Alexander Graham Bell In History

Alexander Graham Bell's First Sketches of Telephone.

While studying the human ear, Bell began sketching ideas to cure deafness. Here pictured is the first recorded sketching of what will later develop into the telephone. Bell sketched these ideas in 1876.

Growing up, Bell's mother was deaf. Bell then ended up falling in love with a deaf woman whom he later married. Seeing the effects of deafness his entire life, Bell took it upon himself to rid the world of deafness.In this sketch, though rough, Bell protrays a keen dipiction of what he wants his solution to be. In the sketch there are notes at the top leading into the first sketch. The first sketch drawn has 2 open cylinders attached to a cord leading into what appears to be a small electrical box. The next sketch shows one man speaking into the open cylinder which is connected by a cord to the other cylinder, where the smaller end of the cylinder is in the other mans ear. In between the two cylinders there is a squiggly sketch possibly indicating the vibration pattern of sounds between the voice of one man and the ear of the other. The third sketch shows a man speaking freely into a cylinder with no one at the end, possibly showing success and funtionality of the device.


An interesting part of the second sketch is the placement of the ear on the recieving end. It appears to literally be placed inside the ear to pick up on the vibrations traveling across the cord.

Above and below the drawing, you see Grahams original writings stating that these are as far back as he can remember his first drawings of the telephone. The date of the original drawing is unsure, so they have placed it

I believe that the true motive of Alexander Graham Bell is not the original motive that America today knows. Through this picture and further sources, I hope to show another side of Alexander Graham Bell and open a new avenue of understanding US Deaf History.

August 21st, 1876.