The Telephone

Born in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1847, he taught deaf people when he was young. His dad, who did the same, even wrote schoolbooks on speech. In 1870, Bell’s whole family moved to Canada. Two years later, he moved on his own to Boston, where he gave private lessons to deaf people. He eventually married one of his pupils. Working with the deaf got him interested in how vibrations in the air make sounds. He was 29 when he patented what he called the “speaking telegraph.” Today, most phones don’t use his technology, but Bell made the phone part of our lives.