Alex G. Bell...................



In addition to being an admired educational facility, a small plaque on its exterior describes the building's place in the history of telecommunications, noting Alexander Graham Bell's first wireless communication in 1880, where a beam of light was used to transmit a voice message using his newly invented Photophone.^[7] Bell's laboratory was nearby on 'L' Street and his work was a pioneering step in optical communications, the forerunner of fiber-optic communication systems which now carry most of the world's telecommunications traffic. Bell was also a well-known educator who taught at a special day school for deaf children,^[8] who trained teachers of the deaf, and who additionally created an institution for the study of deafness (also in Washington, DC).