Bell letter set to fetch £40k

A LETTER from Alexander Graham Bell to his parents explaining how to safely use the telephone is expected to fetch £40,000 at auction later this month.

Bell, who was born in Edinburgh in 1847, had learned of a “lightning accident” caused by the phone at his parent’s mansion in Ontario, Canada.

He goes to great length explaining how the phone should be correctly set up, providing hand-drawn diagrams which would prevent electrocution during a thunderstorm.