Alexander Graham Bell Alexander Graham Bell Alexander Graham Bell (March 3, 1847 – August 2, 1922) was a Scottish-born scientist, inventor, engineer, and innovator who is credited with inventing and patenting the first practical telephone. He also founded the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T) in 1885. Bell's father, grandfather, and brother had all been associated with work on elocution and speech and both his mother and wife were deaf, profoundly influencing Bell's life's work. His research on hearing and speech further led him to experiment with hearing devices which eventually culminated in Bell being awarded the first U.S. patent for the telephone
Necessity is the mother of invention inuentour of all goodnesse", in his book "Toxophilus". In 1608, George Chapman, in his two-part play "The Conspiracy and Tragedy of Charles, Duke of Byron", used a very similar phrase: "The great Mother, Of all productions (graue Necessity)". But, the earliest actual usage of the proverb "Necessity is the mother of invention" is sometimes ascribed to Richard Franck, who used it in his book "Northern Memoirs", calculated for the meridian of Scotland (1658). Commonly misattributed due to Benjamin Jowett's popular idiomatic translation (1871) of "Plato's Republic", Book II, 369c as "The true creator is necessity, who is the mother of