Most people have heard of Helen Keller’s remarkable friendship with Anne Sullivan, her “Teacher,” who first taught her how to communicate.
As the news of what Sullivan had achieved with Keller spread in 1887, Keller became so famous that many people wanted to meet her. Over the next 80 years, Keller’s fame gave her introductions to a wide variety of notable people—inventors, writers, world leaders, presidents, and actors. Once they met her, many became her friend.
Bell’s Impact
Keller first met inventor Dr. Alexander Graham Bell when she was six years old. Her parents had taken her to a special doctor to see if anything could be done about her eyesight. The doctor referred the Kellers to Bell. Bell had become famous for inventing the telephone in 1876, but when Keller met him, he was working with children who were deaf. Keller recalled later that she could sense Bell’s kindness. She sat on his knee and examined his watch, which he made vibrate, to her delight. It was Bell who referred the Kellers to the Perkins Institution, which brought Anne Sullivan into Keller’s life.
At age seven, Keller wrote to Bell, telling him how much she enjoyed their meeting. She spent time with Bell and his wife, who was deaf from a childhood case of scarlet fever, at their homes in Washington, D.C., and in Nova Scotia, Canada. As a 13-year-old, Keller accompanied Bell to Chicago’s World’s Columbian Exposition in 1893.
Bell gave Keller both emotional and financial support. When she decided she wanted to go to college, he encouraged her and set up a fund to help pay some of her expenses. For her part, Keller dedicated her first autobiography with the words, “To Alexander Graham Bell, who has taught the deaf to speak and enabled the listening ear to hear speech from the Atlantic to the Rockies.” Their friendship lasted until Bell’s death in 1922.
Fellow Writers
Denne historien er fra March 2017-utgaven av Cobblestone American History Magazine for Kids.
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Denne historien er fra March 2017-utgaven av Cobblestone American History Magazine for Kids.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Eye in the Sky
An interview with Joe Piotrowski
Airborne Animals
Humans have taken to the skies in balloons, gliders, and airplanes-but we're not alone among the clouds. Animals of all sorts have evolved to harness wind power.
TAKING OFF
The Wright brothers expected airplanes to “take off,” but even they might be amazed at the way the airline industry has become big business. In the past, it was expensive to send something by plane.
GROWTH OF AN INDUSTRY
After their historic flight at Kitty Hawk in 1903, Wilbur and Orville Wright returned to Dayton, Ohio. They spent the next few years making adjustments and building additional versions of their powered aircraft in their bicycle shop.
WHY KITTY HAWK?
The Wright brothers searched carefully for the best place to test their gliders and flying machines. Their main concern was for good, steady winds. But they also hoped to find a remote location to allow them to perform tests away from the public eye.
Two Brothers From Ohio
Most people do not realize that the Wright brothers—Wilbur, born in 1867, and Orville, born in 1871—performed various scientific experiments before inventing their aircraft. For as long as anyone in their hometown of Dayton, Ohio, could remember, the Wright boys had worked on mechanical projects.
A Helping Hand
May 6, 1896. A group of people who had gathered beside the Potomac River, just south of the U.S. capital, grew quiet. Then, it erupted in cheers as a small, unmanned aircraft took to the skies and flew for more than half a mile. The flight came seven years before the Wright brothers’ first manned, powered flight. The inventor of the aircraft was Dr. Samuel Pierpont Langley.
THE IDEA MEN
People dreamed of flying thousands of years before the Wright brothers found success near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. These dreamers, such as Leonardo da Vinci, studied birds flying and imagined how humans might do the same—if only they had wings. Other men developed a more hands-on approach to the topic. Early inventors made wings of cloth, glue, and feathers and tied these creations to their arms in an attempt to imitate nature.
Da Vinci's 4 Designs
Have you ever wondered how a bird flies? Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) did. He thought that understanding how a bird flies would provide the key to human flight. So, what did da Vinci learn from birds?
Silken Wings
Seven hundred years before the Wright brothers began experimenting with human flight, the Chinese had already mastered its secrets—with kites.