to another steamer to Montreal and then boarded a train to Paris, Ontario, to stay with the Reverend Thomas Henderson, a family friend. After a brief stay with the Hendersons, the Bell family purchased a farm of 10.5 acres (42,000 m²) at Tutelo Heights (now called Tutela Heights), near Brantford, Ontario. The property consisted of an orchard, large farm house, stable, pigsty, hen-house, and a carriage house, which bordered the Grand River.

      At the homestead, Bell set up his own workshop in the converted carriage house near to what he called his dreaming place, a large hollow nestled in trees at the back of the property above the river. Despite his frail condition upon arriving in Canada, Bell found the climate and environs to his liking, and rapidly improved. He continued his interest in the study of the human voice and when he discovered the Six Nations Reserve across the river at Onondaga, he learned the Mohawk language and translated its unwritten vocabulary into Visible Speech symbols. For his work, Bell was awarded the title of Honorary Chief and participated in a ceremony where he donned a Mohawk headdress and danced traditional dances.

      After setting up his workshop, Bell continued experiments based on Helmholtz's work with electricity and sound. He also modified a melodeon (a type of pump organ) so that it could transmit its music electrically over a distance. Once the family was settled in, both Bell and his father made plans to establish a teaching practice and in 1871, he accompanied his father to Montreal, where Melville was offered a position to teach his System of Visible Speech.

      Work with the deaf

      Bell's father was invited by Sarah Fuller, principal of the Boston School for Deaf Mutes (which continues today as the public Horace Mann School for the Deaf), in Boston, Massachusetts, to introduce the Visible Speech System by providing training for Fuller's instructors, but he declined the post in favor of his son. Traveling to Boston in April 1871, Bell proved successful in training the school's instructors. He was subsequently asked to repeat the program at the American Asylum for Deaf-mutes in Hartford, Connecticut, and the Clarke School for the Deaf in Northampton, Massachusetts.

      Returning home to Brantford after six months abroad, Bell continued his experiments with his harmonic telegraph. The basic concept behind his device was that messages could be sent through a single wire if each message was transmitted at a different pitch, but work on both the transmitter and receiver was needed.

      Unsure of his future, he first contemplated returning to London to complete his studies, but decided to return to Boston as a teacher. His father helped him set up his private practice by contacting Gardiner Greene Hubbard, the president of the Clarke School for the Deaf for a recommendation. Teaching his father's system, in October 1872, Alexander Bell opened his School of Vocal Physiology and Mechanics of Speech in Boston, which attracted a large number of deaf pupils, with his first class numbering 30 students. While he was working as a private tutor, one of his most famous pupils was Helen Keller, who came to him as a young child unable to see, hear, or speak. She was later to say that Bell dedicated his life to the penetration of that inhuman silence which separates and estranges. In 1893, Keller performed the sod-breaking ceremony for the construction of the new Bell's new Volta Bureau, dedicated to the increase and diffusion of knowledge relating to the deaf.

      Several influential people of the time, including Bell, viewed deafness as something that should be eradicated, and also believed that with resources and effort they could teach the deaf to speak and avoid the use of sign language, thus enabling their integration within the wider society from which many were often being excluded. In several schools, children were mistreated, for example by having their hands tied behind their backs so they could not communicate by signing—the only language they knew—in an attempt to force them to attempt oral communication. Owing to his efforts to suppress the teaching of sign language, Bell is often viewed negatively by those embracing Deaf culture.

      Continuing experimentation

      In the following year, Bell became professor of Vocal Physiology and Elocution at the Boston University School of Oratory. During this period, he alternated between Boston and Brantford, spending summers in his Canadian home. At Boston University, Bell was swept up by the excitement engendered by the many scientists and inventors residing in the city. He continued his research in sound and endeavored to find a way to transmit musical notes and articulate speech, but although absorbed by his experiments, he found it difficult to devote enough time to experimentation. While days and evenings were occupied by his teaching and private classes, Bell began to stay awake late into the night, running experiment after experiment in rented facilities at his boarding house. Keeping night owl hours, he worried that his work would be discovered and took great pains to lock up his notebooks and laboratory equipment. Bell had a specially made table where he could place his notes and equipment inside a locking cover. Worse still, his health deteriorated as he suffered severe headaches. Returning to Boston in fall 1873, Bell made a fateful decision to concentrate on his experiments in sound.

      Deciding to give up his lucrative private Boston practice, Bell retained only two students, six-year-old Georgie Sanders, deaf from birth, and 15-year-old Mabel Hubbard. Each pupil would play an important role in the next developments. George's father, Thomas Sanders, a wealthy businessman, offered Bell a place to stay in nearby Salem with Georgie's grandmother, complete

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