Antonio Meucci

Antonio Meucci
Born	13 April 1808(1808-04-13) Florence, Italy
Died	18 October 1889(1889-10-18) (aged 81) Staten Island, New York
Residence	New York
Citizenship	Italian and U.S.
Nationality	Italian and U.S.
Fields	Electromagnetism, communication devices
Known for	Inventor, innovator, business man supporter of Italian unification

Antonio Meucci (Italian pronunciation: [an'tɔnjo me'uttʃi]; April 13, 1808 – October 18, 1889) was a compatriot of Italian revolutionary Giuseppe Garibaldi,^[1] and an inventor, best known for developing a voice communication apparatus in 1857. Many people credit him with the invention of the telephone^[2]

Meucci set up a form of voice communication link in his Staten Island home that connected the basement with the first floor. He submitted a patent caveat for his telephone-like device in 1871, which he chose not to renew after 1874. According to Meucci historian G.E. Schiavo: "Meucci was not granted a patent [for the device], but [he submitted] a caveat, a kind of provisional patent [application]. Anybody could get a caveat [filed in the patent office], even if the invention was worthless."^[3] In 1876, Alexander Graham Bell was granted a patent for the electromagnetic transmission of vocal sound by undulatory electric current.

Contents 1 Biography 1.1 Florence, Italy 1.2 Havana, Cuba 1.3 Staten Island, New York City, USA 1.4 Electromagnetic telephone 1.5 Bankruptcy 1.6 Caveat 1.6.1 Analysis 1.7 Business supporters 1.8 Trial 1.9 Death 2 Invention of the telephone 3 Other inventions 3.1 Patents 4 Historical debate 4.1 2002 parliamentary resolutions 5 Garibaldi-Meucci Museum 6 Popular culture 7 See also 8 References 9 Further reading 9.1 Documents of the trial 9.2 Scientific and historic research 9.3 US Congress Resolution 269 9.4 Museums and celebrations 9.5 Newspapers comments

Biography

Florence, Italy

Meucci was born at Via dei Serragli, 44 in San Frediano, a borough of Florence, Italy, on April 13, 1808. He studied chemical and mechanical engineering at the Florence Academy of Fine Arts and later worked at the Teatro della Pergola in Florence as a stage technician, assisting Artemio Canovetti.^[4] In 1834 Meucci constructed a type of acoustic telephone to communicate between the stage and control room at the Teatro della Pergola. This telephone was constructed on the principles of pipe-telephones used on ships and is still working.^[5]

He married costume designer Ester Mochi on August 7, 1834.

He was alleged to be part of a conspiracy involving the Italian unification movement in 1833–1834, and was imprisoned for three months with Francesco Domenico Guerrazzi.^[4]

Havana, Cuba

In October 1835, Meucci and his wife left Florence, never to return. They had accepted the proposal of a Spanish theater manager, Don Francisco Martì y Torrens, and emigrated to the Americas, stopping first in Cuba, then a Spanish province, where Meucci accepted a job at what was then called the Great Tacón Theater in Havana (at the time, the greatest theater in the Americas). In Havana he constructed a system for water purification and reconstructed the Gran Teatro, which had since been almost entirely destroyed by a hurricane.^[6]

In 1848 his contract with the Governor expired. Meucci was asked by a friend's doctors to work on Franz Anton Mesmer's therapy system on patients suffering from rheumatism. In 1849 Meucci developed a popular method of using electric shocks to treat illness and subsequently made an experiment developing a device through which one could hear inarticulated human voice. He called this device "telegrafo parlante" (lit. "talking telegraph").^[7] In 1850, the third renewal of his contract with Don Francisco Martì y Torrens expired. Meucci's friendship with the General Giuseppe Garibaldi made him a suspect citizen in Cuba. On the other hand, the fame reached by Samuel F. B. Morse in the United States encouraged Meucci to make his living through inventions.

Staten Island, New York City, USA

On April 13, 1850 Meucci and his wife left Havana to immigrate to the United States, settling in the Clifton area of Staten Island, New York, where he would live for the remainder of his life. In Staten Island he helped several countrymen committed to the Italian unification movement ("Risorgimento") and escaped from political persecution. He invested the substantial capital he had earned in Cuba in a tallow candle factory (the first of this kind in America) employing several Italian exiles. For two years Meucci also hosted in his cottage his friends the General Giuseppe Garibaldi and Colonel Paolo Bovi Campeggi, who arrived in New York two months after Meucci. They worked in Meucci's factory.

