Editing Alexander Graham Bell (section)

==Early life==
Bell was born in [[Edinburgh]], Scotland, on March 3, 1847, to [[Alexander Melville Bell]], a [[phonetician]], and Eliza Grace Bell (''née'' Symonds).<ref>{{cite news |title=Alexander M. Bell Dead. Father of Prof. A. G. Bell Developed Sign Language for Mutes |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1905/08/08/archives/alexander-m-bell-dead-father-of-prof-ag-bell-developed-sign.html |work=The New York Times |date=August 8, 1905 |access-date=September 18, 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Petrie |first=A. Roy |title=Alexander Graham Bell |location=Don Mills, Ontario |publisher=Fitzhenry & Whiteside |date=1975 |page=[https://archive.org/details/alexandergrahamb0000petr_q2x0/page/4 4] |isbn=978-0-88902-209-6 |url=https://archive.org/details/alexandergrahamb0000petr_q2x0/page/4 }}</ref> The family home was on South Charlotte Street in Edinburgh, where a stone inscription marks it as Bell's birthplace. He had two brothers: Melville James Bell (1845–1870) and Edward Charles Bell (1848–1867), both who died of [[tuberculosis]].<ref>[http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/bellhtml/belltime.html "Time Line of Alexander Graham Bell."] ''memory.loc.goiv.'' Retrieved: July 28, 2010. {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051024211905/http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/bellhtml/belltime.html |date=October 24, 2005 }}</ref> He was born as just "Alexander Bell". At age 10, however, he made a plea to his father to have a middle name like his two brothers.<ref>{{cite web|url = http://learn.fi.edu/learn/case-files/bell/agb.html|title = Call me Alexander Graham Bell|website = The Franklin Institute|access-date = February 24, 2015|date = January 14, 2014|archive-date = February 24, 2015|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150224032704/http://learn.fi.edu/learn/case-files/bell/agb.html|url-status = dead}}</ref>{{refn| Bell typically signed his name in full on his correspondence.|group=N}} For his 11th birthday, his father acquiesced and allowed him to adopt the name "Graham", chosen out of respect for Alexander Graham, a [[Canadians|Canadian]] being treated by his father who was also a family friend.<ref>{{cite book |last=Groundwater |first=Jennifer |title=Alexander Graham Bell: The Spirit of Invention |location=Calgary, Alberta |publisher=Altitude Publishing |date=2005 |page=[https://archive.org/details/alexandergrahamb0000grou/page/23 23] |isbn=978-1-55439-006-9 |url=https://archive.org/details/alexandergrahamb0000grou/page/23 }}</ref> To close relatives and friends he remained "Aleck".{{sfn|Bruce|1990|pp=17–19}} Bell and his siblings attended a [[Presbyterianism|Presbyterian Church]] in their youth.{{sfn|Bruce|1990|p=490}}

===First invention===
As a child, Bell displayed a curiosity about his world; he gathered botanical specimens and ran experiments at an early age. His best friend was Ben Herdman, a neighbour whose family operated a flour mill. At the age of 12, Bell built a homemade device that combined rotating paddles with sets of nail brushes, creating a simple [[dehusking]] machine that was put into operation at the mill and used steadily for a number of years.{{sfn|Bruce|1990|p=16}} In return, Ben's father John Herdman gave both boys the run of a small workshop in which to "invent".{{sfn|Bruce|1990|p=16}}

From his early years, Bell showed a sensitive nature and a talent for art, poetry, and music that his mother encouraged. With no formal training, he mastered the piano and became the family's pianist.{{sfn|Gray|2006|p=8}} Though normally quiet and introspective, he revelled in mimicry and "voice tricks" akin to [[ventriloquism]] that entertained family guests.{{sfn|Gray|2006|p=8}} Bell was also deeply affected by his mother's gradual deafness (she began to lose her hearing when he was 12), and learned a manual finger language so he could sit at her side and tap out silently the conversations swirling around the family parlour.{{sfn|Gray|2006|p=9}} He also developed a technique of speaking in clear, modulated tones directly into his mother's forehead, whereby she would hear him with reasonable clarity.<ref>{{cite book |last=Mackay |first=James |title=Sounds Out of Silence: A life of Alexander Graham Bell |location=Edinburgh, UK |publisher=Mainstream Publishing |date=1997 |page=25 |isbn=978-1-85158-833-6 }}</ref> Bell's preoccupation with his mother's deafness led him to study [[acoustics]].

