Description:

ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL
(1847 - 1922) American inventor of the telephone, formed the Bell Telephone Company, and established the Volta Laboratory which produced numerous related inventions and improvements on existing technology. Fine content manuscript L.S. "Alexander Graham Bell" on his "Volta Laboratory" letterhead, 1p. 8vo., Washington, June 1, 1881 to James P. Burbank. In part: "...Will you please let me know what sort of income you are making now, as I have under consideration the advisability of making it worth your while to come to Washington in the autumn to devote yourself to Visible Speech work. I have already sufficient material on hand to keep you for several months...". Fine. In 1880, Bell was awarded the Volta Prize of $50,000 francs (approx. $10,000) by the French government for his invention of the telephone. He then established the Volta Laboratory Association with the intention of furthering research into ways to aid the deaf. "Visible Speech", invented by Bell's father, was a shorthand and teaching technique in which every sound was represented by a symbol, with the intention of helping the deaf to speak by putting these sounds together. Fine condition. Interestingly, Burbank was one of Bell's first pupils in lip-reading, and two years earlier had published Principles of Elocution, with Exercises and Notations for Pronunciation, Intonation, Emphasis, Gesture and Emotional Expressions.

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January 31, 2013 11:00 AM EST
Stamford, CT, US

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