The Facts About Alfred Russel Wallace

The Facts About Alfred Russel Wallace

British naturalist

 

Birth	January 8, 1823
Death	November 7, 1913
Place of Birth	Usk, Wales
Known for	Developing the theory of evolution contemporaneously with British naturalist Charles Darwin
Career	1848 Traveled to South America and began collecting insect specimens
	1854 Continued collecting and observing animal species in southeast Asia, and developed the concept of natural selection
	1858 Sent a paper containing his theory of evolution to Charles Darwin, who arranged, through Charles Lyell, for it to be jointly read before the Linnaean Society with his own
	1869 Published The Malay Archipelago, which fleshed out his theory of evolution
	1870 Published Contributions to the Theory of Natural Selection
	1876 Published The Geographic Distribution of Animals, observations of species distribution gathered during years of travel
Did You Know	While returning from four years spent collecting specimens in the Amazon, Wallace’s boat caught fire and sank, along with all his collected specimens.
	Wallace was active in the movement against the smallpox vaccination.
	During his 8 years in the Malay Archipelago, he collected over 125,000 species of mammals, insects, shells, reptiles, and birds.
	Although Wallace believed in evolution, he still held that human intelligence has a supernatural origin.
	Wallace left school at the age of 14.
	Wallace noted a marked difference between the plants and animals of southeast Asia and those of Australia, and was the first to postulate that their physical separation prevented competition between species.

 

Alessandro Volta

Alessandro Volta (1745-1827) was an Italian physicist, known for his pioneering work in electricity. Volta was born in Como and educated in the public schools there. In 1774 he became professor of physics at the Royal School in Como, and in the following year he devised the electrophorus, an instrument that produced charges of static electricity. In 1776-77 he applied himself to chemistry, studying atmospheric electricity and devising experiments such as the ignition of gases by an electric spark in a closed vessel. In 1779 he became professor of physics at the University of Pavia, a chair he occupied for 25 years. By 1800 he had developed the so-called voltaic pile, a forerunner of the electric battery, which produced a steady stream of electricity. In honor of his work in the field of electricity, Napoleon made him a count in 1801. The electrical unit known as the volt was named in his honor.

The Facts About Alexander Graham Bell

The Facts About Alexander Graham Bell

Scottish-born American inventor, and speech teacher for deaf students

 

Birth	March 3, 1847
Death	August 2, 1922
Place of Birth	Edinburgh, Scotland
Known for	Contributing to the invention and spread of the telephone
	Founding the Bell Telephone Company
	Teaching deaf students how to speak
Milestones	1870 Moved to Canada after his two brothers died of tuberculosis, and to the United States the following year
	1872 Opened a school in Boston to train people to teach deaf students to speak
	1873 Became professor of vocal physiology at Boston University
	March 10, 1876 Transmitted the first complete sentence over the telephone: ‘Watson, come here; I want you.’
	1876 Patented the telephone
	1877 Formed the Bell Telephone Company
	1880 Established the Volta Laboratory in Washington, D.C., using prize money he received from the French government
	1882 Became a naturalized U.S. citizen
	1890 Established the American Association to Promote Teaching of Speech to the Deaf
	1896-1904 Served as president of the National Geographic Society
Did You Know	Bell carried out the first wireless transmission of speech using an invention he called the photophone, which used beams of light to transmit speech.
	American inventor Elisha Gray filed a caveat (intent to invent) for a telephone on the same day Bell filed for a patent on the finished product. Bell’s patent proved to be one of the most lucrative ever granted.
	In his later years Bell worked on a diverse range of projects, including the breeding of a sheep that could bear more than one lamb at a time, and the desalination of seawater.
	Bell had a strong interest in aviation, and invented a four-sided kite capable of lifting a person.

 

Alexander Graham Bell

Alexander Graham Bell (1847-1922) was an American inventor and teacher of the deaf, most famous for his work on the telephone.

Bell was born on March 3, 1847, in Edinburgh, Scotland, and educated at the universities of Edinburgh and London. He immigrated to Canada in 1870 and to the United States in 1871. In the United States he began teaching deaf-mutes, publicizing the system called visible speech. The system, which was developed by his father, the Scottish educator Alexander Melville Bell, shows how the lips, tongue, and throat are used in the articulation of sound. In 1872 Bell founded a school to train teachers of the deaf in Boston, Massachusetts. The school subsequently became part of Boston University, where Bell was appointed professor of vocal physiology. He became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1882.

Since the age of 18, Bell had been working on the idea of transmitting speech. In 1874, while working on a multiple telegraph, he developed the basic ideas of the telephone. His experiments with his assistant Thomas Watson finally proved successful on March 10, 1876, when he transmitted: “Watson, come here; I want you.” Subsequent demonstrations, particularly one at the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, introduced the telephone to the world and led to the organization of the Bell Telephone Company in 1877.

In 1880 France bestowed on Bell the Volta Prize, worth 50,000 francs, for his invention. With this money he founded the Volta Laboratory in Washington, D.C., where, in that same year, he and his associates invented the photophone, which transmits speech by light rays. Other inventions include the audiometer, used to measure acuity in hearing; the induction balance, used to locate metal objects in human bodies; and the first wax recording cylinder, introduced in 1886. The cylinder, together with the flat wax disc, formed the basis of the modern phonograph.

Bell was one of the cofounders of the National Geographic Society, and he served as its president from 1896 to 1904. He also helped to establish the journal Science by financing it from 1883-1894.

After 1895 Bell’s interest turned mostly to aeronautics. Many of his inventions in this area were first tested near his summer home at Baddeck on Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia, Canada. His study of flight began with the construction of large kites, and in 1907 he devised a kite capable of carrying a person. With a group of associates, including the American inventor and aviator Glenn Hammond Curtiss, Bell developed the aileron, a movable section of an airplane wing that controls roll. They also developed the tricycle landing gear, which first permitted takeoff and landing on a flying field. Applying the principles of aeronautics to marine propulsion, his group started work on hydrofoil boats, which travel above the water at high speeds. His final full-sized “hydrodrome,” developed in 1917, reached speeds in excess of 113 km/h (70 mph) and for many years was the fastest boat in the world.

Bell’s continuing studies on the causes and heredity of deafness led to experiments in eugenics, including sheep breeding, and to his book Duration of Life and Conditions Associated with Longevity (1918). He died on August 2, 1922, at Baddeck, where a museum containing many of his original inventions is maintained by the Canadian government.