Nikola Tesla was certainly an eccentric scientist, but many believe that his inventions were more outstanding than those of Alexander Bell or Thomas Edison. His electric cars, wild imagination and eccentric style became the symbol of the "mad genius". Here are some of his craziest inventions. 1. Wireless transmission of electricity. About 120 years ago, in 1893, Tesla demonstrated the wireless transmission of electricity by lighting a series of phosphorus light bulbs in a process called electrodynamic induction. He dreamed that one day such technology would help us transmit electricity over long distances in the atmosphere, powering remote areas necessary energy for a comfortable stay. It is only now, more than a century later, that large companies are becoming interested in applying non-radiative energy transfer to such things as Cell phones, so that we can charge batteries without power cables. 2. Perpetual motion machine In 1931, Nikola conducted an interesting experiment. Instead of a traditional engine internal combustion he installed a small box with two rods sticking out of it into a Pierce-Arrow car. After that, the car worked without recharging for a whole week. Eyewitnesses say that Tesla managed to accelerate the car to 150 kilometers per hour. But since Tesla burned his entire archive under the pretext “humanity is not yet ready for the greatness of my inventions,” we probably don’t know what was inside that box. 3. Death Ray. In the 1930s, Nikola Tesla is said to have invented a particle beam weapon called the "death ray." In theory, the device could generate an intensely directed beam of energy that could be used to destroy enemy aircraft, armies, and other things. However, the death ray was never released by Tesla, although he tried to sell it to various military branches. 4. Robotics. Tesla imagined that in the future, an entire race of robots could safely and efficiently do the jobs of humans. In 1898, he demonstrated a radio-controlled boat he had invented, which many consider the “birth of robotics.” He predicted that soon the world will be filled with smart machines, robots, various sensors and autonomous systems. 5. A machine that causes an earthquake. In the same year, 1898, Tesla announced that he had developed an oscillation generator that shook the building and everything that was near it. The device itself weighed about a kilogram, but the scientist was able to adjust the vibration time at such a frequency that each small vibration added more energy to the building's wave bends. With enough small shocks, even the largest building could be torn apart. Realizing the potential danger of his invention, he smashed the generator with a hammer and asked his employees, if anything happened, to declare complete ignorance about the causes of the earthquake. Until now, most of Nikola Tesla’s developments remain a mystery to us. Maybe, in truth, the time has not yet come for us to understand and comprehend the full depth of the great genius.
Alexander Graham Bell was born on March 3, 1847 in Edinburgh. He added the word Graham to his name later as a sign of respect for his family friend, Alexander Graham.
Bell's father's name was Alexander Melville Bell, he was a professor. Bell's mother's name was Eliza Grace. The Bell family was famous for a long time and was associated with advances in the field of communication and rhetoric, in particular the approach to solving this problem among people with disabilities, deaf and deaf-mute people. Father Bell published a number of works on this topic, which examined methods of communication with deaf-mute people, for example, methods of “lip reading” and others were considered in detail. From childhood, Alexander showed increased interest to inventions and was very inquisitive. His first invention (at the age of 12) was a mechanism combining the design of rotating blades with a set of metal teeth. The result was a sorting machine or peeling machine which was successfully used long years at the neighbors' mill and best friend Bella's name is Ben Herdman. For this invention, the very young Bell and his friend received access to a small workshop located on a farm.
In addition to his natural passion for inventions, Bell was talented in completely other areas, such as poetry, art, and music. He played the piano fluently (and learned to play on his own), and also achieved success in theatrical art: mimicry and ventriloquism. Alexander Graham Bell studied at the Royal Higher School Edinburgh, from which he graduated at the age of 15. After which Bell went to live with his great-grandfather in London. At the age of 16, he received a position as teacher of eloquence and music at Weston House Academy, and already taught at Weston House Academy in Scotland. After this, Bell studied at Edinburgh University for one year with his older brother.
Bell carried out his first experiments and inventions in the field of working with sound waves back in 1863, starting with the manufacture of an artificial head that quite accurately imitated the skull and vocal cords ordinary person. The purpose of creating this “simulator” was to try to reproduce human speech and voice. However, the device was capable of “speaking” only a few simple words, including the word “Mom”, familiar to many children (using the example of modern talking dolls). Afterwards there were experiments with a domestic dog and attempts to teach it to “speak”. Directly to the transmission of sound waves, experiments took place with a tuning fork to understand the phenomenon of resonance.
