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Telephone inventor’s letter to sell for £40,000?

Monday 16 January, 2012

By Anthony Hill

Scribbled note from Alexander Graham Bell goes to auction.

A handwritten letter from the inventor of the telephone is expected to fetch £40,000 this week at auction.

The eight-page note, sent by Alexander Graham Bell to his parents, includes a diagram explaining how not to get electrocuted during thunderstorms. He had decided to write after hearing of an incident at their Canadian mansion.

Dated 10 June, 1878, the message reads: “I am quite troubled by your account of the lightning accident at Tutela Heights. The accident shows that the earth terminals of your telephone line are defective, for the current found a shorter path to the ground through two of your poles.”

Bobby Livingston, vice president at RR Auction, said: “The early mechanics of the device were complicated and required extreme attention to detail, without which, results could be disastrous - even fatal.”

The one-of-a-kind item is being sold online by the specialist firm, with the sale, due to end on Wednesday 18 January, expected to eventually raise £40,000.

In his letter, the inventor also tells his parents of his newborn daughter’s appearance. “Elsie has been improving rapidly and has now developed into a healthy-fat-nice-looking baby with tremendous eyes - and a clear and light complexion,” he wrote.

Bell was born in Edinburgh in 1847, but moved to Canada in 1870. While best known for creating the world’s first telephone, he is also credited with inventing the metal detector.