Bonnie Bader - Who Was Alexander Graham Bell?

Who Was

Alexander Graham Bell?

Who Was

Alexander Graham Bell?

By Bonnie Bader

Illustrated by David Groff

To Lauren and Alliemay you, like Bell, follow your own
interests and see where they take youBB

GROSSET & DUNLAP

Published by the Penguin Group

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Text copyright 2013 by Bonnie Bader. Illustrations copyright 2013 by David Groff. Cover illustration copyright 2013 by Nancy Harrison. Published by Grosset & Dunlap, a division of Penguin Young Readers Group, 345 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014. GROSSET & DUNLAP is a trademark of Penguin Group (USA) LLC.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2013024903

ISBN: 978-0-698-15969-3

Who Was
Alexander Graham Bell?

One day in 1858, two young boys named Aleck and Ben were horsing around in a flour mill owned by Bens father. The boys leaped over bags of flour and ran past machines that ground up wheat. They were having fun. But they were bothering the mill workers who needed to do their work. Finally, Bens father called the boys into his office. He told them to find something useful to do. What exactly would that be? Aleck wanted to know. Bens father picked up a handful of grain. Each piece of grain was covered in a thick husk. It would be useful if they could figure out a good way to get the husks off the wheat grain.

The boys accepted the challenge. First, they scraped the husks off with a nailbrush. It worked, but it took too long. They needed a faster way. Aleck thought about the problem some more. He was good at solving problems. He remembered seeing a large vat with spinning paddles at the mill. The boys went and watched the vat at work. At last, Aleck had an idea. What if stiff brushes, like big nailbrushes, were attached to the vats paddles? When the paddle-brushes began spinning, the husks would be scraped off the wheatfast!

Aleck presented his idea to Bens father. The mill owner liked what he heard and put it to the test. Alecks idea worked! Maybe its not so surprising that this eleven-year-old boy grew up to become a world-famous inventorthe man who invented the telephone.

Chapter 1
An Inventor Is Born

On March 3, 1847, in Edinburgh, Scotland, a baby boy was born into the Bell family. He was named Alexander after both his grandfather and his father.

Grandfather Bell lived in London and was a teacher. He helped young people with speech problems, such as stuttering. Grandfather Bell studied the way spoken words are formed. He learned how important the lungs and vocal cords are for speaking. He studied the way the lips and the face moved, too.

Alexanders father, called Melville, taught speech, too. From the moment baby Alexander was born, it was expected that he would follow in the other Alexanders footsteps.

But what interested little Aleck, as his family called him, was exploring. This boy, with a pale face, brown eyes, and dark bushy hair, loved roaming the Scottish countryside with his brothers, Melly and Ted. Aleck collected all kinds of plants, rocks, and animal skeletons.

One summer day in 1850, the Bell family went on a picnic. Young Aleck wandered off to explore. A nearby wheat field caught his eye. He walked into the tall wheat and sat down. Closing his eyes, he wondered if he could hear the wheat growing. He strained his ears and listened. But he heard nothing.

After a while, Aleck decided to return to the picnic. But he couldnt find his way out of the wheat field. The wheat was too high. Aleck was lost! He yelled for help. No one heard him. Little Aleck sat on the ground and cried until he fell asleep. Later, he awoke to his father calling his name. Aleck was safe! Sometimes curiosity could get a boy in trouble!

Although Aleck was smart, he was not a good student. Greek, Latin, math, and sciencethey all bored him. Plants and animals were much more interesting. He also loved music. And he learned to become an excellent pianist from his mother, Eliza.

It was amazing that Mrs. Bell could play the piano so well. Why? Because she was nearly deaf. She needed an ear tube to help her hear. To play the piano, she put one end of the tube in her ear, and the other against the piano. That way, she could feel, or hear, the beautiful sounds of the music.