His family was long associated with the teaching of elocution: his grandfather, Alexander Bell, in London, his uncle in [[Dublin]], and his father, in Edinburgh, were all elocutionists. His father published a variety of works on the subject, several of which are still well known, especially ''The Standard Elocutionist'' (1860),{{sfn|Gray|2006|p=8}} which appeared in Edinburgh in 1868. ''The Standard Elocutionist'' appeared in 168 British editions and sold over 250,000 copies in the United States alone. It explains methods to instruct [[deaf-mute]]s (as they were then known) to articulate words and read other people's lip movements to decipher meaning. Bell's father taught him and his brothers not only to write [[Visible Speech]] but to identify any symbol and its accompanying sound.{{sfn|Petrie|1975|p=7}} Bell became so proficient that he became a part of his father's public demonstrations and astounded audiences with his abilities. He could decipher Visible Speech representing virtually every language, including [[Latin]], [[Scottish Gaelic]], and even [[Sanskrit]], accurately reciting written tracts without any prior knowledge of their pronunciation.{{sfn|Petrie|1975|p=7}}

===Education===
As a young child, Bell, like his brothers, was schooled at home by his father. At an early age, he was enrolled at the [[Royal High School (Edinburgh)|Royal High School]] in Edinburgh. But he left at age 15, having completed only the first four forms.{{sfn|Mackay|1997|p=31}} His school record was undistinguished, marked by absenteeism and lacklustre grades. His main interest remained in the sciences, especially biology, while he treated other school subjects with indifference, to his father's dismay.{{sfn|Gray|2006|p=11}} Upon leaving school, Bell travelled to London to live with his grandfather, Alexander Bell, on [[Harrington Square]]. During the year he spent with his grandfather, a love of learning was born, with long hours spent in serious discussion and study. The elder Bell took great efforts to have his young pupil learn to speak clearly and with conviction, attributes he would need to become a teacher himself.<ref>{{cite book |last=Town |first=Florida |title=Alexander Graham Bell |location=Toronto, Ontario |publisher=Grolier |date=1988 |page=7 |isbn=978-0-7172-1950-6 }}</ref> At age 16, Bell secured a position as a "pupil-teacher" of [[elocution]] and music at Weston House Academy in [[Elgin, Moray]], Scotland. Although enrolled as a student in Latin and Greek, he instructed classes himself in return for board and £10 per session.{{sfn|Bruce|1990|p=37}} The next year, he attended the [[University of Edinburgh]], joining his brother Melville, who had enrolled there the previous year. In 1868, Bell completed his matriculation exams and was accepted for admission to [[University College London]], though he did not complete his studies, as his family emigrated to Canada in 1870 following the deaths of his brothers Edward and Melville from tuberculosis.<ref>{{cite web |title=Alexander Graham Bell |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Alexander-Graham-Bell |website=Encyclopaedia Britannica |access-date=17 March 2025}}</ref>

===First experiments with sound===
Bell's father encouraged his interest in speech and, in 1863, took his sons to see a unique [[automaton]] developed by Sir [[Charles Wheatstone]] based on the earlier work of [[Wolfgang von Kempelen|Baron Wolfgang von Kempelen]].{{sfn|Groundwater|2005|p=25}} The rudimentary "mechanical man" simulated a human voice. Bell was fascinated by the machine, and after he obtained a copy of von Kempelen's book, published in German, and had laboriously translated it, he and Melville built their own automaton head. Their father, highly interested in their project, offered to pay for any supplies and spurred the boys on with the enticement of a "big prize" if they were successful.{{sfn|Groundwater|2005|p=25}} While his brother constructed the throat and [[larynx]], Bell tackled the more difficult task of recreating a realistic skull. His efforts resulted in a remarkably lifelike head that could "speak", albeit only a few words.{{sfn|Groundwater|2005|p=25}} The boys would carefully adjust the "lips" and when a [[bellows]] forced air through the [[Vertebrate trachea|windpipe]], a very recognizable ''Mama'' ensued, to the delight of neighbours who came to see the invention.{{sfn|Petrie|1975|pp=7–9}}

Intrigued by the results of the automaton, Bell continued to experiment with a live subject, the family's [[Skye Terrier]], Trouve.{{sfn|Petrie|1975|p=9}} After he taught it to growl continuously, Bell would reach into its mouth and manipulate the dog's lips and [[vocal cords]] to produce a crude-sounding "Ow ah oo ga ma ma". With little convincing, visitors believed his dog could articulate "How are you, grandmama?"<ref>{{Cite web|last=Messenger|first=Stephen|title=Before Inventing The Telephone, Alexander Graham Bell Tried To Teach His Dog To Talk|url=https://www.thedodo.com/before-inventing-the-telephone-489117573.html|access-date=2021-01-30|website=The Dodo|date=March 29, 2014 |language=en}}</ref> Indicative of his playful nature, his experiments convinced onlookers that they saw a "talking dog".{{sfn|Groundwater|2005|p=30}} These initial forays into experimentation with sound led Bell to undertake his first serious work on the transmission of sound, using [[tuning fork]]s to explore [[resonance]].