In 1854 Meucci's wife Ester became definitively invalid because of a serious form of rheumatoid arthritis, whereas Meucci continued his experiments. He is reported to have bought material from a certain Charles Chester's shop in New York.

Electromagnetic telephone

Meucci had studied the principles of electro magnetic voice transmission for many years, but was purportedly able to realise his dream of transmitting his voice through wires in 1856. Meucci had finally built the first prototype. He installed a telephone-like device within his house in order to communicate with his wife who was ill at the time. Some of Meucci's notes purportedly written in 1857 describes the basic principle of electromagnetic voice transmission or in other words, the telephone:

«consiste in un diaframma vibrante e in un magnete elettrizzato da un filo a spirale che lo avvolge. Vibrando, il diaframma altera la corrente del magnete. Queste alterazioni di corrente, trasmesse all'altro capo del filo, imprimono analoghe vibrazioni al diaframma ricevente e riproducono la parola».

Translation: "It consists of a vibrating diaphragm and an electrified magnet from a wire that wraps around it in a spiral. The vibrating diaphragm alters the current of the magnet. These alterations of current are all transmitted to the other end of the wire, creating analogous vibrations to the receiving diaphragm and thus, reproduce the words."

Meucci constructed the first electromagnetic telephone.^[8] He built his working prototype as a way of connecting his second-floor bedroom to his basement laboratory, and thus being able to communicate with his wife. Between 1856 and 1870, Meucci developed more than 30 different kinds of telephones on the basis of this prototype.

In about 1858, the painter Nestore Corradi made a sketch of Meucci's ideas (this drawing was used as the image on a stamp produced in 2003 by the Italian Postal and Telegraph Society^[9]).

Meucci had very good ideas of developing his prototype, however he didn't have the economical means to keep his company afloat so as to finance his invention. His candle factory went bankrupt and Meucci was then obliged to look for funds from rich Italian families. Unfortunately his efforts were in vain.

In 1860 Meucci asked his friend Enrico Bandelari to look for Italian capitalists willing to finance his project. However, military expeditions led by General Garibaldi in Italy had made the political situation in that country too unstable for anybody to invest.^[10] Meucci then purportedly published his invention in the New York Italian-language newspaper "L'Eco d'Italia", although no copy of such reports have ever been located dating back to searches prior to his court case in the 1880s.

Bankruptcy

At the same time, Meucci was led to poverty by some fraudulent debtors. On November 13, 1861 his cottage was auctioned. The purchaser allowed the Meuccis to live in the cottage without paying rent, but Meucci's private finances dwindled so that he soon had to live on public funds and by depending on his friends.

As mentioned in William J. Wallace's ruling,^[11] during the years 1859, 1860, and 1861 Meucci was in close business and social relations with William E. Ryder, who was interested in his inventions, paid the expenses of his experiments, and invested money in Meucci’s inventions. Their close working friendship continued until 1867.

In August 1870, Meucci reportedly was able to capture a transmission of articulated human voice at the distance of a mile by using a copper plait as a conductor, insulated by cotton. He called this device, the "telettrofono". While he was recovering from injuries that befell him in a boiler explosion aboard the Staten Island Ferry, Westfield, Antonio Meucci's financial and health state was so bad that his wife Ester sold his drawings and devices to a second-hand dealer to raise some money.

Caveat

On December 12, 1871 Meucci set up an agreement with Angelo Zilio Grandi (Secretary of the Italian Consulate in New York), Angelo Antonio Tremeschin (entrepreneur), Sereno G. P. Breguglia Tremeschin (businessman), in order to constitute the Telettrofono Company. The constitution was notarized by Angelo Bertolino, a Notary Public of New York. Although their society funded him with $20, only $15 was needed to file for a full patent application.^[12] The caveat his lawyer submitted to the US Patent Office on December 28, 1871 was numbered 3335 and titled "Sound Telegraph".

