The Telephone was Invented by Canada?

Question

Rumour has it that Alexander Graham Bell was Canadian making one of greatest inventions of all time contributed by Canada. Americans, The U.S, rumour has it that he is American..Controversy surrounds this. He was in fact to my knowledge, European, Immigrated to Canada where he obtained citizenship there and then went on to the U.S to invent the phone. In your opinion given this story or your own knowledge was he American or Canadian? Canada as well has a big Phone company called Bell Canada where the U.S only has a smaller company called Bell South.

In 1870, at the age of 23, he emigrated with his family to Canada where they settled at Brantford and became a Canadian citizen. Before he left Scotland, Bell had turned his attention to telephony, and in Canada he continued an interest in communication machines. He designed a piano which could transmit its music to a distance by means of electricity. In 1871, he accompanied his father to Montreal, Quebec, where he was employed in teaching the system of visible speech. The elder Bell was invited to introduce the system into a large day-school for mutes at Boston, but he declined the post in favor of his son, who became Professor of Vocal Physiology and Elocution at Boston University's School of Oratory.

Taken from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Graham_Bell

Answer 1

Bell was born in Edinburgh, to a family of speech therapists. For three generations, The Bells had been the foremost authorities on elocution and speech correction. The young Bell was trained to enter the family profession. He had a reliable education at Edinburgh’s Royal High School and was instructed privately from the benchmark text for speech therapists, A M Bell’s Standard Elocution.

Upon leaving college, Bell took up a position as a remedial teacher at school in Elgin where he taught music and elocution. From there, he went to Elgin’s Weston House Academy where, apart from his regular duties, he was given the opportunity to study science. In order to improve his audiological techniques, Bell’s efforts in science were concerned with the transmission of sound.

When Bell’s two brothers were struck down with tuberculosis, the family decided to emigrate to a healthier climate. They moved to Canada, where they continued their family business and Bell continued his experiments in sound. He took up a position in Boston, where he employed a young mechanic, Thomas Watson, to assist him in making the equipment to convey sound waves. After years of patient work, they had a working model. Bell had the privilege of making the first telephone message. It was to Watson in the next room ”Mr Watson, come in here. I want you”.

Bell invented several other gadgets including the first working metal detector. This device was used on the body of assassinated American President, James Garfield, in an attempt to locate the bullet in his body. The attempt would have succeeded had not the late president been lying on a metal bed frame, which confused the instrument.

Answer 2

This "confusion" is all part of a traditional Scottish practice, that of "sub-setting" events; watch the next Olympics, if a person born in Scotland is doing well, he will be identified as "Scottish" by Scottish media. If he does badly, he will suddenly become "British", or if he loses outright, he may even change his birthplace suddenly and become "English"!

Answer 3

yes..but it was invented by a scottish inventor,Alexander G. Bell..he sucessfully invented the phone in 2 June,1875 in his canada home..

Answer 4

Thanks for your information. I have been a junior high history teacher for 33 years and now I worry about how many kids i taught wrong. And maybe there are other things that i am teaching that is wrong. i wish i had never gotten involved in this mess. congrats, i feel humbled for all the things i have said about canada. next you are gonna tell me canadians invented insulin or the best comedians in hollywood are canadians. what next canada!

Answer 5

doesn't matter his origins -- if he was living in US at the time he invented the telephone then it is an American invention. As for the Bell Telephone Co. being bigger in Canada: There used to be Bell Telephone companies all over US, but they were mostly bought out by AT&T years ago -- my phone company in OH used to be Bell, then AT&T,then SBC, now AT&T again (SBC merged with AAT&T.)

Answer 6

He was a naturalized American born in Scotland.

Answer 7

Well where ever he was born. I think he would be impressed by today's cell phones. So would Mr. Kodak be.

Answer 8

who cares?we have a telephone -that's what counts--for one so young to live in the past-what a shame

Answer 9

I don't know...but I'm glad it was a human who invented it.