Reluctant Genius: Alexander Graham Bell and the Passion for Invention

438 Pages·2011·5.01 MB·English

by  Charlotte Gray

Reluctant genius
Reluctant Genius
A G B
LEXANDER RAHAM ELL
P I
AND THE ASSION FOR NVENTION
Charlotte Gray
ARCADE PUBLISHING • NEW YORK
Copyright © 2006, 2011 by Charlotte Gray
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10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file.
ISBN: 978-1-61145-060-6
Printed in the United States of America
Contents
PART I CIRCUITS AND CONNECTIONS 1847-1876
Chapter 1:The Great White Plague 1847-1870
Chapter 2:The Backwoods of Canada 1870
Chapter 3:Boston Bound 1871-1874
Chapter 4: A Brahmin Childhood 1857-1873
Chapter 5: Good Vibrations 1873-1875
Chapter 6:The Fateful “Twang” 1875
Chapter 7: Nantucket Passion 1875
Chapter 8: Patent No. 174,465 1875-1876
PART 2 THE STRUGGLE FOR BALANCE 1876-1889
Chapter 9: Ring for the Future 1876-1877
Chapter 10: London Life 1877-1878
Chapter 11: Litigation Battles 1878-1880
Chapter 12: Sad Losses, Failed Hopes 1880-1885
Chapter 13: Atlantic Adventures 1885-1887
Chapter 14: A Shifting Balance 1887-1889
Chapter 15: Helen Keller and the Politics of Deafness1886-1896
PART 3 MONSTER KITES AND FLYING MACHINES 1889-1923
Chapter 16: Escape to Cape Breton 1889-1895
Chapter 17: Monster Kites 1895-1900
Chapter 18: Family Remains 1900-1906
Chapter 19: Bell’s Boys 1906-1909
Chapter 20: The Auld Chief 1909-1915
Chapter 21: The Last Hurrah 1915-1923
Epilogue: The Legacies of Alexander Graham Bell
Appendix: Patents Issued by the U.S. Patent Office to Alexander
Graham Bell and His Associates
Sources
Photo Sources
Acknowledgments
Index
MAPS
Bell’s Boston
The Atlantic Coast of North America
Beinn Bhreagh
For my family on both sides of the Atlantic
Part 1
CIRCUITS AND CONNECTIONS
1847—1876
It is a neck and neck race between Mr. Gray and myself who shall complete our
apparatus first. He has the advantage over me in being a practical electrician—
but I have reason to believe that I am better acquainted with the phenomena of
sound than he is—so that I have an advantage there. … The very opposition
seems to nerve me to work and I feel with the facilities I have now I may
succeed.… I shall be seriously ill should I fail in this now I am so thoroughly
wrought up.
Alexander Graham Bell to his parents, November 1874