In 1865, the Bell family moved to London, where Alexander Bell continued his experiments with sound at almost complete absence equipment. In his experiments, he focused on knowledge of the relationship between electricity and sound waves by constructing a telegraph cable connecting two adjacent rooms in a college. At the age of 19, Bell wrote reports on his research, which he sent for review to his father's friend, philologist Alexander Ellis. He, having familiarized himself with the works, sent a response saying that similar research was carried out in music theory by the German Hermann Helmholtz. He even included in his response copies of Helmholtz's works, which Bell began to methodically study. From Helmholtz's work, he drew the main conclusions about the relationship between sound waves and electricity, especially the possibility of transmitting different waves by converting them into electrical impulses.
In 1870, the Bells settled in Brantford, Ontario. While still in Scotland, Bell began to become interested in the possibility of transmitting signals via telecommunications channels. In Canada, he continued to invent, in particular, he created an electric piano, adapted to transmit music over wires. Upon returning home to Brantford, Bell continued experiments with his “harmonic telegraph”. The concept is based on the idea of transmitting a message through a single cable, and for each message Bell planned to use its own separate cable. All this was possible provided we worked on the signal transmitter and receiver. In October 1872, Alexander Bell opened his own private school"Vocal Physiology and Mechanics of Speech", where he himself works as a private teacher. The school was a success among the deaf and deaf and mute people by dialing for short term class of 30 students. Most of scientific works and Bell's inventions were dedicated to improving the means of communication for the deaf and dumb. He lectured and taught deaf-mute students. He taught many of them to speak. One of his most gifted students was Mabel Hubbard. She was 15 years old when Bell began teaching her to speak. On her 18th birthday they were engaged. Since then, this day has always been celebrated by them as a special holiday. After a year and a half, Bell had saved enough money to convince Mabel’s parents that they could already become husband and wife. In 1877, Bell married his student. Mabel once wrote to her mother: “Every day I get to know a new side of him, find something to love and admire.” In one of her subsequent letters, she spoke more practically: “I am beginning to realize that my happiness in life will depend on how well and tasty I can feed him.” This remark turned out to be prophetic, because within a few years Bell began to weigh more than 100 kilograms, almost 40 kilograms more than he weighed on his wedding day. Alexander Graham Bell never called his wife and mother-in-law: they were both deaf.
Bell often went on business trips, and in one of his letters Alexander wrote to his wife: “I hate it when you’re not around... Let’s resolve this issue once and for all: we should be together all the time.” Perhaps the only reason for conflicts in the Bell family was Alexander’s habit of working only at night. His working day ended around 4 o'clock in the morning. In her diary, Mabel wrote: “The most serious quarrels between us were only because of this.” Then she, however, added: “No, after all, perhaps the most serious ones flared up in the morning when I had to get up...” Several times Bell tried to change the routine of his working day to please his wife, but these attempts were unsuccessful . During this period Bell came close to greatest invention In my life. In 1874, work with the “harmonic telegraph” brought high-quality and outstanding results. This summer, Bell experimented with a “phonautograph,” a device that uses a needle to convert sound vibrations into graphic form. The principle of operation of the device: a sensitive membrane with a movable needle is in contact with an acoustic cone. The cone was covered with soot or paper, due to which sound vibrations were visually “marked” on the surface of the cone. In this case, sound vibrations passed through the membrane and were transmitted to the needle, which carried out the process of “graphic representation”. The phonautograph was invented in 1857 by Edouard Leon Scott de Martinville in France. With the help of this apparatus, Bell generated an electrical wave signal, which was converted from the corresponding acoustic one. He also put forward the theory that an electrical impulse can be converted back into a sound impulse using numerous electrical conductors(wires) configured to different frequencies similar to the principle of a musical harp. However, there were no working models that at least somehow confirmed these theories. At the same time, research was being done to improve telegraph technology to transmit multiple messages without the need for costly upgrades to existing transmission lines. Two people worked in this direction famous inventors: Thomas Edison and Elisha Gray. Bell received financial support from Thomas