Bell, Alexander Graham

Alexander Graham Bell (1847-1922) conducted many experiments and tests which led to his invention of the telephone in the Sanders house, 292 Essex St., on the site of the Y.M.C.A. building. The Sanders' home was the haven of Dr. Alexander Graham Bell during the period when he was struggling to perfect his invention of the telephone. Bell lived from 1873-1876 in the Sanders' house where he gave lessons in visible speech to Mrs. Sanders' six-year-old grandson who was born deaf. Bell's day work was at Boston University where he was a lecturer on vocal physiology and electrical apparatus. Thomas Sanders, father of the deaf child, became so interested in Bell and had such faith in the value of his inventions, that in the years 1874-78 he advanced a large part of the money it cost to make the telephone a commercial success. The first public lecture on the telephone illustrated by the actual transmission was the Essex Institute lecture, delivered in Lyceum Hall on Feb. 12,1877. The first dispatch ever sent by telephone proceeded from that meeting to Boston.