Antonio Meucci

1
Antonio Meucci

• The Invention of the Telephone

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The Real Inventor of the Telephone Bell or
Meucci?

• 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 Bells 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.

3
Life around the Telephone

• 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. 

4
Life around the Telephone

• 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.
• In 1876 Alexander Bell then made a patent which
  made him the inventor of the Telephone.

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Controversy

• 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. 

6
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.

7
Meuccis 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.

8
Importance

• Meuccis 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.

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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.
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The End