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Bell discovery 'may render batteries entirely unnecessary'

In our world of electronic and digital communications, one wonders what evidence of our day-to-day lives will exist for our descendants in the next century. Modern technology has given us the ability to be in almost constant touch with one another. But, will our emails and texts still exist a hundred years from now? For decades, letter writing was often an everyday occurrence for most people. Keeping in touch meant sitting down with pen and paper. Receiving a letter was often an exciting event, especially from someone miles away. And, for many, including Alexander Graham Bell and his family, these letters were something to be kept, not simply discarded once read. The Bells were profuse writers and as a result, their story can be told today through thousands of letters.

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Born in Scotland in 1847, Alexander Graham Bell lived a unique life. Influenced by his father, Melville, a professor of elocution, and his deaf mother, Eliza; the loss of his brothers, Melville and Edward, to Consumption; and marriage to his deaf pupil, Mabel Hubbard, Bell left a legacy to the world that few could imagine living without. How this came to pass is best revealed through the letters between these individuals. Here, we present those letters to you.

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Following on the heels of his distressed letter to Mabel, noting his disappointment with the telephone tests that he undertook between Boston and New Hampshire, Alec wrote to his parents with a far less uneasy tone. Knowing his mother would fear for his health, he wrote more positively, noting when he would be leaving for Brantford and only briefly referencing the tests undertaken with Sir William Thompson.
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….

Monday, July 17th

Dear P. & M.

Was to have left for home this evening but the sudden death of Mr. Hubbard’s brother-in-law yesterday morning detains me to attend the funeral which is to be tomorrow.

I shall leave here on Wednesday for Portland where I go to see Dr. Hill about the establishment of a Day School for Deaf-mutes – thence via Montreal (?) to Toronto to interview George Brown. Shall be home about the end of the week.

It is hard for me to leave just now as I am in the midst of interesting and valuable discoveries.

To-day I have succeeded in verifying a theory I have had of electrical induction and have made my most valuable discovery. To-day I have succeeded in obtaining a continuous current of electricity by revolution of a permanent magnet upon its own axis.

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It is probably that this discovery may render batteries entirely unnecessary – by giving a source of power – unchangeable and inexpensive.

I enclose June notices

I have been unable to find out anything about Sir William’s movements – and had it not been that he was as anxious to see me as I him I should have missed him. He visited Boston last Thursday and while at Harvard University made inquiries as to where I was to be found. Prof. Lovering told him I was engaged to a Cambridge lady and the best place to look for me was at her house! They were right. Sir William sent a carriage and pair to Mrs. Hubbard’s house on chance and had a long interview. I presented him with apparatus and at night he tried some experiments with me on real telegraph lines.

AGB

The Bell Letters are annotated by Brian Wood, curator, Bell Homestead National Historic Site.
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