Happy 200th Birthday to the Real inventor of the Telettrofono

António Meúcci

Everyone thinks that Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone. WRONG!!!!! It was actually António Meúcci who 1st came up with the idea. Born in Firenze on 13 April 1808, he eventually immigrated to the United States. In 1856 he came up with the prototype & by 1860 he had a working system set up in his house. He called his invention the teletrofono. Off of the original design he developed over 30 different kinds of telephones.

So what happenned that Bell got the credit. Unfortunately Meúcci didn't have the money to fill a patent. Eventually, he did sue Bell & it reached the Supreme Court. But Meúcci died before a decision was reached rendering any decision moot.

In 2002 Congressman Vito J. Fossella, 13th District New York (his district includes Staten Island) introduced a resoultion recognizing the true inventor of the telephone. The resolution passed.

Here is the entire text of House Resolution 269:

H. Res. 269

In the House of Representatives, U.S.,

June 11, 2002.

Whereas Antonio Meucci, the great Italian inventor, had a career that was both extraordinary and tragic;

Whereas, upon immigrating to New York, Meucci continued to work with ceaseless vigor on a project he had begun in Havana, Cuba, an invention he later called the 'teletrofono', involving electronic communications;

Whereas Meucci set up a rudimentary communications link in his Staten Island home that connected the basement with the first floor, and later, when his wife began to suffer from crippling arthritis, he created a permanent link between his lab and his wife's second floor bedroom;

Whereas, having exhausted most of his life's savings in pursuing his work, Meucci was unable to commercialize his invention, though he demonstrated his invention in 1860 and had a description of it published in New York's Italian language newspaper;

Whereas Meucci never learned English well enough to navigate the complex American business community;

Whereas Meucci was unable to raise sufficient funds to pay his way through the patent application process, and thus had to settle for a caveat, a one year renewable notice of an impending patent, which was first filed on December 28, 1871;

Whereas Meucci later learned that the Western Union affiliate laboratory reportedly lost his working models, and Meucci, who at this point was living on public assistance, was unable to renew the caveat after 1874;

Whereas in March 1876, Alexander Graham Bell, who conducted experiments in the same laboratory where Meucci's materials had been stored, was granted a patent and was thereafter credited with inventing the telephone;

Whereas on January 13, 1887, the Government of the United States moved to annul the patent issued to Bell on the grounds of fraud and misrepresentation, a case that the Supreme Court found viable and remanded for trial;

Whereas Meucci died in October 1889, the Bell patent expired in January 1893, and the case was discontinued as moot without ever reaching the underlying issue of the true inventor of the telephone entitled to the patent; and

Whereas if Meucci had been able to pay the $10 fee to maintain the caveat after 1874, no patent could have been issued to Bell Now, therefore, be it

Resolved, That it is the sense of the House of Representatives that the life and achievements of Antonio Meucci should be recognized, and his work in the invention of the telephone should be acknowledged."

Attest:

Clerk.

In 1990's The Godfather, Part III, Michael Corleone was awarded the fictional Meucci Association Italian of the Year Award. While it got the fact that Meucci was the original inventor of the phone, it got the date wrong.

The House resolution has righted a great wrong. António Meúcci was the real inventor of the telephone. & there is plenty of evidence that Bell had people within the patent office who helped cover the truth up. But the truth is now out there. It may not change anything, but I think Meúcci Telettrofono Company has a nicer "ring" than Bell Telephone ever did.

Paisan, Te salute!

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(Added 14 April 2008, 1:06 AM) In 1939 Don Ameche (nee Amici, he changed the spelling to the phonetic because people were screwing up the original Italiano spelling. Amici is Italiano for friends.) played Bell in a movie. As a result the phone got the nickname the "Ameche". If Meúcci had gotten the proper recognition then perhaps he would have played fellow Italiano-Americano Meúcci instead of Bell & we would all be using the Meúcci Amici (Ameche).