Antonio Meucci

Antonio Santi Giuseppe Meucci (April 13, 1808–October 18, 1889) was an Italian inventor. He developed some form of voice communication apparatus in 1857. Antonio Meucci has long had champions, particularly in Italy, arguing he should be credited with the invention of the telephone (i.e. electrical voice communication). The Enciclopedia Italiana di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti (Italian Encyclopedia of Science, Literature and Art) calls him the "inventore del telefono" (inventor of the telephone).^[1] Meucci set up some kind of voice 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 but was unable to raise sufficient funds to pay his way through the patent application. In 1876, Alexander Graham Bell patented the electro-magnetic transmission of vocal sound by undulatory electric current. The United States House of Representatives in its resolutions <tt>HRES 269 IH</tt> dated October 17th 2001 and <tt>HRES 269 EH</tt> dated June 11th 2002 resolved that the life and achievements of Antonio Meucci should be recognized, and his work in the invention of the telephone should be acknowledged .

Biography

Meucci was born in via de' Serragli n. 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 in "Teatro della Pergola" in Florence as a stage technician, assisting Artemio Canovetti.^[2] In 1834 Meucci constructed a kind of acoustic telephone as a way to communicate between the stage and control room at the theatre "Teatro della Pergola" in Florence. This telephone is constructed on the model of pipe-telephones on ships and is still working.^[3]

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.^[4]

In October 1835, Meucci and his wife left Florence, never to return. They had accepted the proposal of a Catalan theater manager, don Francisco Martì y Torrens, and emigrated to the Americas, stopping first in Cuba, where Meucci accepted a job at then called Great Tacón Theater in Havana (at the time, the greatest theater in America). In Havana he constructed a system for waters depuration and reprojected the Gran Teatro, which had been almost entirely destroyed by a hurricane.^[5]

In 1848 his contract with the Governor expired. Meucci was asked by some friends 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" (litt. "talking telegraph").^[6] 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 way through inventions. 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 buy material from a certain Charles Chester's shop in New York. In 1856 Meucci reportedly constructed the first electromagnetic telephone.^[7] 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 made a sketch of Meucci's intuitions (this drawing is taken as the image of a stamp produced in 2003 by the Italian Postal and Telegraph Society^[8]). 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 the above mentioned general Garibaldi in Italy had made the political situation in that country too unstable for anybody to invest.^[9] Then Meucci decided to publish his invention on the New York Italian-language newspaper "L'Eco d'Italia".

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 a 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,^[10] 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 a mile distance by using as a conductor a copper plait 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.

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. Their society funded him $20, whereas $250 were needed in order to pay for that sort of patent. Meucci then only had the money to pay for a caveat on December 28 1871 at the U.S. Patent Office. The caveat is numbered 3335 titled "Sound Telegraph" and gives a brief description of the invention.

The members of Telettrofono Company either died or left New York City.

In summer 1872 Meucci and his friend Angelo Bertolino went to ask for help to Edward B. Grant, Vice President of American District Telegraph Co. of New York. Meucci asked him the permission to test his telephone apparatus on the company's telegraph lines. He gave Grant description of his prototype and a copy of his caveat. Up to 1874 Meucci had only the money to renew his caveat while looking for funding for a true patent. After waiting two years Meucci went to Grant and asked him to be given back his documents, but Grant answered he had lost them.^[11]^[12] About 1873 a certain Bill Carroll from Boston, who had news about Meucci's invention, asked him to construct a "telephone for scuba divers". This device should allow divers to communicate with people on surface. In Meucci's drawing, this device results to be an electromagnetic telephone, capsuled for it to be waterproof.^[13]^[14]

On December 28 1874 Meucci's caveat expired.

When Bell secured his own patent in 1876 Meucci took Bell to court in order to state his priority on the ground of patent infringement. Being too poor to hire a legal team, Meucci was defended only by lawyer Joe Melli, an orphan whom Meucci treated as a son.

