D. (Doctor of Philosophy). While
still in Scotland he is said to have turned his attention to the science
of acoustics, with a view to ameliorate the deafness of his mother.
In 1873 he accompanied his father to Montreal, in Canada, where he was
employed in teaching the system of visible speech. The elder Bell was
invited to introduce it into a large day-school for mutes at Boston, but
he declined the post in favour of his son, who soon became famous in the
United States for his success in this important work. He published more
than one treatise on the subject at Washington, and it is, we believe,
mainly through his efforts that thousands of deaf mutes in America are
now able to speak almost, if not quite, as well as those who are able to
hear.
Before he left Scotland Mr. Graham Bell had turned his attention to
telephony, and in Canada he designed a piano which could transmit its
music to a distance by means of electricity. At Boston he continued his
researches in the same field, and endeavoured to produce a telephone
which would not only send musical notes, but articulate speech.
If it be interesting to trace the evolution of an animal from its
rudimentary germ through the lower phases to the perfect organism, it is
almost as interesting to follow an invention from the original model
through the faultier types to the finished apparatus.
Pages:
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230