Alexander Graham Bell Biography: The Telephone & A Remarkable Deaf Woman Named Mabel

Alexander Graham Bell invented and promoted the telephone under the influence of a deaf woman named Mabel Hubbard. The invention of the telephone is a love story involving vibrating reeds, crying baby machines, and a dead man's ear! Check it out!
As usual, the lovely and talented Kim Nalley provided the music

[@rayoflight62]

The telephone was invented by Alexander Graham Bell in the US, but Antonio Meucci from Italy had, years before, made a working electromagnetic telephone prototype; but since Meucci had no financial means to patent and pursue commercially his telephone, nor any other backings, he lost his priority on the invention. Circumstances around an invention are sometime fundamental. Meucci was very skilled and knowledgeable, but was extremely unlucky.

[@johndii2194]

Elisha Gray was an American electrical engineer who co-founded the Western Electric Manufacturing Company. Gray is best known for his development of a telephone prototype in 1876 in Highland Park, Illinois.

[@rfvtgbzhn]

Actually the first invention of the Telephone was by a German called Philipp Reis in 1861, 10 years before Meucci.

[@Xev729]

I invented the telephone last night

[@drzarkov39]

I was always told that the telephone was actually invented by Elisha Gray, yet you failed to mention him.

[@davidford694]

It wasn't mentioned that Bell's parents lived in Brantford, Ontario. My grandmother grew up in Toronto, and every summer she and her siblings stayed on the farm of the Bellachie family there. (If you could afford it you got your children out of the city in the summer in those days. Death rates were higher then.) One summer she saw a strange looking box on a fencepost there. She asked what it was. She was told to say something to it, so she did. It talked back! It seems that young Bell was experimenting with getting his signal to go longer and longer distances, and had rigged up a test system to the Bell's friends the Bellachies.

[@AudreysKitchen]

Super cool history, thanks for sharing! I came across Bell while learning about Helen Keller. I had no idea about Bell being an advocate and ally to deaf people.

[@johnchestnut5340]

I've been binging your videos. Once things got going they happened so fast. It's like technology was just waiting to spring forth. I wonder when it will slow down. It also amazed me that most innovation took place before a person's 30's. No wonder old men, in their 30's, lament what might have been.

[@TimBitten]

Holy crap I LOVE THIS! Keep up the good work.

[@Kathy_Loves_Physics]

Tee Kiddo thank you soo much. If you liked this one you might check out some of my other videos. 😉

[@5argetech56]

Who would have thought! Love made the telephone possible... This story was so amazing that I got teary eyed! Thank you Kathy for this! I will be sure to share this... New subscriber!

[@stephendoherty1275]

There is so much more to Alexander Graham Bell's story! When I visited Canada, I went to his museum and found the following accomplishments/ works: 1. He proved ancient Egypt formulas that mathematicians used wrong by building and flying kites - as a kid. 2. He pioneered laser technology. 3. He perfected the airplane propeller still used today. 4. He did so using an airboat - Being the fastest craft on the planet at the time - being twin engined, open manifold, too loud for a normal person to pilot, so his deaf wife piloted the craft - Fastest person on the planet was a woman! 5. He built a 3 story, horse drawn wagon with a chair placed on top. He placed his wife in the chair and drove around the countryside until she saw the view she wanted to see from her balcony when she woke every morning - That is where he built her house. 6. His father raised moneys for his deaf schools by teaching a dog to growl and manipulating its mouth to speak words - "Shut up and take my money!"

[@johndii2194]

I wish you would number the titles (#22) so we can watch these in order easier. You have a great voice to listen to and understand. I like the way you reuse sections of videos. So many discoveries overlapping each other it is a good way to do it.

[@sjstimer]

I love these videos but a slight correction. Bell re-invented the telephone. It had already been invented 18 years earlier by Antonio Meucci. In 2005 The US Supreme Court judged that Meucci not Bell is the true inventor or The Telephone.

[@fare2muddlin]

So another example of wasp entitlement!😵‍💫 Meucci was Italian, and was involved in opera production. Maybe it was xenophobia, or maybe it was anti opera bigotry.🥸

[@cosmicraysshotsintothelight]

@@fare2muddlin No it was industrial theft. No question. Meucci actually gave Bell a sample of his machine. He was also nearly killed in a boat explosion that some believe was deliberately set off. I think the history books taught with in the US need to be changed to reflect the actual series of events. Wikipedia seems to cover all that were involved, but still points to Bell, even though they reference earlier Meucci works and the dates involved.

