The Alexander Graham Bell National Historic site is located in the lakeside village of Baddeck on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. The 25 acre property includes a museum that shows artifacts and documents of Bell’s experimental work.
Bell and his wife Mabel visited Baddeck in 1885 and fell in love with the area. In 1886, they started building their summer home, which they called, Beinn Bhreagh. It means beautiful mountain in Scottish Gaelic.
They used the home for research and to conduct many experiments. Alexander also had a boatbuilding facility there that built experimental crafts, lifeboats and yachts from 1885 to 1928. Beinn Bhreagh still belongs to Bells descendants and they are buried there.
The museum takes great pride to show Bells work besides the telephone. His interests were varied and included deaf education, kites, airplanes, hydrofoils, artificial respiration, science, travel and animal husbandry.
The museum has a lot of big displays. The original HD-4 hull of the hydrfoil boat that set the world speed record of over 70mph in 1919 is there and a full scale replica of the hydrofoil. The museum also has the AEA Silver Dart ,the first heavier than air craft to be flown in Canada.
I really was fascinated to learn about the photophone. Bell considered the photophone his best invention. It was a device that allowed transmission of speech on a beem of light. It’s unbelievable to me that the first wireless voice message was sent in 1880.
I’d recommend at a least few hours to take in this nice museum. Easy to see why the Bells loved Baddeck so much.
