but for some people, this is the gift one that is the alexander graham bell association for the deaf and hard of hearing helps to give. the nonprofit based in georgetown uses donations to aid to families who need help paying for hearing devices and developmental programs. elaina who was also miss pennsylvania usa 2016 lost her hearing from bacterial meningitis when she was 4 years old. the nonprofit helped pay for enrichment programs and special schooling and also received this cochlear implant to help her hear. >> i had a very, very successful surgery. and my left ear and then having that follow-up with the oral went there. and i think that's really why i -- i speak as well and hear as well as i do. >> the alexander graham bell organization donates more than a half million dollars in scholarships and financial aid each year to improve the lives of the deaf and hard of hearing. donations are being acce ptedto support the cause. >>> and they're halfway there but a northeast d.c. football team really needs your help to raise the money it needs to get beacon house football program. thes

at the time, he was working on improving alexander graham bell's telephone and was also trying to develop recording telegraph, so he put these two ideas together in his mind and made essentially a recording telephone. if you were to walk into a recording studio in edison's era, there'd be no microphones. instead of a microphone, what was used was known as an acoustical horn or a recording horn. that was what captured the sound and transferred the sound waves onto the master record. ♪ is that a tear in your eye, dear? ♪ as the singer sang or a band played, the air in the room would vibrate and an acoustical recording horn would collect the sound waves, and these would be transferred through sound pressure down onto a cutting stylus which cut the sound pressure waves into the record. musicians really had to play for the recording equipment so you would set up the recording equipment, and then the musicians would gather around the recording horn, and, for example, if someone had a solo, they would move up closer to the horn, and if they were not doing a solo, they would have to move away fro

the alexander graham bell association is changing lives with the help of donations to make a big difference. >> reporter: daniel and elena have something in common that you may not notice right away. daniel and elena are deaf. these small electronic medical devices implants opens up a new world for them. both started wearing them when they were young. it's improved their speech and hearing dramatically. daniel was born deaf. he says the device gave him new life. >> i cannot imagine living my life without hearing and speaking. >> everything in my life i relied on my hearing. >> reporter: bacterial meningitis stole her hearing. her parents moved fast. graham bell association, a nonprofit in georgetown. it provides assistance and other resources to families who don't want to depend on sign language. the nonprofit ceo. >> to see their face. to see the emotion of the parents when they can hear a mother tell the child i love you. that's incredible. >> the orza recipients get cochlear implants. >> you can't really tell but i have a little circular bump. >> that's where the implant is. the transmit

they even brought in alexander graham bell at one point, who had this very crude metal detector that he was trying to find a bullet and all that was coming up were signals being picked up from the springs in the mattress that were metal. so they couldn't get a reading on where the bullet was. as it turns out, the doctor was looking in the wrong pathway. he didn't believe in microorganisms or bacteria, and he kept putting his fingers in the wound and it was getting more and more infected grade garfield died as a result of infection, not specifically for the bullets. today he would have survived, with medicine today. shortly after he was shot, in his recovery time he went to the new jersey seaside in hopes of the fresh air and being out by the ocean would help him get well, but it didn't. after several months of agony, he died on september 19, 1881. >> after president garfield died, people got together and formed a commission and raised money through donations and completed this building in 1890. this building is a mausoleum. a mausoleum is a giant tomb. except this doesn't look like a

millard: i was looking for another subject with a lot of science in it, and i was researching alexander graham belljust doing general research and i fell upon the story of him inventing this induction balance to find the bullet in garfield after he had been shot. it really stunned to be because again i had never heard this story before. i cannot really understand it they'll was young, invented the telephone five years earlier, suddenly famous, a little bit of money, that all of these ideas he wanted to pursue, but as soon as garfield was shot, he abandoned everything and turned his world upside down to try to help them, and unlike most americans, i do not know anything about garfield except that he had been assassinated. and so, i started researching him and i was stunned. he was this extraordinary man, absolutely brilliant, incredibly courageous. runaway slave, was instrumental in bringing about black suffrage and had so much promise for our country, and it was such a tragedy and it never should have happened, and i was hooked and i thought, i do not know if anyone is one to read a book about jame

it's the year alexander graham bell had his success in communicating with his mr.atson through his pioneering efforts with the telephone. it's the year of the -- and this is, i hope, not forecasting what this year may bring us, but it is the year of the hayes tilden presidential contest, one of the most bitterly disputed in american history, that ended up hanging upon the disputed electoral ballots of south carolina, louisiana, and -- wait for it -- florida. it is the year of the publication in britain and the united states of the adventures of tom sawyer, and, of course, as i'm sure our distinguished panelists will elaborate upon, it's intriguing to see how those two grand meteors of 19th century american letters would intertwine themselves over time. most intriguingly, at least to me as an historian of the west, it is also the year in which george armstrong custer on june 25th of that year and then less than two months later "wild bill" hickok on august 2nd transformed to their realm in american mythology, entering the great pantheon of americans who are winners