[@RobertDeloyd]

@@fare2muddlin or maybe they just didn't have a telephone to communicate the invention... ;)

[@unclemarksdiyauto]

Cool history on the telephone Kathy!

[@marianwhit]

Superior research, and no errors. If you should come to Nova Scotia at any point, you would be most welcome to Beinn Bhreagh. As a descendant I would be happy to show you around. I am a descendant. And appreciate those who take the time to keep his memory alive.

[@Kathy_Loves_Physics]

marianwhit why thank you! I would love that. As I live in San Francisco & have two wee bairns as a Scot would say it is hard to travel but I’m dying to see all the places I’ve been talking about. If I do manage it, I would love try & would take advantage of your generous offer! By the way, you must be doubly proud as a descendant of both Alec’s AND Mabel’s.

[@marianwhit]

It would be my pleasure.

[@CharlesCarlsonC3]

This is so nerdy, it’s wonderful. I’d love to see some of these early inventions in action. Like a lab video experiment that would accompany historical discoveries. Each moment of discovery is so cool, and the experiments really pretty simple, but also very conclusive.

[@Kathy_Loves_Physics]

Charles Carlson I have a website www.kathylovesphysics.com and am planning (when I get time cough cough) to make a series of labs that correspond to the videos. For example you can make a simple speaker with a coil of wire a magnet and a paper cup that would work great with this video.

[@zes3813]

no such thing as nerdy or etc about it, use, build etc tech is ok, not nerx, idts

[@martinstubs6203]

Nice video, but Alexander Graham Bell was NOT the first inventor of the telephone! This honour goes to Philipp Reis, who developed a working system for speech transmission in the German town of Friedrichsdorf. That was 1860/61. Reis even coined the term, telephone, for his system. Fun fact: The maiden name of Reis' mother in law was Susanne Bell.

[@SkylersRants]

AGB is despised by a lot of deaf people nowadays because he set back the acceptance of sign language for generations. He believed that deaf people should not have the "crutch" of using sign language, and they must learn to speak and read lips. His fame caused his opinion to prevail, even though many deaf people are not able to learn to speak well.

[@pickoftheglitter]

Bell didn't invent the telephone, actually; he based most of his work on the Italian Antonio Meucci work. Quoting the Antonio Meucci page on Wikipedia: "In 2002, on the initiative of U.S. Representative Vito Fossella (R-NY), in cooperation with an Italian-American deputation, the U.S. House of Representatives passed United States HRes. 269 on Antonio Meucci stating "that the life and achievements of Antonio Meucci should be recognized, and his work in the invention of the telephone should be acknowledged." According to the preamble, "if Meucci had been able to pay the $10 fee to maintain the caveat after 1874, no patent could have been issued to Bell."[56][53] The resolution's sponsor described it as "a message that rings loud and clear recognizing the true inventor of the telephone, Antonio Meucci."

[@pastmasterdan4080]

I’m a relative of Elmira Bell a niece of Mr. Bell. They passed down the hearing problems. Mastoiditis runs in the family.

[@MoveAhead101]

The first sentence spoken on a telephone was: „Das Pferd frisst keinen Gurkensalat“ -> „The horse doesn‘t eat cucumber salat“. Philipp Reis build a Telephone in 1861 and this invention was presented all over the world in scientific circles, even to the german emperor. The device from Reiss was sold several times. There also was an italien inventor, that invented a telephone long before Bell. He might had the patent, but did not invent it.

[@bobconnor1210]

Side notes: The microphone ultimately used was a Carbon Pile variable resistor, not invented by Bell but brilliantly adapted and applied. Bell went on to also have a significant hand in the early days of aeronautic development.

[@yogawithdennis4393]

How lovely! Really enjoy all your videos. Absolutly love this story.

[@EVPaddy]

I’m missing a bit the mention of Reis and others that also ‘invented’ the telephone. I think most things get invented independently in different places once the prerequisites have been invented/known.

[@RogerTerrill]

Thanks so miuch Again Kathy! I just adore your videos! I teach high-shcoolers over the summer and I am reminded how important it is to have the history and context in these matters!

[@eleneasy]

May I suggest you to do some research on Antonio Meucci? According to several sources, he didn't have enough money to patent the telephone many years before Bell. There even was a lawsuit between the two. It would be interesting to see a video with your thoughts on the issue.

