He did not have a middle name, unlike his two brothers, and asked for his at the age of 11 to honour his family's friend that had been his dad's patient.
He was a ventriloquist, and trained his dog to growl in such as way, that it sounded like it said, "How are you, Grandma?"
He and his brother constructed an automaton that could speak.
His study of acoustics was likely a result of his reaction to his mother's hearing loss and how he learned to communicate to her.
He and his partners initially tried to sell the telephone's patent to Western Union, but were rejected, being told their technology was just "a toy".
The first person to buy stock in his company was Emperor Pedro II of Brazil.
He was involved in transforming current technologies into a hydrofoil boat as concept, experimented with kites made of tetrahedrons and his wife supported the endeavor that lead to a "heavier-than-air" double winged motorized aircraft (the Silver Dart), constructed a metal detector that failed to find the bullet that entered President Andrew Garfield after his assassination, a wireless technology, and improvements to the phonograph design that supported his father-in-law's investment in Edison's design.
He didn't get married until he was financially stable, and gave all but ten of his initial stocks to his wife.
Two out of four children died in infancy.
He is vilified in Deaf culture because of his belief that the deaf should be taught to speak, and that deafness should be avoided and not propagated, and was connected to the eugenics movement that managed to pass laws in some states to force manditory sterilization on certain populations.
Is credited saying, " When one door closes, another door opens, but we so often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door, that we do not see the ones open for us."
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