ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL (Invention):

Born 1847, died 1922.

Bell was born in Edinburgh and was also educated there, as well as in London. From the age of 16 he began to research the mechanics of the voice and speech. He was no doubt influenced in this choice of career by the fact that both his father and grandfather were considered authorities on elocution.

At the age of 23 Bell emigrated to Canada and then on to the United States the following year where he taught deaf-mute children. In 1872 he founded his own school (later to become part of Boston University) to train teachers of the deaf.

Bell had been interested for many years in the idea of transmitting speech and, in 1875, he developed his first simple device for turning electricity into sound. The question of who actually invented the first telephone is still a contentious one - at the same time that Bell was working on his device an Italian-American named Antonio Meucci was developing something similar.