“Mr. Watson… Come here. I want to see you.”

The Telephone

Who?

Alexander Graham Bell, born in Edinburgh, Scotland on March 3^rd, 1847, is known for his invention of the telephone. Bell began inventing at the game of twelve, focusing on speech and sound, gaining motivation from his mother’s gradual hearing loss. When he grew older, Bell was a professor at Boston University and although he worked full time, he spent much of his free time working on experiments. In 1874, Bell met Thomas A. Watson and in 1876, when Bell introduced the telephone, Watson was his assistant. Although he is credited with the invention of the telephone, Bell was in a 
tight race with Elisha Gray, who was also experimenting with the art of telegraphy. 

The First Call

Three days after it was patented, Bell made the first phone call and spoke the words, “Mr. Watson… Come here. I want to see you” through the telephone wires. Those nine words will forever be known as the world’s first telephone call ever made. 

The following is a link to the evolution of the telephone, please take a moment to look over it.
Telephone Timeline

Now that you have a brief understanding of the invention of the telephone please describe how you would communicate with others if the telephone had never been invented in the comments.

Let there be light!

The Light Bulb

Before the invention of the light bulb, the only sources of artificial light were through torches, candles, oil and gas lamps. 

It is important to recognize that Thomas Edison was not the first to debut a light bulb. In 1802, Humphry Davy used a “battery of immense size” to create an incandescent light, but it was not practical as it was not bright and didn’t last long enough. 

Over the next 75 years, many experimenters worked with various metals in order to create a better light bulb. I

n 1878, Thomas Edison began serious research to develop a practical incandescent light. His patent was submitted with the intentions to “improve electric lights.” 

On October 22, 1879, the electric light was turned on and lasted 13.5 hours. Since the first invention of the light bulb, we have made tremendous advances and adaptations in order to get where we are today.    

Below is a link to an interactive timeline of the electric light bulb and its long journey before reaching the efficiency and reliability it has today. Please look through the timeline and comment with one thing you found interesting and why. 

History of the Light Bulb 

"The Miracle Drug"

Penicillin 

Before the discovery on penicillin, there was no effective treatment for many infections. 

Alexander Fleming, professor of Bacteriology at St. Mary’s Hospital in London returned from holiday in September 1928 and noticed that he accidentally left a culture plate of staphylococcus bacteria (found in boils and sore throats) open, but this wasn’t the most unusual part. Fleming noticed that mold had fallen on the culture, and where the mold landed, the bacteria had died. “That’s funny,” thought Fleming.

 He began putting “penicillium”, the type of mold found in the culture, on various bacteria and discovered that it was killing all of them. While this discovery was accidental, Fleming introduced his findings and thus penicillin was born. 

Where did penicillin go from here?

The following is a link to an interactive timeline about penicillin. Please take a moment to scroll through it: Raiders of the Penicillin

What does penicillin cure?

Please go to the following link and read “What does penicillin treat?” Once done, comment with one interesting fact you learned about penicillin and one condition that is treatable with penicillin.  

Penicillin