He rang in a wired world:

87th death anniversary of Alexander Graham Bell

by Pramod DE SILVA

"There cannot be mental atrophy in any person who continues to observe, to remember what he observes, and to seek answers for his unceasing hows and whys about things."

This was Alexander Graham Bell's vision for life. The man who invented the telephone in 1876 had a zest for life and for inventing things.

True to his beliefs, he kept himself occupied well into old age.

Born in Scotland on March 3, 1847, he went to London in 1867, and entered the University. He went to Canada with his father in 1870.

In 1872 he took up his residence in the United States, introducing with success his father's system of deaf-mute instruction, and became professor of vocal physiology in Boston University.

He had been interested for many years in the transmission of sound by electricity, and had devised many apparatus for the purpose, but the first public exhibition of his invention was in Philadelphia in 1876.

He was just 29. There are pages from his experimental notebook from March 10, 1876, describing the first successful experiment with the telephone, during which he spoke through the instrument to his assistant the famous words, "Mr.Watson-Come here-I want to see you."

These have become very famous words.

By 1878, Bell had set up the first telephone exchange in New Haven, Connecticut through his company Bell. By 1884, long distance connections were made between Boston, Massachusetts and New York City.

Today, there are billions of wired (fixed line) and wireless telephones in the world, the latter being an invention even Bell did not foresee.

We can dial a number in New York just as easily as we dial a number in the next town.

The telephone has made the world a smaller place and now, with the right equipment, you can see the person at the other end of the line.

He later invented the "photophone," in which a vibratory beam of light is substituted for a wire in conveying speech.

This was the foundation for today's lasers and fibre optic cables.

In case you thought that his interest was limited to the telephone, he took a keen interest in kites, airplanes, tetrahedral structures, sheep-breeding, artificial respiration, desalinization and water distillation and even hydrofoils.

In 1919 he built a hydrofoil that set a world water-speed record that was not broken until 1963.

He improved Thomas Alva Edison's phonograph as well.

Bell also designed a vacuum jacket that would be the forerunner of today's iron lung and an audio meter to detect hearing loss.

He left his legacy to the world. The Alexander Graham Bell Family Papers at the Library of Congress comprise a selection of approximately 4700 items (totaling about 38,000 images).

This contains about 4650 items consisting of correspondence, scientific notebooks, journals, blueprints, articles, and photographs documenting Bell's invention of the telephone and his involvement in the first telephone company, his family life, his interest in the education of the deaf, and his aeronautical and other scientific research.

This can be accessed online as well.

This year marks the 87th death anniversary of Bell, who died on August 2, 1922.