Sanders and Gardiner Hubbard, his lover's father, when he told them that he was working in parallel on creating a device for transmitting multiple messages simultaneously. Despite the disadvantage necessary knowledge and lack of equipment, Bell continued his attempts, meeting with various famous scientists. Soon, thanks to financial support, he hired an experienced mechanic and electrical scientist, Thomas A. Watson, as an assistant. Together they began experiments with acoustic telegraphy. On June 2, 1875, during an experiment, Watson accidentally broke one of the many wires in the device's circuit. At the same time, at the other end of the chain of wires, all the necessary overtones that make up the speech signal were still received. This is what allowed Bell to make the important conclusion that one wire is enough to transmit voice, and not several (as was originally thought). As a result of the experiments, some semblance of a telephone was obtained, which transmitted fuzzy sounds vaguely reminiscent of a voice. In 1875, Bell patented the invention of the acoustic telegraph. He also experimented with a "water transmitter", a device that was supposed to transmit voice using aquatic environment. These experiments overlapped with similar ones conducted by Elisha Gray. In this regard, disagreements arose regarding the use of the device and the patent for the invention. On March 10, 1876, Bell managed to transmit the message “Mr. Watson - Come here - I want to see you” using a “water transmitter”, and the words were distinct and “clean”. This was achieved by changing electrical resistance in the circuit of the transmitting device. Bell was accused of stealing the telephone invention from Elisha Gray, but he stated that he used the "transmitter" only after receiving his own patent and only as a demonstration of the principle of the telephone. Later, Alexander continued experiments with the telephone based on the principle of electromagnetic fields. The telephone was patented as an invention by Alexander Bell, and was based on the principle of variable resistance.
Bell continued experimenting with a working telephone model at home in Brantford. On August 3, 1876, he gathered a group of witnesses, including members of his family, to whom he demonstrated in practice the transmission of voice messages over a distance of 6 km via an improvised wire laid in a tunnel along with telegraph ones. This was the first public proof of a working telephone. This was followed by a series of public demonstrations and lectures on a working prototype of the device to the scientific community. The phone was also shown to the Brazilian Emperor Pedro II, the famous Scottish scientist William Thomson, and Her Majesty Queen Victoria. The device was undoubtedly recognized as a revolutionary invention. In 1877, the Bell Telephone Company was founded, and within 10 summer period more than 150,000 Americans purchased a phone for personal use. Bell engineers also made a number of improvements to the telephone, for example, in 1879 a patent was acquired for the use of a carbon microphone, which made it possible to use the telephone for more long distances without having to raise your voice when speaking.
At the end of 1879, the Western Union company entered into an agreement with the inventor's partners. A united firm, the Bell Company, was created, the bulk of the shares of which belonged to Bell. Soon the price of one share of the company rose to a thousand dollars. In subsequent years, phones began to be actively improved.
In 1888 he took part in the creation of the National Geographical Society USA. He became the second president National Geographic, who devoted a lot of strength and energy to the development of the Society
In January 1915, Bell organized telephone communication between continents, he called from the AT&T office in New York to Thomas Watson in San Francisco. Thus, telephone communication covered a distance of 5500 km. Communication and audibility were much better and clearer than 38 years ago (at the time of the first conversation in history).
The teacher and his student lived a happy family life together for 45 years. Bell died on August 2, 1922 at his Beinn Brae estate near the town of Baddeck (Nova Scotia, Canada). Alexander Bell suffered from a serious illness and long time was bedridden. That day he came to his senses, saw Mabel sitting next to his bed, and smiled at her. “Don’t leave me,” Mabel asked. With light squeezes of his fingers, he answered her: “Never.” This was the last silent message from the inventor of the telephone, and Alexander Bell peacefully passed away.
It's interesting that:
After his death, all telephones in the United States (more than 13 million) were switched off for a minute of silence to honor his memory.
Name: Alexander Graham Bell
Age: 75 years old
Activity: scientist, inventor
Family status: was married
Alexander Bell: biography
The personality of the scientist Alexander Bell is truly legendary, because it was this genius who invented the metal detector, seaplane and telephone - objects that became integral part Everyday life modern society.
