16 January 1857
Today I met with a friend of my father Graham. My father is Alexander Melville Bell. I admire him. He is such a genius asked my parents if I could have his name as well. Alexander Melville Bell -my father- let me to have his name. I love my dad too. He is pretty smart. I am proud to have his name too. Almost everybody in Edinburgh knows him. He is a teacher, he educates in somewhere called University of Edinburgh . I have never been there he thinks I am too small to go there. I am 7. I think I am big enough but he doesn’t agree. But he promised me to take me there when I am older. Last week we decided that we should offer something helpful to the Ben’s father Mr. Herdsman when I noticed the slow process of husking the wheat grain. So we invented a machine with Ben. It was a proud day for us when we boys marched into Mr. Herdsman’s office, presented him with our sample of cleaned wheat, and suggested paddling wheat in a dried-out vat. 1863 Today is my 16th birthday and my mother bought me a new pair of shoes as my birthday present. She played some lovely piano music as always. She is very talented. I love listening to her music. She is doing a great job even though she is losing her hearing. I really admire her. I am worried for her. She can hardly hear me when I speak to her I wanted to invent a machine for her that can help her hear. I have invented a machine before I could do this too. My father was already working on them. With Brother Melville, we built a speaking device. We gave it as a gift to our mother. Her hearing is a bit better now. I made a machine that helped my mother. I think I can help the world in this way, building machines that help people machines that make life easier. She can hear us better. I am really happy. During the summer I mastered my father's visible speech system in 5 weeks. I know all about it now. Upon leaving school, I travelled to London to live with my grandfather, Alexander Bell. He is an expert on mechanics of speech, speech therapist and teacher of elocution. I secured a position as a pupil-teacher of elocution and music, in Weston House Academy, at Elgin, Moray, Scotland. 1868 I feel bad today; it is the 3rd anniversary of my grandfather’s death. After his death I inherited his practice. I need to prove him that I am a good grandchild to him. My grandfather’s distinctive achievement was the invention of Visible Speech, a system of symbols by which the position of the vocal organs in speech was indicated. I am still working on it to make it better. Today I also remembered that my little brother Melville died last year of tuberculosis. He was very young. We were all sick at that time. I had to leave college for a little time when I was sick. But thankfully I survived. Wish I had a solution for tuberculosis too but I am not a biologist. I hope it wouldn’t take any other family members. Or I might just start to get education for biology so I can find a cure. |
Inventor of the Phone Alexander Graham Bell |
Journals 1-3 |