Thread: The True Inventor of The Telephone. Not Bell.

Antonio Meucci
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Antonio Meucci

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonio_Meucci

Born 13 April 1808(1808-04-13)
Florence, Italy
Died 18 October 1889 (aged 81)
Staten Island, New York

Residence New York
Citizenship Italian and U.S.
Nationality Italian and U.S.
Ethnicity Italian
Fields Electromagnetism, communication devices
Known for Claiming invention of the telephone
Antonio Meucci (April 13, 1808 – October 18, 1889) was a compatriot of Italian revolutionary Giuseppe Garibaldi,[1] and also an inventor, best known for developing a voice communication apparatus in 1857. Many credit him with the invention of the telephone; for example, the Enciclopedia Italiana di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti (Italian Encyclopedia of Science, Literature and Arts) calls him the "inventore del telefono" (inventor of the telephone).[2]

In 2002 the U. S. House of Representatives passed a resolution recognizing Meucci's accomplishment and which 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."[3][4] The resolution's sponsor described it as "a message that rings loud and clear recognizing the true inventor of the telephone, Antonio Meucci."[5] However others disagreed with the resolution, with the Government of Canada unanimously passing a motion 10 days later stating that Alexander Graham Bell was the inventor of the telephone.[6][7]

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 a caveat, a kind of provisional patent. Anybody could get a caveat, even if the invention was worthless."[8] In 1876, Alexander Graham Bell patented the electro-magnetic transmission of vocal sound by undulatory electric current.

Contents [hide]
1 Biography
1.1 Florence, Italy
1.2 Havana, Cuba
1.3 Staten Island, New York City, USA
1.4 The first electromagnetic telephone
1.5 Bankruptcy
1.6 The caveat
1.7 Analysis of Meucci's Caveat
1.8 Business supporters
1.9 The trial
1.10 Death
2 Invention of the telephone
3 Other inventions
3.1 Meucci patents
4 Historical debate
4.1 The House of Representatives Resolution 269
5 Garibaldi-Meucci Museum
6 Meucci in 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, recognizing Antonio Meucci
9.4 Museums and celebrations
9.5 Newspapers comments


[edit] Biography

Antonio Meucci and Nestore Corradi sketch of Meucci's invention[edit] 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.[9] 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.[10]

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.[9]

[edit] 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.[11]

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").[12] 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.

[edit] 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.

[edit] The first electromagnetic telephone
Meucci carries on his studies on the phone already for many years, but only in 1856 the invention is completed, thanks to the realisation of a first prototype: the need to is connect his office with his wife sleeping room, still at bed by a severe desease. Some of Meucci's notes in 1857 describe as follows 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».

In 1856 Meucci constructed the first electromagnetic telephone.[13] He constructed this as a way to connect his second-floor bedroom to his basement laboratory, and thus communicate with his wife. Between 1856 and 1870, Meucci developed more than 30 different kinds of telephones on the basis of this prototype.

About 1858 the painter Nestore Corradi [1]made a sketch of Meucci's intuitions (this drawing was used as the image on a stamp produced in 2003 by the Italian Postal and Telegraph Society[14]).

Meucci has concrete ideas, however he doesn't have the economical means to keep his company on running. Candles factory bankrupts and Meucci is obliged to look for funds by rich italian families, without, however, obtaining the wished results.

In 1860 he began to look for funding and started in Italy: he 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.[15] Then Meucci decided to publish his invention in the New York Italian-language newspaper "L'Eco d'Italia".

[edit] 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,[16] 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 intimate relations continued until 1867.

In August 1870, Meucci reportedly obtained 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 "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.

[edit] The 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.[17] 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:[18]

continuation

CAVEAT

The petition of Antonio Meucci, of Clifton, in the County of Richmond and State of New York, respectfully represents:
That he has made certain improvements in Sound Telegraphs, ...

The following is a description of the invention, sufficiently in detail for the purposes of this caveat.

