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 our invention." Jowett's translation is noted for injecting flowery, if not florid, language familiar to his Victorian era audience. Jowett himself, in "Plato's Republic: The Greek Text", Vol. III "Notes", 1894, p. 82, gives a literal translation of Plato as "our need will be the real creator," without the proverbial flourish. In an address to the Mathematical Association of England on the importance of education in 1917, Alfred North Whitehead argued that ""the basis of invention is science, and science is almost wholly the outgrowth of pleasurable intellectual curiosity."" and in contrast to the old proverb ""Necessity is the mother