This is the text of Meucci's caveat, omitting legal details of the Petition, Oath, and Jurat:^[13]

Analysis

Meucci repeatedly focused on insulating the electrical conductor and even insulating the persons communicating, but does not explain why this would be desirable.^[14] The mouth piece is like a "speaking trumpet" so that "the sound concentrated upon the wire" is communicated to the other person, but he does not say that the sound is to be converted to variable electrical conduction in the wire.^[15] "Another instrument is also applied to the ears," but he does not say that variable electrical conduction in the wire is to be converted to sound.^[15] In the third claim, he claims "a sound conductor which is also an electrical conductor, as a means of communication by sound"^[16] which is consistent with acoustic sound vibrations in the wire that somehow get transmitted better if electrical conductors such as a wire or metallic tube are used.^[17] He emphasizes that the conductors "for mouth and ears... must be metallic", but does not explain why this would be desirable.^[18] He mentions "communication with the ground"^[19] but does not suggest that a ground return must complete a circuit if only "the wire" (singular case, not plural) is used between the sender's mouth piece and the receiver's ear piece, with one or the other person being electrically insulated from the ground by means of glass insulators ("...consists in isolating two persons... by placing them upon glass insulators; employing glass, for example, at the foot of the chair or bench on which each sits, and putting them in communication by means of a telegraph wire.").^[20]

Conspicuous by its absence is any mention of devices for converting sound to electrical waves and electrical waves to sound. There is no mention of an electromagnet, even though morse telegraphs use electromagnets. There is no mention of coils of wire or permanent magnets or magnetism. Neither is there any mention of a battery or other source of electrical power, nor of a diaphragm.

Business supporters

The members of Telettrofono Company either died or left New York City.

In summer 1872 Meucci and his friend Angelo Bertolino went to Edward B. Grant, Vice President of American District Telegraph Co. of New York, to ask for help. Meucci asked him for permission to test his telephone apparatus on the company's telegraph lines. He gave Grant a description of his prototype and a copy of his caveat. After waiting two years, Meucci went to Grant and asked him to be given back his documents, but Grant answered he had lost them.^[21][22]

(Critics dispute the claim that Meucci could not afford to file for a patent, as he filed for and was granted full patents in 1872, 1873, 1875, and 1876, at the cost of $35 each, for inventions unrelated to the telephone. However, others suggest that Meucci may not have felt his telephone invention had much commercial value, and prioritized his focus, energy and limited budget on inventions that appeared to have more immediate financial returns. When Meucci learned that Bell filed a patent that infringed on his invention, Meucci now understood that Bell's interest meant there was commercial value and then protested.)

About 1873 a certain Bill Carroll from Boston, who had news about Meucci's invention, asked him to construct a "telephone for divers". This device should allow divers to communicate with people on the surface. In Meucci's drawing, this device is essentially an electromagnetic telephone encapsulated to be waterproof.^[23][24]

On December 28, 1874, Meucci's caveat expired.

When Bell secured his own patent in 1876, Meucci took Bell to court in order to state his priority on the grounds of patent infringement. Being too poor to hire a legal team, Meucci was defended only by lawyer Joe Melli, an orphan whom Meucci treated as a son.

While the "American Bell Telephone Company v. Globe Telephone Company, Antonio Meucci, et al." trial was going on, the Bell Telephone Company became involved with another notable trial "The U.S. Government v. American Bell Telephone Company", instigated by the Pan-Electric Telephone Company which had secretly given the U.S. Attorney General 10% of its shares, employed him as a director, and then asked him to void Bell's patent. Had he succeeded in overturning Bell's patent, he stood to become exceeding rich by reason of his shares.^[25][26][27]

Trial

Meucci's telephone was said to be described in the L'Eco d'Italia newspaper of New York in the beginning of 1861, though no issues of the 1861-1863 period are available in the libraries of the United States. Having apparently been destroyed in a fire, Antonio Meucci had to swear in court proceedings what he remembered he wrote in the newspaper.