I employ the well-known conducting effect of continuous metallic conductors as a medium for sound, and increases the
effect by electrically insulating both the conductor and the parties who are communicating. It forms a Speaking
Telegraph, without the necessity for any hollow tube.

I claim that a portion or the whole of the effect may also be realized by a corresponding arrangement with a metallic
tube. I believe that some metals will serve better than others, but propose to try all kinds of metals.

The system on which I propose to operate and calculate consists in isolating two persons, separated at considerable
distance from each other, 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.

I believe it preferable to have the wire of larger area than that ordinarily employed in the electric telegraph, but
will experiment on this. Each of these persons holds to his mouth an instrument analogous to a speaking trumpet,
in which the word may easily be pronounced, and the sound concentrated upon the wire. Another instrument is also
applied to the ears, in order to receive the voice of the opposite party.

All these, to wit, the mouth utensil and the ear instruments, communicate to the wire at a short distance from the
persons. The ear utensils being of a convex form, like a clock glass, enclose the whole exterior part of the ear,
and make it easy and comfortable for the operator. The object is to bring distinctly to the hearing the word of the
person at the opposite end of the telegraph.

To call attention, the party at the other end of the line may be warned by an electric telegraph signal, or a series
of them. The apparatus for this purpose, and the skill in operating it, need be much less than for the ordinary
telegraphing.

When my sound telegraph is in operation, the parties should remain alone in their respective rooms, and every
practicable precaution should be taken to have the surroundings perfectly quiet. The closed mouth utensil or trumpet,
and the enclosing the persons also in a room alone, both tend to prevent undue publicity to the communication.

I think it will be easy, by these means, to prevent the communication being understood by any but the proper persons.

It may be found practicable to work with the person sending the message insulated, and with the person receiving it,
in the free electrical communication with the ground. Or these conditions may possibly be reversed and still operate
with some success.

Both the conductors or utensils for mouth and ears should be, in fact I must say must be, metallic, and be so
conditioned as to be good conductors of electricity.

I claim as my invention, and desire to have considered as such, for all the purposes of this Caveat,

The new invention herein set forth in all its details, combinations, and sub-combinations.

And more especially, I claim

First. A continuous sound conductor electrically insulated.

Second. The same adapted for telegraphing by sound or for conversation between distant parties electrically insulated.

Third. The employment of a sound conductor, which is also an electrical conductor, as a means of communication by
sound between distant points.

Fourth. The same in combination with provisions for electrically insulating the sending and receiving parties.

Fifth. The mouthpiece or speaking utensil in combination with an electrically insulating conductor.

Sixth. The ear utensils or receiving vessels adapted to apply upon the ears in conbination with an electrically
insulating sound conductor.

Seventh. The entire system, comprising the electrical and sound conductor, insulated and furnished with a mouthpiece
and ear pieces at each end, adapted to serve as specified.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand in presence of two subscribing witnesses.

ANTONIO MEUCCI
Witnesses:
Shirley McAndrew.
Fred'k Harper.

Endorsed:
Patent Office
Dec. 28, 1871
[edit] Analysis of Meucci's Caveat
Meucci repeatedly focused on insulating the electrical conductor and even insulating the persons communicating, but does not explain why this would be desirable.[19] 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.[20] "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.[21] In the third claim, he claims "a sound conductor which is also an electrical conductor, as a means of communication by sound"[22] 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.[23] He emphasizes that the conductors "for mouth and ears... must be metallic", but does not explain why this would be desirable.[24] He mentions "communication with the ground"[25] 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.").[26]

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.

[edit] 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.[27][

This is fascinating. The physiophone.

http://www.icehouse.net/john1/mucci.html

In Canada we have the Bell Telephone ....Alexander Bell.

I think that several people claimed the telephone, and there was at least one big patent fight.

Jews always try to claim they invented something AFTER the invention.

The sidewalk is littered with turds. Take care.

http://www.radioislam.org/cartoons/g...w2/satiric.htm