While the trial "The U.S. Government Versus Alexander Graham Bell" was going on, the Bell telephone company set up another trial "The U.S. Government Versus Antonio Meucci". In 13 January 1887 the Government of the United States moved to annul the patent issued to Alexander Graham Bell on the grounds of fraud and misrepresentation. The prosecuting attorney was the Hon. George M. Stearns under the direction of the Solicitor General George A. Jenks^[15] In July 19, 1887, according to judge William J. Wallace (Circuit Court, S. D. New York.) "The experiments and invention of one Antonio Meucci, relating to the transmission of speech by an electrical apparatus, for which invention a caveat was filed in the United States patent‑office, December 28,1871, renewed in December, 1882, and again in December, 1883, do not contain any such elements of an electric speaking telephone as would give the same priority over or interfere with the said Bell patent."^[16]

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 for his own case, which was closed at the death of the prosecutor.

Historical debate

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. A history of the telephone says "To bait the Bell Company became almost a national sport. Any sort of claimant, with any sort of wild tale of prior invention, could find a speculator to support him. On they came, a motley array, `some in rags, some on nags, and some in velvet gowns.' One of them claimed to have done wonders with an iron hoop and a file in 1867; a second had a marvelous table with glass legs; a third swore that he had made a telephone in 1860, but did not know what it was until he saw Bell's patent; and a fourth told a vivid story of having heard a bullfrog croak via a telegraph wire which was strung into a certain cellar in Racine, in 1851.^[17]

The trial

It has been recognized by the United States House of Representatives that legally, "if Meucci had been able to pay the $10 fee to maintain the caveat after 1874, no patent could have been issued to Bell" (Mary Bellis).

Meucci's electromagnetic telephone was described in L'Eco d'Italia of New York at the beginning of 1861, though all issues of the 1861-1863 period are not available in the major libraries of the United States. They appear to have been destroyed in a fire, so that Antonio Meucci had to swear in court what he remembered he wrote in the newspaper. However, Havana's experiments were briefly mentioned in a letter by Meucci, published by Il Commercio di Genova of 1 December 1865 and by L'Eco d'Italia of 21 October 1865 (both existing today).^[18] One of the most important pieces of evidence brought up to in the trial was Antonio Meucci's "Memorandum Book". In this sort of agenda, produced by Rider&Clark, Antonio Meucci noted drawings and records since 1862 up to 1882. In the trial, Antonio Meucci was accused of having produced records after Alexander Graham Bell's invention and back-dated them. As a proof the prosecutor produced the fact that Rider&Clark was founded only in 1863. In the trial, Antonio Meucci said William E. Rider himself, one of the owners, had given him a copy of the memorandum book in 1862. But he was not believed.^[19]

While the trial "The U.S. Government Versus Alexander Graham Bell" was going on, the Bell telephone company set up another trial "The U.S. Government Versus Antonio Meucci".

In 13 January 1887 the Government of the United States moves to annul the patent issued to Alexander Graham Bell on the grounds of fraud and misrepresentation. The prosecuting attorney was the Hon. George M. Stearns under the direction of the Solicitor General George A. Jenks^[20] Bell telephone company obtained reason in the trial "The U.S. Government Versus Antonio Meucci" by a sentence on July 19 1887 by judge William J. Wallace, according to whom Meucci had realised a mechanic and not an electric telephone. According to Wallace's ruling, "the application does not describe any of the elements, of an electric speaking telephone. Its opening statement refutes the possibility that Meucci understood the principle of that invention. Meucci states that he employs 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 communication.” As originally expressed by Mr. Stetson, it contained this statement:“The system on which I propose to operate consists in isolating two persons, separated at considerable distances from each other, by placing them upon glass insulators, employing glass, for example, at the feet of the chair or bench on which each sits, and putting them in communicator. by means of a telegraphic wire.” As amended, pursuant to Meucci’s instructions, this statement was qualified as follows: “It may be found practicable to work with the person sending the message insulated, and with the person receiving it in free electrical communication with the ground. Or these conditions may possibly be reversed, and still operate with some success.” It is idle to contend that an inventor having such conceptions could at that time have been the inventor of the Bell telephone. The application does, however, describe a mechanical telephone, consisting of a. mouth-piece and ear-piece connected by a wire. A letter written by Mr. Stetson of the date of January 13, 1872, is in evidence, and is important as confirmatory of the conclusion that beyond this the invention was only inchoate. This letter was written to Meucci when the latter was in communication with Mr. Stetson in reference to obtaining a patent for the invention. In this letter, Mr. Stetson, in substance, advised Meucci that his invention was not in a condition; telling him that it was “an idea giving promise of usefulness,” and the proper subject of a caveat, but requiring many experiments to prove the reality of the invention".^[21] Wallace went on saying "his speaking telegraph would never have been offered to the public as an invention if he had not been led by his necessities to trade on the credulity of his friends; that he intended to induce the three persons of small means and little business experience, who became his associates under the agreement of December 12, 1871, to invest in an invention which he would not office to men like Ryder and Craig; and that this was done in the hope of obtaining such loans and assistance from them as he would temporarily require"."^[22]

In fact, when the Bell telephone company sued Meucci's backers for patent infringement, their defense was that they could not have infringed on Bell's patent, since Meucci's "telephone" had never even worked!