The Havana experiments were briefly mentioned in a letter by Meucci, published by Il Commercio di Genova of 1 December 1865 and by L'Eco d'Italia of October 21^st 1865 (both existing today).^[28]

One of the most important pieces of evidence brought up in the trial was Antonio Meucci's "Memorandum Book". This book, produced by Rider&Clark, contained Antonio Meucci's noted drawings and records since 1862 up to 1882. In the trial, Antonio Meucci was accused of having produced records after Alexander Graham Bell's invention and back-dated them. As proof, the prosecutor brought forward the fact that the Rider&Clark company was founded only in 1863. In the trial, Antonio Meucci said that William E. Rider himself, one of the owners, had given him a copy of the memorandum book in 1862, however Meucci was not believed.^[29]

On 13 January 1887, the United States Government moved to annul the patent issued to Bell on the grounds of fraud and misrepresentation. After a series of decisions and reversals, the Bell company won a decision in the Supreme Court, though a couple of the original claims from the lower court cases were left undecided.^[30][31] By the time that the trial wound its way through nine years of legal battles, the U.S. prosecuting attorney had died and the two Bell patents (No. 174,46 and dated 7 March 1876 and No. 186,787 dated 30 January 1877) were no longer in effect, although the presiding judges agreed to continue the proceedings due to the case's importance as a "precedent." With a change in administration and charges of conflict of interest (on both sides) arising from the original trial, the U.S. Attorney General dropped the law suit on 30 November 1897 leaving several issues undecided on the merits.^[32]

During a deposition filed for the 1887 trial, Meucci also claimed to have created the first working model of a telephone in Italy in 1834. In 1886, in the first of three cases in which he was involved, Meucci took the stand as a witness in the hopes of establishing his invention's priority. Meucci's evidence in this case was disputed due to lack of material evidence of his inventions as his working models were reportedly lost at the laboratory of American District Telegraph (ADT) of New York. ADT did not join with Western Union to become its subsidiary until 1901.^[33][34]

Meucci's patent caveat had described a 'lover's telegraph' which transmitted sound vibrations mechanically across a taut wire, a conclusion that was also noted in various reviews ("The court further held that the caveat of Meucci did not describe any elements of an electric speaking telephone…..", and "The court held that Meucci's device consisted of a mechanical telephone consisting of a mouthpiece and an earpiece connected by a wire, and that beyond this the invention of Meucci was only imagination.") ^[25][35] Meucci's work, like many other inventors of the period, was based on earlier acoustic principles and despite evidence of earlier experiments, the final case involving Meucci was eventually dropped upon his death.^[36]

Death

Meucci became ill in March 1889, and died on October 18, 1889 in Clifton, Staten Island in New York City.^[1][37]

Invention of the telephone

There exists much dispute over who deserves priority as the first inventor of the telephone, although Alexander Graham Bell was credited with being the first to transmit articulate speech by undulatory currents of electricity.

An Italian researcher in telecommunications, Basilio Catania, and the Federazione Italiana di Elettrotecnica have devoted a Museum to Antonio Meucci making a chronology of his inventing the telephone and tracing the history of the two trials opposing Antonio Meucci and Alexander Graham Bell.^[38][39] They both support the claim that Antonio Meucci was the real inventor of the telephone^[40] However, some scholars outside of Italy do not recognize the claims that Meucci's device had any bearing on the development of the telephone. Tomas Farley also writes that, "Nearly every scholar agrees that Bell and Watson were the first to transmit intelligible speech by electrical means. Others transmitted a sound or a click or a buzz but our boys [Bell and Watson] were the first to transmit speech one could understand."^[41]

In 1834 Meucci constructed a kind of acoustic telephone as a way to communicate between the stage and control room at the theatre "Teatro della Pergola" in Florence. This telephone is constructed on the model of pipe-telephones on ships and is still working.^[5]

In 1848 Meucci developed a popular method of using electric shocks to treat rheumatism. He used to give his patients two conductors linked to 60 Bunsen batteries and ending with a cork. He also kept two conductors linked to the same Bunsen batteries. He used to sit in his laboratory, while the Bunsen batteries were placed in a second room and his patients in a third room. In 1849 while providing a treatment to a patient with a 114V electrical discharge, in his laboratory Meucci is claimed to have heard his patient's scream through the piece of copper wire that was between them, from the conductors he was keeping near his ear. His intuition was that the "tongue" of copper wire was vibrating just like a leave of an electroscope; which means that there was an electrostatic effect. In order to continue the experiment without hurting his patient, Meucci covered the copper wire with a piece of paper. Through this device he heard inarticulated human voice. He called this device "telegrafo parlante" (lit. "talking telegraph").^[7]

On the basis of this prototype, Meucci is claimed to have worked on more than 30 kinds of telephone. In the beginning he was inspired by the telegraph. Differently from other pioneers of the telephone, such as Charles Bourseul, Philipp Reis, Innocenzo Manzetti and others, he did not think about transmitting voice by using the principle of the telegraph key (in scientific jargon, the "make-and-break" method), but he looked for a "continuous" solution, which means without interrupting the electric flux.

