Parks Canada ~ Parcs Canada
Cape Breton ~ Le Cap-Breton

ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL NATIONAL HISTORIC SITE OF CANADA (N.S.)

CHRONOLOGY OF ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL

• March 3, 1847 Born in Edinburgh
• 1862-63 Spent year in London with grandfather, Alexander Bell, expert on mechanics of speech
• 1864 With brother Melville built speaking device
• 1865 On death of Grandfather Bell, father Melville inherited London practice
• 1867 Brother Edward dies from tuberculosis
• July-Dec. 1868 In charge of father's London practice while father in North America
• 1868-70 Studied vocal anatomy at University College, London
• May 1870 Brother Melville dies from tuberculosis
• July 1870 With parents sails to Canada
• August 1, 1870 Arrives at Quebec
• August 6, 1870 Family buys Brantford home
• April 1871 To Boston to teach deaf (returns home to Brantford each summer)
• July 26, 1874 In Brantford tells father of method to transmit sound by wire.
• Winter 1874-75 Works on "harmonic telegraph" in Boston with Tom Watson
• June 2, 1875 Hears sound over device
• Summer 1875 With Watson constructs Gallows Frame, world's first telephone
• September 1875 Writes patent specifications in Brantford
• 1875 First contact with Smithsonian Institution: Joseph Henry encourages him
• March 10, 1876 Hears Watson's voice over liquid transmitter (second telephone)
• June 25, 1876 Demonstrates Centennial transmitter (third telephone) to Sir William Thomson and Emperor Pedro II at Philadelphia Exposition.
• July 7,9,22, 1876 With others tries unsuccessfully to talk long distance over telegraph lines
• Early Aug. 1876 "Three great tests" of telephone in and near Brantford
• August 1876 Thomson describes telephone to British Association for the Advancement of Science
• Sept. 14, 1876 Thomson describes telephone in Nature
• October 6, 1876 Holds world's first two-way telephone conversation with Watson, in Boston
• October 9, 1876 Holds two-way conversation with Watson over telegraph line linking Boston and East Cambridge
• July 9, 1877 With Watson, Thomas Sanders, and Gardiner Hubbard, forms Bell Telephone Company, a voluntary association.
• July 11, 1877 Marries Mabel Hubbard
• 1877-78 With wife in England
• May 8, 1878 Elsie Mayborn - first daughter of Alexander Graham and Mabel Bell
• July 1878 Bell Telephone Company reorganized as a corporation
• 1879 Bells settle in Washington, D.C.
• 1879-80 Works on photophone with assistant, Sumner Tainter
• Summer of 1881 Rushes, with Tainter, to develop telephone probe to assist mortally wounded President James Garfield
• 1880 Marian, second daughter born to Bells
• 1882 With father-in-law, Gardiner Hubbard, acquires and reorganizes journal Science
• 1883 Opens school for deaf and non-deaf children on Scott Circle in Washington
• Summer 1885 Bells visit Baddeck for the first time
• November 1885 Closes school for deaf because of patent litigation
• 1887 Her father brings Helen Keller to Bell--beginning lifelong friendship
• January 1888 With Gardiner Hubbard and others helps to found National Geographic Society
• 1890 Conducts first national census of the deaf in the United States
• Spring of 1891 Becomes interested in flight and begins experiments at Baddeck
• Late 1894 Begins tests of wings and propellers at Baddeck
• May 1896 Witnesses flight of Samuel Langley's steam-powered model plane on Potomac River
• 1898 Begins kite experiments at Baddeck
• 1898 Becomes president of National Geographic Society, regent of Smithsonian Institution
• Summer of 1901 Triangular prism-shaped box kite flies at Baddeck
• August 25, 1902 Working on tetrahedral design (objects with four triangular sides)
• August 1903 Langley flies quarter-size model plane
• October 7, 1903 Test of Langley's aerodrome fails
• Dec. 8, 1903 Langley's aerodrome fails again
• Dec. 17, 1903 Wright brothers fly at Kitty Hawk
• December 1904 1300-celled Frost King flies at Baddeck
• 1906 Begins thinking about hydrosurfaces
• Summer of 1906 Casey Baldwin visits Baddeck with Douglas McCurdy
• July 1907 Glenn Curtiss takes engine to Baddeck
• September 1907 Thomas Selfridge joins Bell, Baldwin, Curtiss, and McCurdy at Baddeck
• October 1, 1907 Group sets up Aerial Experiement Association (AEA) with funding from Mabel Bell
• Dec. 3, 1907 Tetrahedral kite Cygnet I flies unmanned at Baddeck
• Dec. 6, 1907 Selfridge flies in Cygnet I which crashes
• Jan. 13, 1908 First trial of bamboo biplane hang glider
• March 12, 1908 Baldwin flies Red Wing, AEA's first powered aerodrome
• March 19, 1908 Selfridge flies White Wing (Drome No. 2)
• June 20, 1908 First flight of Drome No. 3 (June Bug)
• July 4, 1908 Curtiss flies June Bug nearly one mile in first official aircraft test
• Sept. 17, 1908 Selfridge killed flying at Fort Meyer
• Dec. 6, 1908 Drome No. 4 (Silver Dart) flies at Hammondsport, NY
• 1908 With Baldwin, adds foils to catamaran and builds unsuccessful hydrofoil, Dhonas Bheag
• Feb. 23, 1909 McCurdy makes first heavier-than-air flight in Canada in Silver Dart
• February 1909 Unsuccessful attempts to fly Cygnet II
• February 1909 AEA disbanded
• April 1909 Provides financing and facilities at Baddeck for Baldwin and McCurdy's Canadian Aerodrome Company
• July 1909 Has company start on full-scale powered aerodrome
• March 1910 Unsuccessful trials of aerodromoe
• April 1910 Baldwin and McCurdy dissolve company
• 1910 With Baldwin, successful work on hydrofoil
• 1910-11 With Baldwin on world tour
• Winter 1911-12 Building tetrahedral aerodrome Cygnet III
• 1911-14 With Baldwin, builds hydrodrome HD-1; HD-2 and HD-3 come later; Bell and Baldwin follow separate but parallel paths on hydrofoils
• 1914-17 Halts hydrofoil research at Baddeck while United States neutral in First World War
• 1917 Urges Baldwin to build model of HD-4
• 1917-18 With Baldwin, builds HD-4
• Sept. 9, 1919 HD-4 sets world speed record of 70.86 mph
• August 2, 1922 Dies at Baddeck
• Jan. 3, 1923 Mabel Bell dies