Alexander Graham Bell

Alexander Graham Bell Calls Chicago from New York

Alexander Graham Bell is synonymous with telephone. But that wasn't his only invention. He considered his most important creation to be the photophone — a device that transmitted sound on a beam of light. Although the photophone never met with the success that Bell hoped for, it became one of the key elements in the invention of fiber optics, which today transport over 80 percent of the world's telecommunications. Bell, born on this date in 1847, always considered himself first a teacher of the deaf; but his other interests made him an early leader of the National Geographic Society, and his inventions ranged from a prototype of the iron lung to methods of removing salt from sea water. His work with tetrahedrons led to the creation of the hydrofoil; in 1919, a hydrofoil he built with Casey Baldwin set a world water-speed record that was not broken until 1963.

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From our Archives: Today's Highlights, March 3, 2009