Profile of the Day: Alexander Graham Bell

“Ahoy!” That’s the greeting Alexander Graham Bell first proposed for answering the telephone. The inventor and engineer was born on March 3, 1847 in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Image: Alexander Graham Bell / Library of Congress

The second son born to Alexander Melville Bell and Eliza Grace Symond, Bell had two brothers who would later die of tuberculosis. His mother was mostly deaf and his father was a phonetician and taught elocution to the deaf. Born just “Alexander Bell,” the future inventor begged his father for a middle name. For his 11th birthday, he was given the middle name “Graham,” in honor of Alexander Graham, a former student of his father’s and a close family friend.

Best remembered as the inventor of the first practical telephone, Bell’s work was heavily influenced by his personal life at home. His father and grandfather were distinguished speech therapists, while both his mother and his wife were deaf. In 1876, Bell received the patent for the telephone after a controversial race to the patent office. His invention would have a significant impact on the way we communicate throughout the world.

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