Alexander Graham Bell

Hello. My name is Alexander Graham Bell, but my family called me Aleck. I was born a long, long time ago. When I was a little boy, I loved to listen to all the sounds around me. I especially loved thinking about voices. My mother was hard of hearing, and it was difficult for her to hear things clearly. I really wanted to find a way to help her, and other people too. I would spend hours thinking about how sounds travel through the air, kind of like when you drop a little stone in a pond and see the ripples move across the water.

When I grew up, I became a teacher for people who couldn't hear. I loved helping my students. I also had a special workshop where I liked to build all sorts of new things. I spent a lot of time working with wires and magnets. I had a big idea. I wanted to send a person's voice through a wire so it could travel from one room to another. One very special day in the year 1876, my big idea finally worked. I made a machine called the telephone. I was able to speak to my helper, Mr. Watson, even though he was in a different room. He could hear my voice through the wire.

My telephone was like magic. It let people talk to each other even when they were very far apart. My invention helped connect people all over the world. I lived to be 75 years old, and I am so happy that I never stopped being curious and trying new things. The next time you see someone talking on a phone, you can remember my big idea that helped bring voices closer together.