[@lilacswithtea]

Bell misunderstanding Helmholtz' work from distorted secondary sources led him to developing a telephone, so essentially a game of "telephone" led to the telephone. That's a little too ironic for me.

[@freekbos1539]

Unfortunately, Bell's successes also planted the idea that spoken language is a natural form of communication for deaf people. As a consequence, sign language was barred at deaf schools around the world for a century or more, causing much suffering amongst deaf children. Sign language was only recognised a couple of decades ago as a fully functional language, not just a collection of gestures.

[@TexRenner]

I'm very glad I found you, Kathy.

[@LadyAnuB]

Elisha Gray invented the telephone system, Alexander Graham Bell invented the better mechanical transducer, the carbon diaphragm, which needed the triode vacuum tube to turn it into the telephone speaker and microphone set that ruled the world of telephones for all but the last years of the 20th century. (It gives way too small a signal as an unamplified transducer.) Best book on the subject: The Telephone Gambit: Chasing Alexander Graham Bell's Secret Bell's musical telegraph sounds like a version of signal multiplexing.

[@dbmail545]

A common thread in these presentations is how much opposition and downright sabotage these fellows and especially the women had to overcome to make their advances.

[@googleinvestigations233]

This is my family member my great great great grandfather name is ("Gardiner Greene Hubbard (August 25, 1822 - December 11, 1897) was an American lawyer, financier, and community leader.. My name is David Greene. And I have all my family tree history. 🙂

[@surendrakverma555]

Thanks a lot for providing intersting information. 🙏🙏🙏🙏

[@Kathy_Loves_Physics]

You are quite welcome. Thanks for all the nice comments

[@RonJohn63]

The multi-frequency telegraph *would* have made a *lot* of money. Essentially, it's frequency-shift keying, which ATT use 90 years later in the first 300 baud modem.

[@sparkytas]

Kathy Loves Physis is my favourite channel! Kathy deserves a knighthood for services to science education!!!

[@johnnyjames7139]

The technological advances of the past 300 years are astounding to what preceded our spiecies accomplishments prior to this time.

[@williamdegnan4718]

Are you sure about this? My father was an Electrical Engineer and he told me that _Don Ameche_ invented the telephone. He frequently referred to telephone station apparatus as "The Ameche". 😉

[@stevescott6503]

Many years ago I had the pleasure of visiting Alexander Graham Bell's House and site. I also had the chance to stand in front of the building in Brantford Ontario where the first telephone call originated. Then I went to the building in Paris Ontario where the call was answered. There was a plaque on the wall of each building. When I was very young, well over 50 years ago, that was very exciting. Today most people don't care. that's sad.

[@goodmaro]

There's just sooo much to say, and has been said, about the telephone *and other inventions connected to it by technology or inventor.* Between Meucci, Reiss, Edison, Gray, and Bell, it's one of those line-drawing problems as to when a technology can actually said to have come into existence. You had Gray's caveat (now superseded by the USPTO's document disclosure program) filed the same day as Bell's patent application. But what either of them had on that day, I don't think worked any better than Meucci's or Reiss's telephone. But once Bell got recognition for his "telegraphy improvement", with that in hand (ahead of Edison, whom everybody *expected would* come up with the first practical telephone) he was able *the following year* to invent the first telephone that *really* worked, no hedging. And the following year Loomis claimed to use Bell's setup at the ends of Loomis's existing aerial telegraphy to achieve sound radio before most people even realize wireless c.w. existed -- though I have reason to doubt intelligible speech transmission could've resulted without a modulation system. And then you had Bell's induction balance (a metal detector that's like a Wheatstone bridge for inductance rather than resistance), and its spectacular and tragic failure to find Garfield's bullet -- foiled by the spring mattress, which was a fairly new thing itself. And so many other ways connections could be traced -- to Theramin, for instance.

[@Go_for_it652]

Bell received received the first long distance telephone call from Brantford Ontario in Roberts Whites Boots and Shoe Store and Telegraph Office on August 10th 1876 .The eight mile line was extended to 136 miles to make use of a battery supply in Toronto Ontario. The store is still there .Have a great day Kathy.

[@Xev729]

Excuse me miss kathy i want to read everything about the telephone and mr. Bells work. Help me please!🙏

[@andrearisso4792]

When a video about Antonio Meucci?