William J. Wallace’s ruling was regarded by historian Giovanni Schiavo as one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in the history of the U.S., and one of the most offensive, too.^[23]

The House resolution

On the initiative of the Italian American deputate Vito Fossella, with the Resolution 269 the U.S. House of Representatives recognised as stated, "Expresses 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."

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..^[24] As recounted by Basilio Catania, Meucci gave his prototypes to Edward B. Grant, Vice President of the American District Telegraph Co. of New York .^[25]

Resolution 269 clearly makes innuendo about Alexander Graham Bell's morality.

Resolution 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 Resolution 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)

Invention of the telephone

There exists much dispute over who deserves priority as the first inventor of the telephone, although it seems Alexander Graham Bell was the first to transmit articulate speech by undulatory currents of electricity.

An Italian researcher in telecommunications Basilio Catania and the Italian Society of Electrotechnics "Federazione Italiana di Elettrotecnica" have devoted a Museum to Antonio Meucci making a chronology of his inventing the telephone and tracing the history of the two trials opposing Antonio Meucci and Alexander Graham Bell [36] [37]. They both support the claim that Antonio Meucci was the real inventor of the telephone.

What follows, if not otherwise stated, is a resumé of their historic reconstruction.^[26]

In 1834 Meucci constructed a kind of acoustic telephone as a way to communicate between the stage and control room at the theatre "Teatro della Pergola" in Florence. This telephone is constructed on the model of pipe-telephones on ships and is still working.^[27]

In 1848 Meucci developed a popular method of using electric shocks to treat rheumatism. He used to give his patients two conductors linked to 60 Bunsen batteries and ending with a cork. He also kept two conductors linked to the same Bunsen batteries. He used to sit in his laboratory, while the Bunsen batteries were placed in a second room and his patients in a third room. In 1849 while providing a treatment to a patient with a 114V electrical discharge, in his laboratory Meucci heard his patient's scream through the piece of copper wire that was between them, from the conductors he was keeping near his ear. His intuition was that the "tongue" of copper wire was vibrating just like a leave of an electroscope; which means that there was an electrostatic effect. In order to continue the experiment without hurting his patient, Meucci covered the copper wire with a piece of paper. Through this device he heard inarticulated human voice. He called this device "telegrafo parlante" (lit. "talking telegraph").^[28]

On the basis of this prototype, Meucci worked on more than 30 kinds of telephone. At the beginning he got inspiration from the telegraph model. Differently from other pioneers of the telephone, such as Charles Bourseul, Philipp Reis, Innocenzo Manzetti and others, he did not think about transmitting voice by using the principle of the telegraph key (in scientific jargon, the "make-and-break" method), but he looked for a "continuous" solution, which means without interrupting the electric flux.

In 1856 Meucci constructed the first electromagnetic telephone, made of an electromagnet with a nucleus in the shape of a horseshoe bat, a diaphragm of animal skin, stiffened with potassium dichromate and keeping a metal disk stuck in the middle. The instrument was hosted in a cylindrical carton box.^[29] He constructed this as a way to connect his second-floor bedroom to his basement laboratory, and thus communicate with his wife who was an invalid.

Meucci separated the two directions of transmission in order to eliminate the so-called "local effect", adopting what we would call today a 4-wire-circuit. He constructed a simple calling system with a telegraphic manipulator which short-circuited the instrument of the calling person, producing in the instrument of the called person a succession of impulses (clicks), much more intense than those of normal conversation. As he was aware that his device required a bigger band than a telegraph, he found some means to avoid the so-called "skin effect" through superficial treatment of the conductor or by acting on the material (copper instead of iron). He successfully used an insulated copper plait, thus anticipating the litz wire used by Nikola Tesla in RF coils.

