Alexander Graham Bell (1847-1922) (1713)

Alexander Graham Bell's family were no strangers to the communicative arts. His grandfather was a well-known elocutionist and actor in Edinburgh, where the younger Alexander was born on March 3, 1847. Bell's father gained a worldwide reputation as a teacher of correct speech and lecturer on education. Alec's mother was a musician and a portrait painter, and her son was born with such a talent for music that from infancy he could play by ear and improvise by piano.

In 1870 the family moved to North America and settled in Canada. Later Alexander went to Boston, where he opened a School of Vocal Physiology for teachers of the deaf and became professor at Boston University. His job brought him into contact with the scientific minds of the city. Furthermore he began the electrical experiments which resulted in his invention of the telephone.

In his laboratory notebook Alexander recorded the description of the most important experiment in his life. He leaned over transmitter connected to a reed receiver that his assistant, Thomas Watson (in another room at the far end of an entry hall with two intervening doors), pressed against his ear. Alexander shouted into the mouthpiece: "Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you". To his delight his assistant came and declared that he had heard and understood what Bell said. Bell asked him to repeat the words. He answered, "You said: Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you". They then changed places and Bell listened at the reed receiver while Mr. Watson read a few passages from a book into the mouthpiece. The words came clearly and intelligibly.

On April 4, 1877, the first true telephone line was established between Somerville, Massachusetts and Boston, the distance of about three miles. Bell got many prizes for his invention, among which was the James Watt silver medal in England and the Volta Prize by the French Government. His fellow inventor Thomas Edison spoke of him as "the friend whose world-famed invention annihilated time and space, and brought the human family in closer touch".

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4. Robert Goddard – the Father of Space Age (1733)

Born in 1882 in Worcester, Massachusetts, Robert Goddard had been interested in space exploration and rocketry from childhood. Due to various illnesses, that often kept him out of school, he did much reading at home. Among his books on mathematics and the physical and chemical sciences were such science fiction works as H. G. Wells' War of the Worlds and Jules Verne's Journey from the Earth to the Moon. His diary and early notebooks show that he was fascinated with the idea of space travel.

Being a teenager Robert fell ill with tuberculosis. Although the disease remained inactive for many years, it kept him in a physically weak condition. He once wrote to a friend, "It's shocking how short life is and how much there is to do. We have to take chances and do what we can".

Robert Goddard worked far beyond the limits of his poor health. Receiving his Ph. D. in physics in 1913, he chose a career in university teaching and research. Most of his moderate income from teaching he added to the small amount he received from the Smithsonian Institution to finance his rocket experiments. Goddard worked to make his dream of conquering space come true.

In the dry and sunny southwest in Mexico, during ten years of brilliant work, he developed and experimented with guided and stabilized rocket flights. Goddard was the first to use a gyroscope; the first to use deflector vanes in the rocket motor blast to guide the missile; and in 1935, he was the first to launch a rocket which flew faster than the speed of sound.

Goddard contributed many advanced ideas to help the war effort, among which was the basic plan for the bazooka, the rocket launcher which was eventually used as an antitank weapon.

If Goddard had lived only 17 years longer, he would have seen his life's work crowned with success. In 1962 John Glenn piloted America's first spacecraft in orbit around the earth; and seven years later, Neil Armstrong became the first man to set foot upon the moon. Such achievements were possible only by the amazing power of liquid-fuel rockets which Goddard's research had made possible.

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