STORIES OF THE SMARTEST BRAINS

Alexander Graham Bell’s Mistake That Leads to  the Invention of the Telephone  

 Alexander Graham Bell was all of twelve years old when his mother started losing her hearing. So bell learnt a manual finger language he could use to let his mother know about the conversations that  occur in the family. He later developed a way of speaking in clear tones directly into his mother’s  forehead so that she could hear him. His mother’s deafness led Bell to study acoustics. When Bell was  sixteen years old, his father took him and his brothers to see a unique automaton created by Sir Charles  Wheatstone. The mechanical machine simulated a human voice. Bell and his elder brother Melvin spent  a lot of time learning everything they could about building an automaton. They then proceeded to build  one that said the word “mama”. 

From Automatons to Dogs  

 After the automaton , Bell continued with his studies of acoustic with a live subject their family  dog. He would reach into the dogs mouth and manipulate the vocal cords to see how it changed the  dog’s voices. Learning from the dog’s vocal cord, Bell started experimenting on tuning forks to further  explore the transmission of sound. At the age of 19, Bell wrote a report on his research which was read  by Alexander Ellis – a friend of Bell’s father. Alexander Ellis immediately pointed out that similar work  was done by a German physicist named Herman Von Helmholtz. He procured the physicist book and  sent it to Bell. 

The German Mistranslations that changed the World  

 Bell was quite dismayed to know that someone else had already done research on his ideas. But  being curious, he ventured to read the physicist book. The book was however written in German. So Bell  had to rely on translated works. And thankfully for the world , the translation were erroneously. 

 Hermann Von Helmholtz had created a machine that used tuning forks and resonant chambers to recreate vowel sounds. Hermann was generating vowel sounds artificially , but because of the  erroneous translation, Bell thought that Hermann was transmitting vowel sounds electrically over a  wire . And the only reason his own research was trailing Herman’s was because of his lack of knowledge  about electronics. So Bell ventured forward to remedy that and started learning and experimenting with  electromagnetism and sound. He figured that if vowels could be produced electrically by Harmann,  them so could entire speeches and conversations. And he tried to figure out ways on how that could be  done. 

 And because of these experiments, he later on invented the telephone. But if Bell had known  German he would have never gone on to conduct his experiment with electricity and invented the  telephone!

The underlying truth behind this story is ” if you work hard enough, luck will assist you.  Impossible is nothing . You can be beaten by tragedies. Or you can be challenged by them and  try to find ways on how to improve your situation . Gradual buildup of your tackling your  challenges is what will lead to immense success”!! 

Thomas Edison: The Worst Fisherman Who Ever Lived 

 Thomas Alva Edison had been one of the most successful scientist the world had ever seen. He  invented the phonograph, the motion picture, and the electric light bulb. In all, Edison had 1,093 U.S  patent by his name. But people observed that as brilliant as Edison was at inventing new gadgets, he  was just as miserable as a fisherman. Edison used to spend an hour almost every day sitting at the end  of a dock and fish. He always fished all alone by himself, but he never caught any fish. 

The Reason Behind Being a Lousy Fisherman 

 People wondered Why was Edison so obsessed with fishing when he was so bad at it? Late in life ,  someone actually asked Edison as to the reason behind him being a lousy Fisherman . His answer was, “I  really never caught any fish because I have never used any bait.” 

 Thinking that Edison was crazy, a follow -up question was asked of him : “ Why in the world would  you fish without bait?” 

Edison answered “ Because when you fish without bait, people don’t bother you and neither do the fish.  It provides me my best time to think.” 

It’s no coincidence that the world’s best scientist was also the world’s worst fisherman. In fact, because  Edison was the world’s worst fisherman ,he could become the world’s most prolific scientist. Edison  realized early that , at rest, brain switches from information gathering mode to pattern recognising  mode which leads to a lot of breakthroughs. 

Memoir of the story: 

 Set some alone time aside for yourself to reflect and think on ideas 

How Marie Curie Became the Most Famous Female  Scientist 

 Marie Curie was famous for being the first woman to win a Nobel Prize. She won not one, but  two Nobel Prizes—in two different fields: Physics and Chemistry. The catalyst for her fame was her  giving nature.  

 When Marie was a young girl in Poland , mainstream higher educational institutions did not  allow women in. Just so that her elder sister could go to Paris and study medicine, Marie worked as a 

governess for over three years and provided financial help to her sister. Marie herself continued her  education reading books and exchanging Letters. When an opportunity arose for Marie herself to go to  Paris to study, she refused because she didn’t have enough money. She spent a year and a half saving  money before she could go to Paris herself. 

Life in Paris  

 Even in Paris, her helpfulness was noticed by other folks, and, in return, they went out of their  way to help Marie when she needed help. In fact, when one of her colleagues learnt that Marie was  looking for lab space to conduct a few experiments , he put her in touch with Pierre Curie who was  professor at the school of physics and chemistry. They both fell in love and that’s how Marie became  Marie Curie. 

 In 1903,Curie jointly won her first Nobel Prize because of her research in radiation. In 1911, she won her second Nobel Prize for discovering the new elements of radium and polonium. But even though Marie was advancing the field of science by leaps and bounds, she didn’t get the recognition she  deserved from the French government. 

The French Academy of science didn’t elect her as a member by one or two votes. A lot of people in  power did not like her because she was a foreigner and then atheist. And, as a result, Mary constantly  had to hustle for better lab equipment and resource. Only when Marie started receiving invitations  from Poland two common settle there, the French government decided to build the Radium Institute  where world class equipment would be provided for further research in radioactivity. 

Life During the war 

The Radium institute’s development however was interrupted because of World War 1. Marie put her  heart and soul in helping the soldiers during the war. She went from hospital to hospital helping them  set up radiology labs and x-ray machines. She spent time learning automotive mechanics so that she  could build mobile radiography units that could be used at the front lines. 

When radium was in low supply, she provided one gram of it – worth over $100,000- from her own  stash. It was estimated that over a million wounded soldiers were treated by one of her X-ray units! 

 But Marie Curie was never given recognition for her war effort from the French government. And no  help was provided to her when she was struggling to find more radium to continue her research either. 

Becoming World Famous 

When Missy Meloney -a journalist was in Paris, She went to interview Marie. She was so out raged to  hear about her struggles to find more radium that she set up a Marie Curie radium fund. She enlisted  the help of other journalist back in United States to help her promote the fund and persuaded Marie  Curie to come tour the United States. 

Because of these efforts, Marie Curie’s fame grew! She was no longer someone only the scientist knew she become a household name!

The President of United States, Warren Harding, himself agreed to present a gift of one gram of radium  to Marie Curie. The day before Marie was to meet Warren Harding, however she came to know the  radium was going to be gifted to her personally. She complained. The radium should be gifted to  science, not to her. She made them call in a lawyer at the last moment so that the radium could be  gifted to her lab instead to her personally. Over her entire life, even though Marie Curie faced a lot of  setbacks, she never let it sour her. She kept on living her life not for herself but for others. 

 Anecdote from the story is be helpful. Help with no expectations in return. Things will work out. No  one has achieved anything of importance without struggle. The more stories people hear about your  struggles, the more fame you will get.

By: Yogasree Srinivasan

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