In 1864 Meucci's realized his "best device", using an iron diaphragm with optimized thickness and tightly clamped along its rim. The instrument was housed in a shaving-soap box, whose cover clamped the diaphragm.

In August 1870, Meucci obtained transmission of articulate human voice at a mile distance by using as a conductor a copper plait insulated by cotton. He called his device "telettrofono". According to an Affidavit of lawyer Michael Lemmi drawings and notes by Antonio Meucci dated September 27, 1870 show that Meucci understood inductive loading on long distance telephone lines 30 years before any other scientists. The painting made by Nestore Corradi in 1858 mentions the sentence "Electric current from the inductor pipe".

About 1873 a certain Bill Carroll from Boston, who had news about Meucci's invention, asked him to construct a "telephone for scuba divers". This device should allow divers to communicate with people on surface. In Meucci's drawing, this device results to be an electromagnetic telephone, capsuled for it to be waterproof.

Other inventions

This list is also taken from Basilio Catania's historical reconstruction^[30]

1825 Chemical compound to be used as an improved propellant in fireworks
1834 In the Florence's Teatro della Pergola, he sets up a "pipe telephone" to communicate from the stage to the maneuver trellis-work, at about eighteen meters heigh.
1840 Improved filters and chemical processing of waters supplying the city of Havana, Cuba.
1844 First electroplating factory of the Americas, set up in Havana, Cuba. Before, objects to be electroplated were sent to Paris.
1846 Improved apparatus for electrotherapy, featuring a pulsed current breaker with rotating cross.
1847 Restructuring of the Tacón Theater in Havana, following a hurricane. Meucci conceived a new structure of the roof and ventilation system, to avoid the roof to be taken off in like situations.
1848 Astronomical observations by means of a marine telescope worth $280.
1849 Chemical process for the preservation of corpses, to cope with the high demand for bodies of immigrants to be sent to Europe, avoiding decomposition during the many weeks navigation.
1849 First discovery of electrical transmission of speech.
1850-1 First stearic candle factory of the Americas, set up in Clifton, NY.
1855 Realization of celestas, with crystal bars instead of steel, and pianos (one is on display at the Garibaldi-Meucci Museum, in Rosebank, NY)
1856 First lager beer factory of Staten Island, the Clifton Brewery, in Clifton, NY.
1858-60 Invention of paraffin candles. US Patent No. 22,739 on a candle mold for the same and US Patent No. 30,180 on a rotating blade device for finishing the same.
1860 First paraffin candle factory in the world, the New York Paraffine Candle Co., set up in Clifton, NY, early in 1860, then moved to Stapleton, NY. It produced over 1,000 candles per day.
1860 Experiments on the use of dry batteries in electrical traction and other industrial applications.
1860 Process to turn red corals into a pink color (more valued), as requested by Enrico Bendelari, a merchant of New York.
1862 US Patent No. 36,192 on a kerosene lamp that generates a very bright flame, without smoke, (therefore not needing a glass tube), thanks to electricity developed by two thin platinum plates embracing the flame.
1862-63 Process for treating and bleaching oil or kerosene to obtain siccative oils for paint (US Patents No. 36,419 and No. 38,714). "Antonio Meucci Patent Oil" was sold by Rider & Clark Co., 51 Broad Street, New York, and exported to Europe. See expert comment.
1864 Invention of new, more destructive ammunition for guns and canons, proposed to the US army and to General Giuseppe Garibaldi.
1864-65 Processes to obtain paper pulp from wood or other vegetable substances (US Patents No. 44,735, No. 47,068 and No. 53,165). Associated Press was interested in producing paper with this process, which was also the first to introduce the recovery of the leaching liquor. See expert comment.
1865 Process for making wicks out of vegetable fiber, US Patent No. 46,607.
1867 A paper factory, the "Perth Amboy Fiber Co.," was set up, in Perth Amboy, NY. The paper pulp was obtained from either marsh grass or wood. It was the first to recycle waste paper. See expert comment.
1871 US Patent No. 122,478 "Effervescent Drinks," fruit-vitamin rich drinks that Meucci found useful during his recovery from the wounds and burns caused by the explosion of the Westfield ferry. See expert comment.
1871 Filed a caveat for a telephone device in December
1873 US Patent No. 142,071 "Sauce for Food." According to Roberto Merloni, general manager of the Italian STAR company, this Patent anticipates modern food technologies. See expert comment.
1873 Conception of a screw steamer suitable for navigation in canals.
1874 Process for refining crude oil (caveat)
1875 Filter for tea or coffee, much similar to that used in present day coffee machines.
1875 Household utensil (description not available) "combining usefulness to cheapness, that will find a ready sale."
1875 US Patent No. 168,273 "Lactometer," for chemically detecting adulterations of milk. It anticipates by fifteen years the well-known Babcock test. See expert comment.
1875 Upon request by Giuseppe Tagliabue (a Physical Instruments maker of Brooklyn, NY), Meucci devises and manufactures several aneroid barometers of various shapes.
1875 Meucci decided not to renew his telephone caveat, thus enabling Bell to get a patent.
1876 US Patent No. 183,062 "Hygrometer," which was a marked improvement over the popular hair-hygrometer of the time. He set up a small factory in Staten Island for fabrication of the same. See expert comment.
1878 Method for preventing noise on elevated railways, a problem much felt at the time in New York.
1878 Process for fabricating ornamental paraffin candles for Christmas trees.
1880 US patent application "Wire for Electrical Purposes"
1881 Process for making postage and revenue stamps.
1883 US Patent No. 279,492 "Plastic Paste," as hard and tenacious to be suitable for billiard balls. See expert comment.

