Bell

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The result of a decade of study with the blessing and help of Bell's descendants, this is undoubtedly the most comprehensive and handsomely researched biography of Bell since C. D. MacKenzie's 1928 work. The author is no stylist but he has assimilated a massive amount of material into a coherent view of the man and his accomplishment. Bell's Scots forebears were strenuously devoted to the study of the spoken word. Grandfather Bell was a teacher of elocution by way of the stage and there has been speculation that his play The Bride had elements pointing to Shaw's Pygmalion, but Shaw in his preface paid tribute to Alexander's father Melville, whose "Visual Speech" was a trailblazing attempt to universalize the phonetic alphabet. Alexander arrived in Canada with his parents in 1870 and became involved in what was his lifelong interest - the teaching and rehabilitation of the deaf. While the inventor experimented with methods of training youngsters and adults with hearing disabilities to grasp the idea of auditory communication, he continued his laboratory work with sound transmittal. Bruce reviews the inevitable trials and errors, the technology and equipment then extant, and the available studies of other inventors also near the finish line. The neck and neck competition with Elisha Gray, whose claims as originator of the telephone led to a famous court case, and the problems, mechanical and theoretical, involved in a succession of models. And after the landmark event ("Mr. Watson - Come here - I want to see you. . ."), Bell, a veritable Leonardo of sound, became fascinated by other projects. He invented the photo-phone (speech sent by light rays), an audiometer for use with the deaf, flat and cylindrical phonograph records, etc. Bruce also touches on the founding of the Bell company and the attendant legal scrambles. A pleasant, kindly man, Bell was very happily married to Mabel Hubbard, who was afflicted with deafness and had been his pupil. Throughout the enormous detail of this biography, Bell's restless intellectual energy and breakthrough fever emerge. A gargantuan work - sure to be a basic reference for both future admirers and detractors. (Kirkus Reviews)