Alexander Graham Bell

Alexander Graham Bell was born in Edinburgh, Scotland. His father taught elocution and invented Visible Speech, a system of symbols for the sounds of speech, and his mother was nearly deaf. After his two brothers died of tuberculosis, the family moved to Canada in 1870. Bell became a teacher of deaf students in Boston and a professor of vocal physiology at Boston University. He married Mabel Hubbard, a former pupil who was deaf. At night he experimented with sending sound over wires, assisted by the electrician Thomas Watson. He received a patent for the telephone on 7 March 1876, and three days later spoke the first words over it: Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you. He demonstrated it at the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia that summer. The Bell Telephone Company was founded in 1877, and Bell defended his patent in hundreds of lawsuits. He went on to work on the photophone, metal detectors, hydrofoil boats and flying machines, and helped found the National Geographic Society. He was a lifelong friend of Helen Keller. He died in Nova Scotia in 1922.

Faith: Attended a Presbyterian church in his youth; his adult beliefs are not well documented. Source: Wikipedia