Fun Facts

· After 1895 aviation was Alexander Graham Bell’s primary interest. He assisted Samuel Langley in building tetrahedral kites that were capable of carrying a human being. In 1907 the two founded the Aerial Experiment Association as well as bringing together Glenn Curtiss, Francis Baldwin, and others. They devised the aileron control principal (which replaced “wing warping”), developed the hydroplane, and solved balance problems in flying machines. In that same year Curtiss furnished the motor for Bell’s man-caring kite.
· Believe it or not, Bell didn’t just stop at building kites that flew individuals. Astonishingly enough, he designed a hydrofoil boat that set the world record water-speed record in 1918.
· It was an extraordinary sensation to find that the Bell Company was involved in 587 lawsuits, five of which went to the Supreme Court, and Bell didn’t lose a single case.
· The magazine Science (later the official organ of the American Association for the Advancement of Science) was founded in 1880 because of Bell’s efforts.
· As National Geographic Society president from 1896 to 1904, he fostered the success of the society its publications.
· Alexander also worked on air conditioning, an improved strain of sheep to bear multiple lambs, an early iron lung, solar distillation of water, and sonar detection of icebergs.
· France and England were introduced to the telephone while Bell and his wife were on their honeymoon. · Alexander Graham Bell started the Volta Laboratory in Washington, D.C., with the Volta Price money(50,000 francs, about $10,000) awarded by France for his invention of the telephone. At the laboratory he and associates worked on various projects during the 1880s, including the photophone, induction balance, audiometer, and phonograph improvements. The photophone transmitted speech by light, using a primitive photoelectric cell. The induction balance (electric probe) located metal in the body. The audiometer indicated Bell’s continued interest in deafness. The first successful phonograph record, a shellac cylinder, as well as wax disks and cylinders, was produced.