In 1856 Meucci is claimed to have constructed the first electromagnetic telephone, made of an electromagnet with a nucleus in the shape of a horseshoe bat, a diaphragm of animal skin, stiffened with potassium dichromate and keeping a metal disk stuck in the middle. The instrument was hosted in a cylindrical carton box.^[8] He supposedly constructed this as a way to connect his second-floor bedroom to his basement laboratory, and thus communicate with his wife who was an invalid.

Meucci separated the two directions of transmission in order to eliminate the so-called "local effect", adopting what we would call today a 4-wire-circuit. He constructed a simple calling system with a telegraphic manipulator which short-circuited the instrument of the calling person, producing in the instrument of the called person a succession of impulses (clicks), much more intense than those of normal conversation. As he was aware that his device required a bigger band than a telegraph, he found some means to avoid the so-called "skin effect" through superficial treatment of the conductor or by acting on the material (copper instead of iron). He said he used insulated copper wire.

In 1864 Meucci is claimed to have produced his "best device", using an iron diaphragm with optimized thickness and tightly clamped along its rim. The instrument was housed in a shaving-soap box, whose cover clamped the diaphragm.

In August 1870, Meucci is claimed to have obtained transmission of articulate human voice at a mile distance by using as a conductor a copper wire insulated by cotton. He called his device "telettrofono". Drawings and notes by Antonio Meucci claimed to be dated September 27, 1870 show that Meucci understood inductive loading on long distance telephone lines 30 years before any other scientists.^[42] The painting made by Nestore Corradi in 1858 mentions the sentence "Electric current from the inductor pipe".

It was additionally claimed that about 1873 Bill Carroll from Boston, who had heard news about Meucci's invention, asked him to construct a device to allow divers to communicate with people on the surface. In Meucci's drawing, this device appears to be an electromagnetic telephone, encapsulated to make it waterproof.

Other inventions

This list is also taken from Basilio Catania's historical reconstruction^[43]

