 | 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 |
Search
All Sites/All Menus ~