Childhood and youth
Alexander Graham Bell was born in the Scottish city of Edinburgh on March 3, 1847, into a family of philologists. The scientist's grandfather was the founder of the school of oratory and the author of the book "Fine Passages." It is noteworthy that my grandfather began his career as a shoemaker, but his thirst for beauty brought him to the stage.
At first the man performed in the theater, then became a reader, reciting excerpts from plays. Success inspired him so much that he began giving diction lessons and opened his own school of oratory in London. Thus began a family business, which was continued by the inventor’s father, Alexander Melville Bell, who at one time even published a treatise on the art of eloquence.
The future scientist grew up in an atmosphere of music and a reverent attitude towards sounds human voice. At the age of 14 he moved to London to live with his grandfather. And three years later, after receiving medical and philosophical education in Edinburgh and Wurzburg, he had already begun independent life teaching music and oratory at Weston House Academy.
Having thoroughly studied acoustics and physics human speech, Bell became an assistant to the head of the family, who by that time was working on a method for developing competent diction.
It is known that the mother of the creator of the seaplane was hard of hearing and it was she who was destined for all the new products in the field of studying sounds. My father came up with the “Visual Speech” system, in which speech sounds were indicated by written symbols and pictures indicating what facial expressions should be at that time speech apparatus(some transcription of words, but for people who have never heard sounds).
After Alexander's brothers died of tuberculosis, the family moved first to Canada in 1870 and then to America. There they continued working with people and sound. Work in Boston was going well. The younger Bell opened his own school in the city, where he taught the basics of family methods to other teachers.
As soon as Alexander Graham had a stable source of income, the scientist returned to experiments in transmitting voice over wires, which he had become interested in back in England. Bell created a small laboratory in which he experimented at night, in his free time from classes.
Among the patients who had their hearing restored was the scientist's future wife, Mabel, the daughter of businessman Gardner Hubbard, and the five-year-old son of a leather merchant named Thomas Sanders.
Inventions and science
In 1876, at the World's Scientific Exhibition in Philadelphia, Bell presented his new invention called the “telephone.” On March 7 of the same year, Alexander received a patent for his invention. It is noteworthy that at the exhibition, representatives of the scientific community called the telephone a useless toy.
Bell, in order to pay off his debts, was ready to sell the invention for $100 thousand to Western Union, but Western Union representatives did not consider the purchase profitable. Later, WU management realized that they had made a mistake and offered cooperation to the scientist.
It is also worth noting that on initial stages the telephone was not perfect - the device distorted the sound, and it was possible to talk with it only at a distance of 250 meters. Therefore, the inventor continued to constantly improve the device. In February 1880, Bell and his assistant invented a device called a photophone, designed to transmit sounds over a distance using light.
In 1881, the scientist improved a metal detector created in the 19th century to search for ore-bearing veins. The appearance of the metal detector was facilitated by tragic events. In 1901 Bell invented the pyramidal kite. It consisted of four triangular sides. The device was incredibly light, strong and durable. According to some reports, he could lift a person into the air.
Together with his wife, Bell created the Experimental Aeronautics Association in 1907. In 1909, an airplane called the Silver Dart was built. The airplane made its first flight on February 23, 1909. This date is considered to be the birthday of Canadian aviation.
In 1919, according to the scientist’s drawings, the HD-4 boat was built, which set a new water speed record. It is known that this hydrofoil swimmer reached speeds of up to 113 kilometers per hour.
Business
At the end of 1879, the Western Union company entered into an agreement with the inventor's partners. This is how the united Bell Company appeared, the bulk of the shares of which belonged to Alexander. It is reliably known that the price of one share of the company was $1 thousand. This organization laid the foundation for the development of telephony and the emergence of new telephone companies. By 1900, 1.5 million telephones were installed in the United States, and two years later - 13 million.
Bell looked to the future and provided financial support to young professionals to train new personnel. In total, by 1900, more than two and a half thousand patents were issued for inventions related to telephony. With the money he received from his inventions, Bell opened an institute named after the Italian physicist Alessandro Volta.
Bell also did not forget about publicity. Besides scientific activity, a scientist was engaged in philanthropy and was a naturalist. It is known that Alexander participated in the creation of the National geographical community and founded the National Geographic magazine, which is still published today.