At age 19, Bell wrote a report on his work and sent it to philologist [[Alexander John Ellis|Alexander Ellis]], a colleague of his father.{{sfn|Groundwater|2005|p=30}} Ellis immediately wrote back indicating that the experiments were similar to existing work in Germany, and also lent Bell a copy of [[Hermann von Helmholtz]]'s work, ''The Sensations of Tone as a Physiological Basis for the Theory of Music''.<ref>{{cite book |last=Shulman |first=Seth |title=The Telephone Gambit: Chasing Alexander Bell's Secret |location=New York |publisher=Norton & Company |date=2008 |page=[https://archive.org/details/telephonegambitc00shul/page/46 46] |isbn=978-0-393-06206-9 |url=https://archive.org/details/telephonegambitc00shul }}</ref>

Dismayed to find that groundbreaking work had already been undertaken by Helmholtz, who had conveyed vowel sounds by means of a similar tuning fork "contraption", Bell pored over the book. Working from his own erroneous mistranslation of a French edition,<ref name="DCB" /> Bell fortuitously then made a deduction that would underpin all his future work on transmitting sound, reporting: "Without knowing much about the subject, it seemed to me that if vowel sounds could be produced by electrical means, so could consonants, so could articulate speech." He also later remarked: "I thought that Helmholtz had done it&nbsp;... and that my failure was due only to my ignorance of electricity. It was a valuable blunder&nbsp;... If I had been able to read German in those days, I might never have commenced my experiments!"<ref>{{cite book |last=MacKenzie |first=Catherine |author-link=Catherine MacKenzie |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iFOcw4lN_ZYC |title=Alexander Graham Bell |location=Boston, Massachusetts |publisher=Grosset and Dunlap |date=2003 |orig-year=1928 |page=41 |isbn=978-0-7661-4385-2 }}</ref>{{sfn|Groundwater|2005|p=31}}{{sfn|Shulman|2008|pp=46–48}}{{refn| Helmholtz's ''The Sensations of Tone'' is credited with inspiring Bell, at the age of 23, to further his studies of electricity and electromagnetism.<ref name="DCB" />|group=N}}

===Family tragedy===
In 1865, when the Bell family moved to London,<ref>{{cite book |last=Micklos |first=John Jr. |title=Alexander Graham Bell: Inventor of the Telephone |location=New York |publisher=[[HarperCollins]] |date=2006 |page=8 |isbn=978-0-06-057618-9 }}</ref> Bell returned to Weston House as an assistant master and, in his spare hours, continued experiments on sound using a minimum of laboratory equipment. Bell concentrated on experimenting with electricity to convey sound and later installed a [[telegraph]] wire from his room in Somerset College to that of a friend.{{sfn|Bruce|1990|p=45}} Throughout late 1867, his health faltered mainly through exhaustion. His brother Edward was similarly affected by [[tuberculosis]]. While Bell recovered (by then referring to himself in correspondence as "A. G. Bell") and served the next year as an instructor at Somerset College, [[Bath, Somerset|Bath]], England, his brother's condition deteriorated. Edward never recovered. Upon his brother's death, Bell returned home in 1867. Melville had married and moved out. With aspirations to obtain a degree at [[University College London]], Bell considered his next years preparation for the degree examinations, devoting his spare time to studying.

Helping his father in Visible Speech demonstrations and lectures brought Bell to Susanna E. Hull's private school for the deaf in [[South Kensington]], London. His first two pupils were [[deaf-mute]] girls who made remarkable progress under his tutelage. While Melville seemed to achieve success on many fronts, including opening his own elocution school, applying for a patent on an invention, and starting a family, Bell continued as a teacher. In May 1870, Melville died from complications of tuberculosis, causing a family crisis. His father had also experienced a debilitating illness earlier in life and been restored to health by convalescence in [[Newfoundland and Labrador|Newfoundland]]. Bell's parents embarked upon a long-planned move when they realized that their remaining son was also sickly. Acting decisively, Alexander Melville Bell asked Bell to arrange for the sale of all the family property,{{sfn|Bruce|1990|pp=67–28}}{{refn|The family pet was given to his brother's family.|group=N}} conclude all his brother's affairs (Bell took on his last student, curing a pronounced lisp),{{sfn|Bruce|1990|p=68}} and join his father and mother in setting out for Canada. Reluctantly, Bell also had to conclude a relationship with Marie Eccleston, who, as he had surmised, was not prepared to leave England with him.{{sfn|Groundwater|2005|p=33}}