10 Astonishing Truths About Alexander Graham Bell

Although Alexander Graham Bell was born in Scotland and later became an American citizen, he spent the final years of his life in Nova Scotia, Canada. By the age of 38, Bell resided in Washington, D.C., entangled in exhausting legal battles over telephone patents. He discovered a book by Charles Dudley Warner titled Baddeck and That Sort of Thing, which portrayed the quaint fishing village of Baddeck in Nova Scotia as “the most stunning saltwater lake I’ve ever encountered … surrounded by rolling hills, with shadows cast by wooded islands … a truly magical sight.” Inspired by this description, Bell relocated there with his wife and two children, making the serene Canadian village his home for nearly four decades until his passing.

1. BELL’S GREATEST PASSION WAS SUPPORTING THE DEAF COMMUNITY.

Alexander Graham Bell dedicated much of his life to aiding deaf students in communication. His grandfather was an elocutionist, and his father, Melville, created Visible Speech, a system of written symbols to assist the deaf in speaking. (Melville was referenced in George Bernard Shaw’s preface to Pygmalion and is believed to have inspired the character of Professor Higgins.) Both Bell’s mother and wife were deaf, serving as the driving force behind his work. In 1872, at the age of 25, he established the “School of Vocal Physiology and Mechanics of Speech” in Boston.

2. THE TELEPHONE WAS CREATED OUT OF LOVE

Mabel Hubbard, one of Bell’s students, came from a wealthy Massachusetts family, and he fell deeply in love with her. Her father, Gardiner Greene Hubbard, a lawyer and the first president of the National Geographic Society, initially objected to their union due to Bell’s financial struggles. However, shortly after founding the Bell Telephone Company and securing his wealth, Bell married Mabel. As a wedding gift, he gave her nearly all of his 1507 shares in the company, retaining only ten for himself. In his study at Baddeck, Bell cherished a photograph of Mabel, inscribed on the back with his own words: “the girl for whom the telephone was invented.”

3. THE FIRST TELEPHONE CALL MIGHT HAVE BEEN A PLEA FOR ASSISTANCE.

While working on acoustic telegraphy with his assistant, Thomas Watson, a skilled machinist, Bell created the telephone. On March 10, 1876, with a receiver in Watson’s room and the transmitter prototype in his own room, Bell spoke the first words transmitted over a telephone wire: “Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you.” As Watson later recounted, “I hurried down the hall … and discovered he had spilled battery acid on his clothes … his cry for help that night … may not sound as poetic as Morse’s first telegraph message, ‘What Hath God Wrought,’ sent 30 years earlier, but it was a genuine call for aid.”

However, according to Watson’s great-granddaughter Susan Cheever, the story about the acid spill was fabricated by Watson decades later. She cites a letter from Watson shortly after the historic call, where he stated, “[T]here was little of dramatic interest in the occasion.”

Bell’s patent 174,465 was submitted to the U.S. Patent Office almost simultaneously with a caveat filed by another engineer, Elisha Gray, for a similar invention. This led to one of over 500 lawsuits regarding the telephone—all of which ended in failure.

4. BELL LAID THE GROUNDWORK FOR FUTURE INNOVATIONS LIKE CASSETTE TAPES, FLOPPY DISCS, AND FIBER OPTICS.

In 1880, Bell received 50,000 francs from the French government for inventing the telephone. He used this prize money to establish the Volta Laboratory, which focused on advancing and sharing knowledge about deafness.

Among the 18 patents Bell held individually and the 12 he co-authored, many aimed at enhancing the lives of the deaf. One notable invention, the photophone, was regarded by Bell as his “most significant creation, surpassing even the telephone.” The photophone enabled optical wireless communication, a groundbreaking achievement in 1880. Bell and his assistant, Charles Summer Tainter, successfully sent a voice message via light beam over 200 meters from a school rooftop to their lab—an early forerunner to modern fiber-optic technology.

They also experimented with using magnetic fields to reproduce sound. Although they abandoned the project after failing to create a functional prototype, Bell had essentially pioneered the concept that would later lead to the development of tape recorders and floppy discs. One of their enhancements to the gramophone was patented under the Volta Graphophone Company, which eventually evolved into Columbia Records and Dictaphone.

5. HE ALSO DESIGNED THE WORLD’S FASTEST SPEEDBOAT …

After developing an interest in hydroplanes, Bell drafted an early design for what would later be known as a hydrofoil boat. Collaborating with aviation pioneer Frederick “Casey” Baldwin, Bell constructed and tested the HD-4 at his Baddeck laboratory. On September 9, 1919, the boat achieved a world speed record of 70.86 mph on Bras d’Or Lake near Bell’s home. The remains of this record-breaking vessel are still on display at the Alexander Graham Bell Historic Site and Museum in Baddeck.

6. … AND PLAYED A ROLE IN CANADA’S FIRST CONTROLLED AIRCRAFT.

Bras d’Or Lake was also the site of another historic moment in Canada when the AEA Silver Dart, one of the earliest planes, completed the first powered flight in Canada in February 1909. Bell had been experimenting with motor-powered aircraft since 1892 and conducted extensive tests with tetrahedron kites. Under Bell’s direction, co-designer John McCurdy successfully flew the Silver Dart half a mile over Nova Scotia. After further modifications in Bell’s workshop, the aircraft later flew over 22 miles. By summer 1909, the Silver Dart carried Canada’s first-ever passenger in the skies.

7. HE WAS KNOWN FOR HIS KINDNESS TO NEIGHBORS.

A popular tale in Baddeck recounts how, shortly after moving to the town, Bell noticed the editor of the local newspaper struggling with his wall-mounted telephone. Bell stepped in, unscrewed the earpiece, and removed a trapped fly by blowing it out. The shocked editor asked how the stranger knew how to fix the device, to which Bell replied, “because I am the inventor of that instrument.”

8. HE CREATED A METAL DETECTOR TO SAVE A PRESIDENT’S LIFE.

The initial use of the metal detector wasn’t for treasure hunting or gold mining but to save the life of a U.S. President. In July 1881, James Garfield was shot by Charles J. Guiteau at the Baltimore & Potomac Railway station. Doctors couldn’t locate the bullet lodged in the president’s back. Alexander Graham Bell, visiting the ailing Garfield, swiftly designed a metal detector to find the bullet. Inspired by Gustave Trouvé’s earlier invention, Bell created an electromagnetic device. However, the metal springs in Garfield’s mattress interfered with the detector—or so Bell later asserted—and the 20th U.S. president succumbed to an infection from the wound that September.

9. YOU CAN ALSO CREDIT HIM FOR NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE.

The modern National Geographic magazine owes much of its identity to Alexander Graham Bell. When Bell became the second president of the society, membership had dwindled to under a thousand, and the prestigious Washington D.C. clubhouse was struggling. Bell revitalized the society, particularly its journal, which, he noted, “everyone placed on their library shelf but few actually read.”

Bell reimagined the journal with the slogan, “The World And All That Is In It.” He emphasized vivid illustrations and high-quality photography, showcasing “images full of life and action … pictures that narrate a story.”

10. AFTER HIS PASSING, THE TELEPHONE INDUSTRY HONORED HIS LEGACY.

Alexander Graham Bell passed away on August 2, 1922, in Nova Scotia, his chosen home, with his devoted wife Mabel at his side. While a moment of silence is a traditional tribute for notable figures, Bell received an extraordinary honor after his funeral. Every telephone across North America fell silent for one minute, paying homage to “the man who gifted humanity the ability to communicate directly across distances.”