Transcript Antonio Meucci - Henry Samueli School of Engineering

Antonio Meucci
The Invention of the Telephone
The Real Inventor of the Telephone:
Bell or Meucci?
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Although it was Alexander
Graham Bell who was
credited to be the inventor of
the telephone, it was the
ideas and plans of Antonio
Meucci which lead to the
development of Bell’s famous
invention.
On June 11th, 2002, the US
Congress finally officially
recognized that the Italian
inventor Antonio Meucci is to
be credited for the invention
of the telephone.
Life around the Telephone
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Antonio Meucci was born in Florence, Italy in April 1808
He was initially obsessed with medical uses of electricity, and soon
realized that one could transmit voice via wire. Meucci developed a
method of using electric shocks to treat illness (electro therapy), which
had become quite popular in Havana. One day, while preparing to
administer a treatment to a friend, Meucci heard an exclamation of the
friend, who was in the next room, over the piece of copper wire
running between them. Between 1850 and 1862 he developed at least
30 different models of telephone, although he was too poor to protect
his inventions with a patent (this would have costed him $250).
Later a dramatic event happened, in which Meucci was severely burned
in the explosion of the steamship Westfield returning from New York.
This brought things to an even more tragic state. While Meucci lay in
hospital, miraculously alive after the disaster, his wife sold many of his
working models (including the telephone prototype) and other
materials to a secondhand dealer for six dollars. When Meucci sought
to buy these precious objects back, he was told that they had been
resold to an "unknown young man" whose identity remained a
mystery.
Life around the Telephone
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Crushed, but not beaten, Meucci
worked night and day to
reconstruct his invention and to
produce new designs and
specifications, clearly
apprehensive that someone
could steal the device before he
could have it patented. Unable
to raise the sum for a definitive
patent, he took recourse in a
caveat or notice of intent, which
was registered on December 28,
1871 and renewed in 1872 and
1873 but, fatefully, not
thereafter.
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In 1876 Alexander Bell then
made a patent which made him
the inventor of the Telephone.
Controversy
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In 1876, Alexander Graham Bell filed a patent which did
not really describe the telephone but refers to it as
such. When Meucci learned of this, he instructed his
lawyer to protest to the U.S. Patent Office in Washington,
something that was never done.
However, a friend did contact Washington, only to learn
that all the documents relevant to the "Talking Telegraph"
filed in Meucci's caveat had been "lost."
Later investigation produced evidence of illegal
relationships linking certain employees of the Patent Office
and officials of Bell's company. And later, in the course of
litigation between Bell and Western Union, it was revealed
that Bell had agreed to pay Western Union 20 percent of
profits from commercialization of his "invention" for a
period of 17 years.
Criticism
There is still a lot of controversy and intrigue
surrounding the invention of the telephone. There
have been court cases, books, and articles generated
about the subject. Of course, Alexander Graham Bell is
the father of the telephone. Since it was his design
that was first patented, however, he was not the first
inventor to come up with the idea of a telephone.
► There has been much debate over whether Bell or
Meucci should be credited for the invention of the
telephone. Finally, On June 11, 2002 the U.S.
Congress recognized Meucci as the real inventor.
Some say that Bell should be the inventor, while other
still believe that Meucci should be given credit.
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Meucci’s Caveat
► Antonio
Meucci, began developing the
design of a talking telegraph or telephone in
1849. In 1871, he filed a caveat (an
announcement of an invention) for his
design of a talking telegraph. Due to
hardships, Meucci could not renew his
caveat. It was then that Alexander Bell filled
for the invention of the telephone and got
it.
Importance
► Meucci’s
invention of the practical telephone
sparked a new era of modern
communication.
► The telephone was and still is the basics of
modern world communication.
► Without the invention of the telephone,
businesses and social activities would not be
the same.
So finally almost 150 years later, after a hard
struggle fighting for his invention, which was
taken away from him by Alexander Graham Bell,
Antonio Meucci is given credit for the invention
of the telephone on June 11 2002.
The End