"ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL'S WILL FILED FOR PROBATE"

MABEL BELL GETS TELEPHONE INVENTOR'S 'ENTIRE ESTATE'

Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) On September 14, 1922, "the will of Alexander Graham Bell*, inventor of the telephone, was filed ... for probate."

The Evening Star reports that Mr. Bell "leaves his entire estate...to his widow, Mabel Gardiner Bell**, absolutely and without conditions."

Executors of the inventor's will include Mrs. Bell and his cousin Charles G. Bell.  The will was executed in Nova Scotia in 1898.

*Alexander Graham Bell (1847-1922) was born in Edinburgh, Scotland & became interested in the science of sound because his mother & wife were deaf. 

**Mabel Gardiner Hubbard Bell (1857-1923) was born in Cambridge, MA & became her husband's most important influence.  She lost her hearing at age 4 due to complications of scarlet fever. 

SOURCES

"Alexander Graham Bell," Ducksters, www.ducksters.com/

"Dr. Bell Leaves Entire Estate To His Widow," The Evening Star, September 14, 1922, Chronicling America, Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/ 

   

 

Mabel Hubbard Bell

Library of Congress Photo (1917)

"AMONG THE FOREMOST AMERICANS OF ALL GENERATIONS"

ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL DEAD AT 75

Sydney, Nova Scotia (JFK+50) On August 2, 1922, Dr. Alexander Graham Bell** passed away at Beinn Bhreagh**, his summer estate and laboratories located near Baddeck, Nova Scotia.

The inventor of the telephone had recently suffered from poor health, but his friends were shocked at the news of his death.

President Warren G. Harding sent a telegram to Mrs. Mabel Gardiner Hubbard Bell in which he describes her husband as "among the foremost Americans of all generations." 

*Alexander Graham Bell (1847-1922) was born in Edinburgh, Scotland & educated at the University of Edinburgh & University College London.  AGB patented the 1st practical telephone and was co-founder of AT&T in 1885.  He was president of the National Geographic Society 1898-1903.

**Beinn Bhreagh, Gaelic for beautiful mountain, is a 2 story single dwelling built in stone in 1893.  It is described as "a stunning piece of property."

JFK+50 NOTE

Upon conclusion of AGB's funeral service, at 6:25 Eastern time, August 4, 1922, every telephone in North America was silenced for one minute in his honor.

SOURCES

"Dr. Bell, Inventor Of Telephone, Dies At Canadian Home," The Evening Star, Washington, D.C., August 2, 1922, Chronicling America, Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/ 

"The fight over the value of Alexander Graham Bell's former estate," by Tom Ayers, CBS News, May 9, 2018, www.cbc.ca/

   

 

Alexander Graham Bell

Bain News Service Photo

Library of Congress

"THE PRESIDENT'S PHONE NUMBER WAS #1"

FIRST TELEPHONE INSTALLED AT THE WHITE HOUSE 

Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) On May 10, 1877 the first telephone was installed at the White House here in the Nation's Capital.  Alexander Graham Bell had been granted a patent by the U.S. Patent Office on January 30, 1877 for his "electromagnetic telephone."

President Rutherford B. Hayes liked the new technology although it did have some drawbacks.  Since the White House telephone was installed in the Telegraph Room, the President had to walk there from his office in order to receive or make calls.

Also, there was only one other phone available for the White House to connect with and that was located across Executive Avenue at the Treasury Department.

There was no problem, however, in the President forgetting his telephone number...it was #1.  Herbert Hoover was the first POTUS to have a telephone installed in the Oval Office.

During the Kennedy administration, the President had a green Bell "call-director" telephone on his desk in the Oval Office.  It enabled him to connect with his people at the touch of a single button.  His aides had a button on their phones labeled "POTUS" which connected them directly to Evelyn Lincoln, JFK's personal secretary. 

SOURCES

"Hayes orders first presidential telephone, May 10, 1877," by Andrew Glass, May 10, 2017, Politico, www.politico.com/

"Rutherford B. Hayes has first phone installed in White House, May 10, 1877," www.history.com/ 

   

 

1877 Telephone

A GREAT INVENTION, BUT WHO WOULD EVER WANT TO USE ONE?

FIRST WHITE HOUSE TELEPHONE

Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) On May 10, 1877, President Rutherford B. Hayes had the first telephone installed at the White House. The President, who said he liked the new technology, did not have the luxury of using it in his office.  Mr. Hayes had to walk to the Telegraph Room in the Executive Mansion where the communications device was set up.

The only connection the White House telephone had at the time, however, was with the Treasury Department.  The new White House telephone number was the single digit #1.  

Two years after telephone service was set up in the Nation's Capital there were only 190 subscribers.  Perhaps this was the reason President Hayes rarely used the newly installed White House telephone.

According to the Washington Post, President Barack Obama was critical of President Hayes' indifference to the communications device.  Mr. Obama's criticism was based on a historically unconfirmed comment in which Mr. Hayes reportedly said that the telephone was "a great invention, but who would ever want to use one."

President Hayes did not actually use the telephone until late June 1877 when he spoke with the inventor Professor Alexander Graham Bell.  Upon hearing Mr. Bell's voice over the line, Mr. Hayes said, "That is wonderful."

SOURCES

"Hayes has first phone installed in White House," May 10, www.history.com/

"Obama's whopper about Rutherford B. Hayes and the telephone," by Glenn Kessler, The Washington Post, March 16, 2012, www.washingtonpost.com/

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1877 Telephone

BELL AWARDED TELEPHONE PATENT

JFK+50:  Volume 6, No. 1881

TELEPHONE PATENTED 140 YEARS AGO TODAY

(JFK+50) One hundred and forty years ago today, March 7, 1876, Alexander Graham Bell* was granted Patent #174,465 by the United States Patent Office on his..."method of and apparatus for, transmitting....sounds telegraphically by causing electrical undulations, similar in form to the vibrations of the air...." or, in short, the telephone.

Alexander Graham Bell set up a laboratory and with the help of assistant Thomas A. Watson, who was "skilled in devising tools which improved the efficiency of various instruments," developed a prototype of the telephone.   

On March 10, 1876, Mr. Bell spoke the first words into the telephone which were heard in another room by his assistant.  It is believed that those first words spoken into a telephone transmitter were...

"Mr. Watson, come here, I need you."

Mr. Bell offered to sell his patent to Western Union Telegraph Company for a mere $100,000 but the company's president declined the offer saying the telephone was "just a toy."  Reportedly, he changed his mind two years later saying that he would be willing to pay $25 million for the patent.  By then, Bell had changed his mind about selling.

The Bell Telephone Company was founded in 1877 and by 1886, 150,000 people owned a telephone.

Alexander Graham Bell died at the age of 75 in 1922 of complications of diabetes.  Following his funeral service, every telephone in North America was silenced in his honor.

*Alexander Graham Bell (1847-1922) was born in Scotland and graduated from the University of Edinburg & University College in London.  His father, uncle and grandfather were elocutionists.

AGB moved to Canada in 1870 where he set up a workshop & did experiments with electricity and sound.  He also became a teacher of the deaf in Boston.

SOURCE

"More About Bell," American Experience, PBS, www.pbs.org./

Bell's Telephone Patent Drawing

March 7, 1876

NARA Image

www.commons.wikimedia.org/

Bell & His Telephone Transmitter