The death of the two brothers of the young scientist from tuberculosis, and the physician’s report that he himself was threatened by the dread malady, forced a change in his plans and withdrew him from an atmosphere which was so favorable to the development of his great ideas.  He was told that he must seek a new climate and lead a more vigorous life in the open.  Accompanied by his father, he removed to America and at the age of twenty-six took up the struggle for health in the little Canadian town of Brantford.

He occupied himself by teaching his father’s system of visible speech among the Mohawk Indians.  In this work he met with no little success.  At the same time he was gaining in bodily vigor and throwing off the tendency to consumption which had threatened his life.  He did not forget the great idea which filled his imagination and eagerly sought the telephone with such crude means as were at hand.  He succeeded in designing a piano which, with the aid of the electric current, could transmit its music over a wire and reproduce it.

While lecturing in Boston on his system of teaching visible speech, the elder Bell received a request to locate in that city and take up his work in its schools.  He declined the offer, but recommended his son as one entirely competent for the position.  Alexander Graham Bell received the offer, which he accepted, and he was soon at work teaching the deaf mutes in the school which Boston had opened for those thus afflicted.  He met with the greatest success in his work, and ere long achieved a national reputation.  During the first year of his work, 1871, he was the sensation of the educational world.  Boston University offered him a professorship, in which position he taught others his system of teaching, with increased success.

The demand for his services led him to open a School of Vocal Physiology.  He had made some improvements in his father’s system for teaching the deaf and dumb to speak and to understand spoken words, and displayed great ability as a teacher.  His experiments with telegraphy and telephony had been laid aside, and there seemed little chance that he would turn from the work in which he was accomplishing so much for so many sufferers, and which was bringing a comfortable financial return, and again undertake the tedious work in search for a telephone.

Fortunately, Bell was to establish close relationships with those who understood and appreciated his abilities and gave him encouragement in his search for a new means of communication.  Thomas Sanders, a resident of Salem, had a five-year-old son named Georgie who was a deaf mute.  Mr. Sanders sought Bell’s tutelage for his son, and it was agreed that Bell should give Georgie private lessons for the sum of three hundred and fifty dollars a year.  It was also arranged that Bell was to reside at the Sanders home in Salem.  He made arrangements to conduct his future experiments there.