Работа над текстом. I. Ознакомьтесь с незнакомыми словами к тексту. an inventor /In'ventq/ изобретатель to claim /'kleIm/ требование

1. Alexander Graham Bell (March 3, 1847 – August 2, 1922) was a Scottish-American-Canadian scientist and inventor. He was, until recently, widely considered to be the inventor of the telephone, although this matter has become controversial, with a number of people claiming that Antonio Meucci was the 'real' inventor. In addition to his work in telecommunications technology, he was responsible for important advances in aviation and hydrofoil technology.

2. Alexander Graham Bell was educated at the Royal High School of Edinburgh, from which he graduated at the age of 13. At the age of 16 he secured a position as a pupil-teacher of elocution and music in Weston House Academy at Elgin, Scotland. The next year he spent at the University of Edinburgh.

While still in Scotland he is said to have turned his attention to the science of acoustics, with a view to ameliorate the deafness of his mother.

In 1870, at the age of 23, he immigrated with his family to Canada, where they settled at Brantford.

3. 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 1873, he accompanied his father to Montreal, Canada, 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 favour of his son, who became Professor of Vocal Physiology and Elocution at Boston University's School of Oratory.

4. At Boston University he continued his research in the same field, and produced a telephone which would not only send musical notes, but articulate speech. On March 7, 1876, the U.S. Patent Office granted him Patent № 174 465 covering "the method of, and apparatus for, transmitting vocal or other sounds telegraphically…” the telephone.

5. After obtaining the patent for the telephone, Bell continued his many experiments in communication, which culminated in the invention of the photophone-transmission of sound on a beam of light – a precursor of today's optical fiber systems. He also worked in medical research and invented techniques for teaching speech to the deaf. The range of Bell's inventive genius is represented only in part by the eighteen patents granted in his name alone and the twelve he shared with his collaborators.