Alexander Graham Bell

Alexander Graham Bell (1847–1922) appears on the 10-cent Famous American Inventors stamp issued October 28, 1940. Driven to improve communication for the deaf, Bell invented the microphone and, later, the telephone. It was debated whether he was the first to develop a telephone, and in 2001 the U.S. Congress voted to declare Italian inventor Antonio Meucci the originator of the idea. Among Bell's other inventions were devices for teaching speech to the deaf.