Monday 3 March 2008

A SCOTS (NOT SO BLUE) BELL


Why was this Google logo centre stage – or rather, centre screen – today?

Born in Edinburgh March 3, 1847, young Alexander Graham Bell, (Aleck as he was known to his family) took to reading and writing at a precociously young age. He had an expressive, flexible, and resonant speaking voice.

His mother was deaf. Unlike others, who spoke to her through her ear tube, he chose to communicate with her by speaking in low, sonorous tones very close to her forehead. Young Aleck surmised that his mother would be able to 'hear' him through the vibrations his vocal intonations would make. This early insight would prove significant as he went on to develop more elaborate theories regarding the characteristics of sound waves.

Edinburgh, Scotland in the mid-19th-century was brimming with scientific and technological developments. One truth seemed inescapable: through technology came betterment.

He continued his education (after Edinburgh High School and Edinburgh University) at the University of London [1867]. He became intrigued by the writings of German physicist Hermann Von Helmholtz. Von Helmholtz had produced a thesis, On The Sensations of Tone, declaring that vowel sounds could be produced by a combination of electrical tuning forks and resonators. Bell's inability to read German did not deter him from hungrily consuming this information. It did however lead to his making what he would later describe as a "very valuable blunder".

Bell had somehow interpreted Von Helmholtz's findings as stating that vowel sounds could be transmitted over a wire. He would later say of this misunderstanding, "It gave me confidence. If I had been able to read German, I might never have begun my experiments in electricity."

What would he think of all of this internet activity (not to say technology!) were he alive today?! Amazing amounts of new technology; where is the 'betterment'?

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Photo of Alexander Graham Bell from website of the same name here. Text from here.
Google logo from Google home page here.



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