[@goodun2974]

Richard Thompson, himself of Scottish heritage and UK born, wrote a song about Bell: "Alexander Graham Bell, note the name and note it well/ Father of the modern age, his inventions are all the rage......[chorus]: of course there was the telephone, he'd be famous for that alone/ but there's 50 other things as well, from Alexander Graham Bell/ now Edison had cylinders, but Bell made records flat/ which we remember gratefully when we play our floppy or CD/ Of course there was the telephone, he'd be famous for that alone/ but there's 50 other things as well, from Alexander Graham Bell...... Born in Scotland moved away to Canada and the USA/ studied speech, took a wife, helped the deaf all his life/ came up with a threshing machine, before he made it to a teen/ after years of sweat and toil, he invented the hydrofoil/ The respirator was his chance to save his baby's life/ And just like the Brothers Wright, he got heavily into flight .....[chorus]...... Graham Bell, Alexander, it is tantamount to slander/ If to call him just a scientist, why his inventions top the list/ Edison, he was a thief/ and Tesla, nuts beyond belief/ But Alexander was a gen/t so philanthropic, so well meant/ Fmfounded Science Magazine, he wrote a book for kids/ Because he was a caring fellow, gave a hand to Helen Keller.....[chorus].... Alexander Bell, Graham, modern life would sure be mayham/ Without tetrahedral cells, x-rays, faxes, deciBels / We can say that it's no fiction, and without fear of contradiction/ he improved our lives a smidgen/ from the age of the Carrier pigeon/ Television was a thing that he had all prepared/ But he left that to his pal John Logie Baird/ Of course of course there was the telephone he'd be famous for that alone but there's 50 other things as well, from Alexander Graham Bell...." Richard Thompson

[@Gershwin48]

I expected less and was wrong. Nicely done!

[@MitzvosGolem1]

Lise Meitner (fission ) and Rosalind Franklyn (DNA) two unsung heroes of science because of their being women. Shalom Excellent work Thanks!!! Ps: Physics Girl channel is awesome but not as detailed in history as yours . Hoping my Daughter goes to science university asap.

[@georgechatziioannidis811]

please add subtitles

[@maxenielsen]

So would Mabel have been the original Ma Bell?

[@HenryRaeburn367]

Bell was born in Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Edinburgh my home town greenock had a famous engineer James Watt just across the river clyde John Logie baird was born , Lord kelvin although he was Irish I've been to the kelvin Grove museum for such a small country scottish inventors engineers scientists are known world wide

[@Kathy_Loves_Physics]

Don’t forget Maxwell!!

[@johnnicholson8811]

Mabel lead to Ma Bell.

[@matthoward8546]

everything that happens is history wether it likes it or not

[@mhiraglamz8300]

You really need to say the last one. Because a lot of physics geeks don’t like Tesla

[@shawnmulberry774]

one dismembered ear...here you go, have fun...

[@Kathy_Loves_Physics]

Makes me wonder where the doctor picked one up!

[@ThomasHaberkorn]

Antonio Meucci invented the telephone

[@steverobinson1836]

☹️☹️ NOTHING WITH SUBTITLES?......

[@Kathy_Loves_Physics]

I am so sorry. I have just started working with a company to get subtitles and I will get to this video soon. Sorry again.

[@michaelprochaska6907]

Bell was basically an eugenicist in that he advocated for banning marriage between deaf people because he feared the creation of a "deaf race" if deaf people were "allowed" to marry & procreate. He vigorously pushed for banishing the use of sign languages, even though he & his wife actually signed, because he believed that deaf people were inherently inferior if they didn't have speech & that if they were "allowed" to sign they would not learn speech. It's dismaying to see such valorization of someone who was actually despicable & to see the promotion of what might be termed as inspiration p*rn in the form of a "love story" about a hearing person & a deaf person. So thumbs down...

[@Kathy_Loves_Physics]

That is legitimate criticism. I learned the stuff about him that you said after I made this video. I am sorry for only telling half the story. I am not sure if I should make an addendum to this video or just delete this video or what.

[@rogeryoung6261]

I have been loving these videos but now so disappointed to discover the major (Meucci) error in this offering. It throws doubt on all the others.

[@eaaaaaaaaaaaaaa5]

A nice story, but Bell was only a plagiarist. He stole the ideas of Johann Philipp Reis, Antonio Meucci and Elisha Gray. The first understandable voice transmitting happened 1861 in Frankfurt by Reis: "Das Pferd ist keinen Gurkensalat" "The horse does not eat cucumber salad."

[@fredhayfer4985]

She is too annoying to listen to