Antonio Meucci
Antonio Santi Giuseppe Meucci (April 13, 1808–October 18, 1896) was an Italian inventor. He developed some form of voice communication apparatus in 1857. The Enciclopedia Italiana di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti calls him the "inventore del telefono" (inventor of the telephone).[1] A 2002 U.S. House of Representatives resolution, HR 269, stated that Meucci "set up a rudimentary communication link in his Staten Island home that connected the basement with the first floor... he demonstrated his invention in 1860 and had a description of it published in New York ’s Italian language newspaper.... and was unable to raise sufficient funds to pay his way through the patent application...". In 1876, Bell patented the electro-magnetic transmission of vocal sound by undulatory electric current.
Meucci was born in San Frediano, a borough of Florence, Italy. He studied chemical and mechanical engineering at the Florence Academy of Fine Arts and later worked in theatres as a stage technician. 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.
In October 1835, Meucci and his wife left Florence, never to return. They emigrated to the Americas, stopping first in Cuba, where Meucci accepted a job at Gran Teatro de Tacón in Havana. There Meucci had developed a popular method of using electric shocks to treat illness. While providing a treatment to a friend, Meucci reportedly heard his friend's scream through the piece of copper wire that was between them.
In 1850, Meucci and his wife immigrated to the United States, settling in the Clifton area of Staten Island, New York, where he would live for the remainder of his life.
Meucci constructed a form of telephone in 1857 as a way to connect his second-floor bedroom to his basement laboratory, as his wife was an invalid suffering from rheumatism. Before then he had constructed a kind of pipe-telephone that transported sound through a pipe, as a way to communicate between the stage and control room at the theatre.
Though his assets had been substantial, they were quickly used up in the United States. Not only was Meucci helping his countrymen to reach America, but there was also an expensive accident in one of his laboratories. His private finances dwindled so that he soon had to live on public funds and by depending on his friends. It has also been said that his wife sold some of his inventions, including the telephone, to raise cash, while he was recovering from injuries that befell him in a boiler explosion aboard the Staten Island Ferry, Westfield. Some have claimed that Alexander Bell acquired the protoype of Meucci's Telephone and later on patented it as his own invention, though no evidence has ever been shown to support this. In fact, when the Bell telephone company sued Meucci's backers for patent infringment, their defense was that they could not have infringed on Bell's patent, since Meucci's "telephone" had never even worked! 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. Bell never lost a case. HR 269 directly contradicts findings of courts in New York, Massachusetts, Louisiana, Ohio, Maryland, and numerous others states. (See among others American Bell Telephone Co. v. Dolbear, 15 Fed. Rep. 448; American Bell Telephone Co. v. Spencer, 8 Fed. Rep. 509, and American Bell Telephone Co. v. Molecular Telephone, 32 Fed. Rep. 214.)
Contrary to the implications in HR 269, the U.S. courts looked into Antonio Meucci’s claims extensively and were very unequivocal in their findings. 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) The judge was scathing in his criticism of Meucci’s claims and his behavior, and concluded that Meucci was deliberately involved in attempts to defraud investors. Meucci died before the Court reached a verdict and the case was closed.
[edit]
Invention of the telephone
Meucci was born in San Frediano, a borough of Florence, Italy. He studied chemical and mechanical engineering at the Florence Academy of Fine Arts and later worked in theatres as a stage technician. 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.
In October 1835, Meucci and his wife left Florence, never to return. They emigrated to the Americas, stopping first in Cuba, where Meucci accepted a job at Gran Teatro de Tacón in Havana. There Meucci had developed a popular method of using electric shocks to treat illness. While providing a treatment to a friend, Meucci reportedly heard his friend's scream through the piece of copper wire that was between them.
In 1850, Meucci and his wife immigrated to the United States, settling in the Clifton area of Staten Island, New York, where he would live for the remainder of his life.
Meucci constructed a form of telephone in 1857 as a way to connect his second-floor bedroom to his basement laboratory, as his wife was an invalid suffering from rheumatism. Before then he had constructed a kind of pipe-telephone that transported sound through a pipe, as a way to communicate between the stage and control room at the theatre.
Though his assets had been substantial, they were quickly used up in the United States. Not only was Meucci helping his countrymen to reach America, but there was also an expensive accident in one of his laboratories. His private finances dwindled so that he soon had to live on public funds and by depending on his friends. It has also been said that his wife sold some of his inventions, including the telephone, to raise cash, while he was recovering from injuries that befell him in a boiler explosion aboard the Staten Island Ferry, Westfield. Some have claimed that Alexander Bell acquired the protoype of Meucci's Telephone and later on patented it as his own invention, though no evidence has ever been shown to support this. In fact, when the Bell telephone company sued Meucci's backers for patent infringment, their defense was that they could not have infringed on Bell's patent, since Meucci's "telephone" had never even worked! 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. Bell never lost a case. HR 269 directly contradicts findings of courts in New York, Massachusetts, Louisiana, Ohio, Maryland, and numerous others states. (See among others American Bell Telephone Co. v. Dolbear, 15 Fed. Rep. 448; American Bell Telephone Co. v. Spencer, 8 Fed. Rep. 509, and American Bell Telephone Co. v. Molecular Telephone, 32 Fed. Rep. 214.)
Contrary to the implications in HR 269, the U.S. courts looked into Antonio Meucci’s claims extensively and were very unequivocal in their findings. 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) The judge was scathing in his criticism of Meucci’s claims and his behavior, and concluded that Meucci was deliberately involved in attempts to defraud investors. Meucci died before the Court reached a verdict and the case was closed.
[edit]
Invention of the telephone