• 1825 Chemical compound to be used as an improved propellant in fireworks
• 1834 In the Florence's Teatro della Pergola, he sets up a "pipe telephone" to communicate from the stage to the maneuver trellis-work, at about eighteen meters height.
• 1840 Improved filters and chemical processing of waters supplying the city of Havana, Cuba.
• 1844 First electroplating factory of the Americas, set up in Havana, Cuba. Before, objects to be electroplated were sent to Paris.
• 1846 Improved apparatus for electrotherapy, featuring a pulsed current breaker with rotating cross.
• 1847 Restructuring of the Tacón Theater in Havana, following a hurricane. Meucci conceived a new structure of the roof and ventilation system, to avoid the roof to be taken off in like situations.
• 1848 Astronomical observations by means of a marine telescope worth $280.
• 1849 Chemical process for the preservation of corpses, to cope with the high demand for bodies of immigrants to be sent to Europe, avoiding decomposition during the many weeks navigation.
• 1849 First discovery of electrical transmission of speech.
• 1850-1 First stearic candle factory of the Americas, set up in Clifton, NY.
• 1855 Realization of celestas, with crystal bars instead of steel, and pianos (one is on display at the Garibaldi-Meucci Museum, in Rosebank, NY)
• 1856 First lager beer factory of Staten Island, the Clifton Brewery, in Clifton, NY.
• 1858-60 Invention of paraffin candles. US Patent No. 22,739 on a candle mold for the same and US Patent No. 30,180 on a rotating blade device for finishing the same.
• 1860 First paraffin candle factory in the world, the New York Paraffine Candle Co., set up in Clifton, NY, early in 1860, then moved to Stapleton, NY. It produced over 1,000 candles per day.
• 1860 Experiments on the use of dry batteries in electrical traction and other industrial applications.
• 1860 Process to turn red corals into a pink color (more valued), as requested by Enrico Bendelari, a merchant of New York.
• 1862 US Patent No. 36,192 on a kerosene lamp that generates a very bright flame, without smoke, (therefore not needing a glass tube), thanks to electricity developed by two thin platinum plates embracing the flame.
• 1862-63 Process for treating and bleaching oil or kerosene to obtain siccative oils for paint (US Patents No. 36,419 and No. 38,714). "Antonio Meucci Patent Oil" was sold by Rider & Clark Co., 51 Broad Street, New York, and exported to Europe. See expert comment.
• 1864 Invention of new, more destructive ammunition for guns and cannons, proposed to the US army and to General Giuseppe Garibaldi.
• 1864-65 Processes to obtain paper pulp from wood or other vegetable substances (US Patents No. 44,735, No. 47,068 and No. 53,165). Associated Press was interested in producing paper with this process, which was also the first to introduce the recovery of the leaching liquor. See expert comment.
• 1865 Process for making wicks out of vegetable fiber, US Patent No. 46,607.
• 1867 A paper factory, the "Perth Amboy Fiber Co.," was set up, in Perth Amboy, NJ. The paper pulp was obtained from either marsh grass or wood. It was the first to recycle waste paper. See expert comment.
• 1871 US Patent No. 122,478 "Effervescent Drinks," fruit-vitamin rich drinks that Meucci found useful during his recovery from the wounds and burns caused by the explosion of the Westfield ferry. See expert comment.
• 1871 Filed a caveat for a telephone device in December
• 1873 US Patent No. 142,071 "Sauce for Food." According to Roberto Merloni, general manager of the Italian STAR company, this Patent anticipates modern food technologies. See expert comment.
• 1873 Conception of a screw steamer suitable for navigation in canals.
• 1874 Process for refining crude oil (caveat)
• 1875 Filter for tea or coffee, much similar to that used in present day coffee machines.
• 1875 Household utensil (description not available) "combining usefulness to cheapness, that will find a ready sale."
• 1875 US Patent No. 168,273 "Lactometer," for chemically detecting adulterations of milk. It anticipates by fifteen years the well-known Babcock test. See expert comment.
• 1875 Upon request by Giuseppe Tagliabue (a Physical Instruments maker of Brooklyn, NY), Meucci devises and manufactures several aneroid barometers of various shapes.
• 1875 Meucci decided not to renew his telephone caveat, thus enabling Bell to get a patent.
• 1876 US Patent No. 183,062 "Hygrometer," which was a marked improvement over the popular hair-hygrometer of the time. He set up a small factory in Staten Island for fabrication of the same. See expert comment.
• 1878 Method for preventing noise on elevated railways, a problem much felt at the time in New York.
• 1878 Process for fabricating ornamental paraffin candles for Christmas trees.
• 1880 US patent application "Wire for Electrical Purposes"
• 1881 Process for making postage and revenue stamps.
• 1883 US Patent No. 279,492 "Plastic Paste," as hard and tenacious to be suitable for billiard balls. See expert comment.

Patents

US patent images in TIFF format

• U.S. Patent 22,739 1859 - candle mold
• U.S. Patent 30,180 1860 - candle mold
• U.S. Patent 36,192 1862 - lamp burner
• U.S. Patent 36,419 1862 - improvement in treating kerosene
• U.S. Patent 38,714 1863 - improvement in preparing hydrocarbon liquid
• U.S. Patent 44,735 1864 - improved process for removing mineral, gummy, and resinous substances from vegetables
• U.S. Patent 46,607 1865 - improved method of making wicks
• U.S. Patent 47,068 1865 - improved process for removing mineral, gummy, and resinous substances from vegetables
• U.S. Patent 53,165 1866 - improved process for making paper-pulp from wood
• U.S. Patent 122,478 1872 - improved method of manufacturing effervescent drinks from fruits
• U.S. Patent 142,071 1873 - improvement in sauces for food
• U.S. Patent 168,273 1875 - method of testing milk
• U.S. Patent 183,062 1876 - hygrometer
• U.S. Patent 279,492 1883 - plastic paste for billiard balls and vases

Historical debate

The question of whether Bell was the true inventor of the telephone is perhaps the single most litigated fact in U.S. history, and the Bell patents were defended in some 600 cases. Meucci was a defendant in American Bell Telephone Co. v. Globe Telephone Co. and others (the court’s findings, reported in 31 Fed. Rep. 729).

