Reluctant Genius: Alexander Graham Bell and the Passion for InventionThe popular image of Alexander Graham Bell is that of an elderly American patriarch, memorable only for his paunch, his Santa Claus beard, and the invention of the telephone. In this magisterial reassessment based on thorough new research, acclaimed biographer Charlotte Gray reveals Bell’s wide-ranging passion for invention and delves into the private life that supported his genius. The child of a speech therapist and a deaf mother, and possessed of superbly acute hearing, Bell developed an early interest in sound. His understanding of how sound waves might relate to electrical waves enabled him to invent the “talking telegraph” be- fore his rivals, even as he undertook a tempestuous courtship of the woman who would become his wife and mainstay. In an intensely competitive age, Bell seemed to shun fame and fortune. Yet many of his innovations—electric heating, using light to transmit sound, electronic mail, composting toilets, the artificial lung—were far ahead of their time. His pioneering ideas about sound, flight, genetics, and even the engineering of complex structures such as stadium roofs still resonate today. This is an essential portrait of an American giant whose innovations revolutionized the modern world. |
Contents
A Brahmin Childhood 18571873 | |
Good Vibrations 18731875 | |
The Fateful Twang 1875 | |
Nantucket Passion 1875 | |
Litigation Battles 18781880 | |
Sad Losses Failed Hopes 18801885 | |
Atlantic Adventures 18851887 | |
A Shifting Balance 18871889 | |
Helen Keller and the Politics of Deafness1886 | |
MONSTER KITES AND FLYING MACHINES 18891923 | |
Escape to Cape Breton 18891895 | |
The Legacies of Alexander Graham Bell | |
Patent No 174465 18751876 | |
THE STRUGGLE FOR BALANCE 18761889 | |
Ring for the Future 18761877 | |
London Life 18771878 | |
Patents Issued by the U S Patent Office | |
MAPS | |
Other editions - View all
Reluctant Genius: Alexander Graham Bell and the Passion for Invention Charlotte Gray Limited preview - 2006 |
Reluctant Genius: Alexander Graham Bell and the Passion for Invention Charlotte Gray No preview available - 2011 |
Common terms and phrases
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