As a result, Alexander Graham received worldwide recognition, and his company was and remains to this day a world leader in the production of telecommunications, computer and electronic systems. A scientist once said that the day will come when a person will be able to see an image of the person he is talking to on his phone, and that day has long come.
The company founded by Bell remains true to its founder. Innovative technologies, such as the C++ programming language, the first prototypes of DNA machines and the space map dark matter- all this was created in scientific laboratories his institutions.
Personal life
Most of Bell's scientific works and inventions were devoted to improving the means of communication. It is also known that for a couple of years the scientist lectured and studied with deaf-mute students. Thanks to these activities, the scientific genius met his first and only wife, Mabel Hubbard.
They met when the chosen one of the creator of the phone was barely 15 years old. On the day of their beloved’s 18th birthday, their engagement took place. Since then, this date has become a special holiday for lovers. After a year and a half, Bell had saved a sufficient amount of money and convinced Mabel's parents that he financial position allows him to provide for both their daughter and their future children together. As a result, Hubbart's father and mother agreed to the wedding, and Mabel and Alexander became husband and wife.
In Mabel’s correspondence with her mother, the girl often wrote that every day she got to know Bell from a new, hitherto unseen side. These small discoveries let the young lady know what she had done right choice and now there is a person next to her whom she can trust.
Hubbart expressed his boundless love through food, so it is not surprising that a couple of years after the wedding, the scientist’s weight reached 100 kg (40 kg more than he weighed before marriage).
After the wedding, which took place in 1877, the newlyweds spent Honeymoon in the town of Niagara Falls, located in the southern part of Ontario (Canada). Bell often went on business trips. During the separation, the scientist missed his wife and, in order not to torment his soul, decided to take Mabel with him on all trips.
It is also worth noting that the only reason for conflicts in the Bell family was Alexander’s habit of working only at night. The scientist’s working day ended at 4 o’clock in the morning, and until that time Hubbart dutifully waited for her husband in the bedchamber, since she could not sleep without his presence nearby.
A couple of times Alexander tried to change his work schedule to please his wife, but these attempts were unsuccessful. Over the years married life the chosen one gave birth to her husband two daughters and two sons, but both boys died in early childhood. Their deaths were a big blow for the couple, but Mabel was philosophical about it, declaring that her sons would remain with her forever, in her memories.
The teacher and his student lived together for 45 happy years family life.
Death
Bell suffered from a serious illness for a couple of years and was bedridden for a long time. On the day of his death, the businessman came to his senses only for a couple of minutes. Then Alexander saw his beloved Mabel sitting near his bed and smiled at her. The woman tearfully asked not to leave her, but there was no response from the creator of the phone. The man weakly squeezed his wife’s hand and closed his eyes forever.
The famous inventor died on August 2, 1922 (75 years old), on his estate in the province of Nova Scotia, located in eastern Canada. It is reliably known that on August 4, 1922, all telephones in the United States were turned off for a minute. Thus, the country paid its last respects to the man who gave people the opportunity to communicate with each other, regardless of distance.
The name of the scientist is immortalized in his inventions and documentaries, which are based on biographical facts from the life of a genius. Few people know, but in 2002 the US Congress admitted that the phone was not invented by Bell, but by the Italian Antonio Meucci. A man created an invention for a couple of years before Alexander, but did not receive a patent for it and died in poverty. After this news, the world science community it was believed that Bell simply took advantage of his competitor’s failure and appropriated his discovery for himself.
- The inventor of the telephone, Alexander Bell, suggested using the word “Ahoy” from the vocabulary of German sailors as a telephone greeting. Later he proposed the more traditional “Hello”, which penetrated into the Russian language, changing to “Hello!”
- Alexander Bell, in addition to inventing innovative devices, tried to teach his dog to speak.
- Being a deeply religious man, Alexander Graham Bell sincerely believed that his invention - the telephone - would help communicate with the souls of the dead.
- The inventor of the telephone never called his mother and wife: they were both deaf.
