Alexander Graham Bell

Alexander Bell wanted to find a way to more effectively communicate with his hearing impaired mother. His father’s work in speech pathology aided this lifelong interest. At the University of London, Herman von Helmholtz’s work with electrical tuning forks intrigued him. Lacking sufficient knowledge of German, Alexander misinterpreted Helmholtz’s theory and thought it meant that sound could be transmitted over a wire. Later on Bell admitted, “If I had been able to read German, I might never have begun my experiments in electricity.” But those experiments led to the invention of the telephone. At that time it would have been considered a wild speculation, bordering on crazy, to say that your voice could travel to Europe (or even to the next town) on a wire. He invented other devices too but this is his most prominent and best known achievement. It was a great achievement for which we are profoundly grateful.

We rightfully honor him for this achievement but let’s not forget the One who built this potential into wires and electricity. God created the potential, Bell discovered it. People are still discovering marvelous potentials in nature. They are amazing achievements, but this kind of science depends on the predictability of the laws of nature put there by the Creator.

It’s wonderful on the sunny side,

Henry Wiebe