certain to find something that you have never seen before. Follow it up, explore all around it, and before you know it, you will have something worth thinking about to occupy your mind. All really big discoveries are the result of thought."

　　It was this exploring around problems and his dynamic spirit that led to his most famous invention - the telephone in 1876. Bell never set out to invent the telephone and what he was trying to design was a multiple telegraph. This original telegraph sent a message over distances using Morse code (a series of dots tapped out along a wire in a particular order). But only one message could go at a time. Bell wanted to improve it so that it could send several messages at the same time. He designed a machine that would separate different sound waves and allow different conversations to be held

　　 at the same time. But he found the problem difficult to solve. One day as he was experimenting with one end of a straw joined to a deaf man's ear drum and the other to a piece of smoked glass, Bell noticed that when he spoke into the ear, the straw drew sound waves on the glass. Suddenly he had a flash of inspiration. If sound waves could be reproduced in a moving electrical current, they could be sent along a wire. In searching to improve the telegraph, Bell had invented the first telephone!

　　Bell was fully aware of the importance of his invention and wrote to his father：

　　"The day is coming when telegraph wires will be laid on to houses just like water or gas - and friends will talk to each other without leaving home."

　　The patent was given in 1876, but it was not until five days later that Bell sent his first telephone message to his assistant Watson. The words have now become famous：

　　"Mr Watson - come here - I want to see you."

　　Alexander Graham Bell was not a man to rest and he interested himself in many other areas of invention. He experimented with helicopter designs and flying machines. While searching for a kite strong enough to carry a man into the air, Bell experimented putting triangles together and discovered the tetrahedron shape. Being very stable, it has proved invaluable in the design of bridges.

　　Bell was an inventor all his life. He made his first invention at eleven and his last at seventy­five. Although he is most often associated with the invention of the telephone, he was indeed a continuing searcher after practical solutions to improve the quality of everybody's life.

　　亚历山大·格雷厄姆·贝尔

　　亚历山大·格雷厄姆·贝尔1847年出生于苏格兰。但在他还小的时候，他家就搬到了美国的波士顿。他的母亲几乎是全聋人，因此他有志于帮助聋人交流，并从事聋人教育事业。这一爱好促使他发明了麦克风。他发现他把嘴唇放到母亲的额头上，就可以使她听懂他所说的话。

　　他认为一个人应该总是有好奇心理。他最有名的一段话是：

　　"偶尔离开平路去寻求困境。每次当你这样做的时候，你一定会发现你从未见过的东西。跟踪下去，不断探索，不知不觉中，你就会发现某种值得思考的东西盘踞着你的头脑。所有真正伟大的发现都是思考的结果。"

　　正是这种对问题的探索和富有活力的精神造就了他那最著名的发明--1876年的电话。贝尔并非一开始就想要发明电话，他本来想设计的东西是多路电报。这种原始的电报是在一段距离中用莫尔斯电码传递信息(莫尔斯电码是通过电线发出的以特定的次序敲击出的一连串点划)，但是这样只能一次发一个信息。贝尔想改进电报通讯方式，以便同时能发出好几个信息。他设计了一种机器，以使声波分成不同的音调，从而有可能在同一时间里进行不同的通话。但是他发现这个问题很难解决。有一天做实验，他把一根干草的一端和一个聋子的耳鼓膜连接起来，另一端连接一块被烟熏过的玻璃。贝尔发现，当他对着耳朵说话的时候，这根干草就把声波画在玻璃上。突然间他灵机一动，灵感来了。如果声波能够以连续运动的电流形式复制的话，那么声波就可以沿着导线传送出去了。在探索改进电报的过程中，贝尔发明了第一台电话机！

　　贝尔完全懂得这项发明的重要性，他写信告诉他的父亲说：

　　"这样的一天即将到来。到那时，电报线将会铺到各家各户，就像水和煤气通到各家各户一样。朋友之间不必离开家就可以彼此通话了。"

这项专利是1876年发布的，但是贝尔是在5天以后才跟他的助手华生通了第一个电话