Inventions
- 1858 - Machine for peeling grain
- 1874 - Phonautograph
- 1876 - Telephone
- 1879 - Audiometer
- 1880 - Photophone
- 1881 - Metal detector, vacuum pump
- 1901 - Pyramid Kite
- 1909 - Airplane "Silver Dart"
- 1919 - Hydrofoil HD-4
On March 3, 1847, the inventor of the telephone and founder of the American company Bell Labs Alexander Bell. “When one door closes, another opens. And we often do this...
On March 3, 1847, Alexander Bell, the inventor of the telephone and founder of the American company Bell Labs, was born in Edinburgh. “When one door closes, another opens. And we often look with such greedy attention at a closed door that we do not even notice the one that has opened.” Alexander Bell.
He became interested in science as a child, and then he began experimenting with sound. After moving to Canada and then to the USA, Bell continued his research and even created an electric piano that could be used to transmit music over wires. And in 1876 he received a patent for the telephone (according to alternative version, the inventor of the telephone is an American Italian origin Antonio Meucci).
The invention was not perfect - it distorted the sound and it was possible to talk with it only at a distance of 250 meters. Therefore, the inventor continued to constantly improve the device. Bell soon founded the Bell Company with two partners. His company marked the beginning of the development of telephony in the United States and the emergence of new telephone companies. By 1900, 1.5 million telephones were installed in the United States, and two years later - 13 million.
Alexander Bell died on August 2, 1922. To honor the memory of the inventor, telephone service in the United States was turned off for one minute.
The biography of Alexander Bell is 100% consistent with all book canons in the fields of psychology, economics and business. Surprising but true! Most often, great discoveries are made against all odds, painfully overcoming stereotypes and the tradition of humanity towards conservatism. But it was as if someone was directing the fate of the inventor of the telephone from above, promptly providing a fresh piece of the puzzle. And Alexander was clearly aware of this himself, gratefully accepting everything that life provided him.
Psychology. Family. Upbringing. Eternal values.
Alexander Graham Bell was born in the Scottish city of Edinburgh on March 3, 1847, into a family of philologists. His grandfather was the founder of a school of oratory known throughout the country and the author of the book “Graceful Passages.” Actually, my grandfather started his career as a shoemaker. However, his craving for beauty brought him to the stage. At first he performed in the theater, then became a reader: he recited excerpts from Shakespeare's plays. Success inspired him so much that he began giving diction lessons and opened his own school of oratory in London. Thus began a family business, which was continued by the younger Bellas.
Alexander's father became famous professor rhetoric in University of London. The future inventor grew up in an atmosphere of music and a reverent attitude towards the sounds of the human voice. At the age of 14 he moved to London to live with his grandfather. And three years later, after receiving medical and philosophical education in Edinburgh and Wurzburg, he began an independent life, teaching music and elocution at Weston House Academy. Having thoroughly studied the acoustics and physics of human speech, Bell became an assistant to his father, Melville Bell, who by that time was actively working on methods for developing competent diction.
Alexander Bell's mother was hard of hearing. It was she who was destined for all the new products in the field of studying sounds. My father came up with the “Visual Speech” system, in which speech sounds were indicated by written symbols and pictures, indicating what kind of facial expression the speech apparatus should have at that time - in fact, what kind of accordion the tongue and lips should form. Some transcription of words, but for people who have never heard the sound. With her help, the Bells began to teach deaf and dumb people in England to speak.
The tragedy that happened in their family: Alexander’s brothers died of tuberculosis, forced them to move in 1870, first to Canada, then to America. There they continued working with people and sound. Work in Boston was going well. The younger Bell opened his own school in the city, where he taught the basics of family methods to other teachers. And as soon as he had a stable source of income, he returned to his experiments in voice transmission over wires, which he became interested in back in England. Bell created a small laboratory in which he experimented at night, in his free time from classes. Among the wards young teacher turned out to be Mabel Hubbard, the daughter of businessman Gardner Hubbard.
She lost her hearing at the age of four after suffering from scarlet fever. But Alexander Bell managed to teach her to speak. He subsequently married Mabel and they lived 45 years of happy family life, and with her father Gardner they became close friends, moreover, Gardner always happily financed many of his new relative's projects. Another of Alexander Bell's patients was the five-year-old son of a leather merchant named Thomas Sanders. Subsequently, Sanders, together with Hubbard, became the people who gave money to promote the great invention.