Alexander Graham Bell is most renowned for inventing the telephone in 1876, but he worked on many smaller, quirky projects as well. Here are some interesting facts about Bell, according to the Telephone Museum of New Mexico.
He experimented with sheep for 30 years to develop an ewe that would bear more than one lamb at a time.
He studied music under August Benoit Bertini, a French composer. He planned a musical career but ended up following in his father’s footsteps as an inventor.
When he was 14 years old, he invented a rotary brushing wheel to clean husks from wheat for a local farmer.
He conducted experiments with kites that could lift men.
He trained his Skye Terrier to growl steadily and manipulated the dog’s mouth and vocal cords to form the words “ow ah oo, ga-ma-ma,” meaning “How are you, grandmother?”
He wanted the phone greeting to be “Ahoy” instead of “Hello.”
When Bell was buried in Nova Scotia, all telephones in the U.S. were silent for two minutes in his honor.