N. Herbert in his History of the Telephone said:

"To bait the Bell Company became almost a national sport. Any sort of claimant, with any sort of wild tale of prior invention, could find a speculator to support him. On they came, a motley array, 'some in rags, some on nags, and some in velvet gowns.' One of them claimed to have done wonders with an iron hoop and a file in 1867; a second had a marvelous table with glass legs; a third swore that he had made a telephone in 1860, but did not know what it was until he saw Bell's patent; and a fourth told a vivid story of having heard a bullfrog croak via a telegraph wire which was strung into a certain cellar in Racine, in 1851."^[44]

However, an Italian researcher in telecommunications Professor Basilio Catania provided evidence that Alexander Graham Bell was condemned for fraud and misrepresentation in 1887.^[45] Catania recounted that Meucci gave his prototypes to Edward B. Grant, Vice President of the American District Telegraph Co. of New York..^[46] Grant reportedly said he had lost the prototypes.

William J. Wallace’s ruling was regarded by historian Giovanni Schiavo as one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in the history of the U.S., and one of the most offensive, too.^[47]

2002 parliamentary resolutions

In 2002, on the initiative of congressman Vito Fossella, in cooperation with an Italian American deputation, the U. S. House of Representatives passed a resolution stating "that the life and achievements of Antonio Meucci should be recognized, and his work in the invention of the telephone should be acknowledged." Within its preamble it stated that: "if Meucci had been able to pay the $10 fee to maintain the caveat after 1874, no patent could have been issued to Bell."^[22][48][49] The resolution's sponsor described it as "a message that rings loud and clear recognizing the true inventor of the telephone, Antonio Meucci."^[50]

Others have disagreed with the contentious resolution.^[51] Vito Fossella who sponsored Resolution 269, and the U.S. House of Representatives directly contradicted findings of courts in New York, Massachusetts, Louisiana, Ohio, Maryland, and numerous others states.^[52] Additionally, there was significant criticism that Resolution 269 impugned Alexander Graham Bell's morality.

The Government of Canada responded ten days later by unanimously passing a motion stating that Alexander Graham Bell was the inventor of the telephone.^[53][54]

Garibaldi-Meucci Museum

The Order of the Sons of Italy in America maintains a Garibaldi-Meucci Museum on Staten Island. The museum is located in a house that was built in 1840, purchased by Meucci in 1850, and rented to Giuseppe Garibaldi from 1850 to 1854. Exhibits include Meucci’s models and drawing and pictures relating to his life.^[55][56]

Popular culture

In the 1990 motion picture The Godfather Part III, the character Joey Zasa mentions Meucci as the inventor of the telephone. Meucci's name was also on the license plate of the Cadillac Zaza was auctioning off.

In the television series The Sopranos, the character Tony Soprano also mentions Meucci as the inventor of the telephone, stating "he was robbed" of being given proper credit. (Season 1, Episode 8: "The Legend of Tennessee Moltisanti")

In May 16, 1996 Umberto Silvestri, President of Telecom Italia, and Guido Clemente, Florence spokesman for the Arts, put a memorial tablet on Meucci's birthplace, Via dei Serragli 44, Florence, with the text: "Qui nacque il 13 aprile 1808 Antonio Meucci, Inventore del Telefono". At the same time a memorial tablet is placed in Gran Teatro in Havana where Meucci had his laboratory with the text: "Antonio Meucci expatriado italiano en la Habana entre los años 1835 y 1850 aquí en el teatro Tacón realizó aquellos experimentos de tranmisión acústica que lo llevaron a la invención del teléfono. La ciudad natal de Florencia y la ciudad hospitalaria de la Habana en su memoria"^[57]

In 2003 the Italian Communication Ministry and the Italian Postal and Telegraph Society produced a 0,52€ stamp portraying Antonio Meucci as the inventor of the telephone.

A 2005 TV series produced by the Italian National Broadcasting Network, depicts Mr. Edward B. Grant as cheating Meucci and Alexander Graham Bell as obtaining success by more or less illegal means.^[58][59]

Google commemorated with a special logo (doodle) Bell^[60] (March 3, 2008 - 161st birth's anniversary); In April 2008 the Italian language Google website celebrated Meucci's 200th birth anniversary with a special holiday logo on their webpage (April 13, 2008).^[61][62] While Bell's logo was adopted by Google worldwide, the Meucci doodle was only visible on the Italian language Google.

See also

• Alexander Graham Bell
• Canadian Parliamentary Motion on Alexander Graham Bell
• Charles Bourseul
• Elisha Gray
• Emile Berliner
• Garibaldi Memorial
• Innocenzo Manzetti
• Invention of the telephone
• Patent caveat
• Philipp Reis
• Thomas Edison
• Timeline of the telephone

References

Further reading

Documents of the trial

• Antonio Meucci's Deposition (New York, December 7, 1885 - January 1886), New York Public Library - Annex, New York. NY (USA) National Archives & Records Administration, New York, NY, FILE : Records of the U.S. Circuit Court, Southern District of New York, The American Bell Telephone Co. et al. v. The Globe Telephone Co. et al.
• Affidavit of Michael Lemmi (Translation of Meucci's Memorandum book) sworn Septemher 28, 1885. National Archives & Records Administration. Washington. DC. - RG48. Interior Dept. file 4513- 1885. Enclosure 2)

Scientific and historic research

• Catania Basilio, 2002, "The U.S. Government Versus Alexander Graham Bell: An Important Acknowledgment", Bulletin of Science Technology Society ; 22: 426-442
• Italian Society of Electrotechnics (Federazione Italiana di Elettrotecnica) Sala Antonio Meucci
• Scientific American Supplement No. 520, December 19, 1885
• Rossi Adolfo, Un Italiano in America. La Cisalpina , Milano 1881.
• Schiavo, Giovanni E., Antonio Meucci : inventor of the telephone, New York : The Vigo press, 1958, no ISBN, IT\ICCU\SBL\0234690 (Italian National Library System).
• Sterling Christopher H., 2004, CBQ REVIEW ESSAY: HISTORY OF THE TELEPHONE (PART ONE): Invention, Innovation, and Impact. Communication Booknotes Quarterly, Vol. 35, No. 4, Pages 222-241 (doi: 10.1207/s15326896cbq3504_1)
• Vassilatos Gerry Lost Science (ISBN 0-945685-25-4, review)

US Congress Resolution 269

• Bill Number H.RES.269 for the 107th Congress
• Summary and status of Resolution 269
• HRes 269, text of 17 Oct 2001
• HRes 269, text of 11 Jun 2002
• Canadian Parliamentary Motion on Alexander Graham Bell -Critical views of both the Bell Parliamentary Motion and Resolution HRes 269

Museums and celebrations

• Italian Society of Electrotechnics (Federazione Italiana di Elettrotecnica) Sala Antonio Meucci
• Antonio Meucci Centre Montreal, Qc, Canada
• The Garibaldi-Meucci Museum
• The Garibaldi-Meucci Museum (Staten Island site)
• Celebrations for the two hundred years of the birth of Antonio Meucci Official site of the Italian National Committee for the celebrations of the two hundred years of the birth of Antonio Meucci - April 2008 - April 2009 (in Italian and in English)

Newspapers comments

• John Bedini's Antonio Meucci-page Hearing Through Wires.
• Bellis Mary "The History of the Telephone - Antonio Meucci"
• Dossena Tiziano Thomas, Meucci, Forgotten Italian Genius, Bridge Apulia USA N.4, 1999
• Dossena Tiziano Thomas, Meucci, The Inventor of the Telephone, Bridge Apulia USA N.8, 2002
• Fenster Julie M., 2006, Inventing the Telephone—And Triggering All-Out Patent War, AmericanHeritage.com
• Carroll Rory, "Bell did not invent telephone, US rules" The Guardian Monday June 17, 2002

Persondata
Name	Meucci, Antonio
Alternative names
Short description	Claim to have invented the telephone
Date of birth	1808-4-13
Place of birth	Florence
Date of death	1889-10-18
Place of death	Staten Island, New York