Garibaldi-Meucci Museum

The Order of the Sons of Italy in America maintains a Garibaldi-Meucci Museum in Staten Island. The museum is located in a house that was built in 1840, purchased by Meucci in 1850, and rented to Giuseppe Garibaldi from 1850 to 1854. Exhibits include Meucci’s models and drawing and pictures relating to his life.^[31]^[32]

Meucci in popular culture

In the 1990 motion picture The Godfather Part III, the character Joey Zaza mentions Meucci as the inventor of the telephone.

In the television series The Sopranos, the character Tony Soprano also mentions Meucci as the inventor of the telephone, stating "he was robbed" of being given proper credit. (Season 1, Episode 8: "The Legend of Tennessee Moltisanti")

In May 16 1996 Umberto Silvestri, President of Telecom Italia, and Guido Clemente, Florence spokesman for the Arts, put a memorial tablet on Meucci's birthplace, Via dei Serragli 44, Florence, with the text: "Qui nacque il 13 aprile 1808 Antonio Meucci, Inventore del Telefono". At the same time a memorial tablet is placed in Gran Teatro in Havana where Meucci had his laboratory with the text: "Antonio Meucci expatriado italiano en la Habana entre los años 1835 y 1850 aquí en el teatro Tacón realizó aquellos experimentos de tranmisión acústica que lo llevaron a la invención del teléfono. La ciudad natal de Florencia y la ciudad hospitalaria de la Habana in su memoria"^[33]

In 2003 the Italian Communication Ministry and the Italian Postal and Telegraph Society produced a 0,52€ stamp portraying Antonio Meucci as the inventor of the telephone^[34]

A 2005 TV series produced by the Italian National Broadcasting Network, depicts Mr. Edward B. Grant as cheating Meucci and Alexander Graham Bell as obtaining success by more or less illegal means.^[35]^[36]

Patents

US patent images in TIFF format

1859 - candle mold
1860 - candle mold
1862 - lamp burner
1862 - improvement in treating kerosene
1863 - improvement in preparing hydrocarbon liquid
1864 - improved process for removing mineral, gummy, and resinous substances from vegetables
1865 - improved method of making wicks
1865 - improved process for removing mineral, gummy, and resinous substances from vegetables
1866 - improved process for making paper-pulp from wood
1872 - improved method of manufacturing effervescent drinks from fruits
1873 - improvement in sauces for food
1875 - method of testing milk
1876 - hygrometer
1883 - plastic paste for billiard balls and vases

Citations

[1] Kent, Allen, Kent Kent, Encyclopedia of Library and Information Science: Volume 25, CRC Press, 1978, No. ISBN 0-8247-2025-3., p. 171 notes this claim in a discussion of nationalistic bias in encyclopedias
[2] Catania Basilio 2003 Antonio Meucci inventore del telefono], Notiziario Tecnico Telecom Italia, anno 12 n.1, dicembre 2003, pp. 109
[3] Picture of the acoustic telephone, page maintained by the Italian Society of Electrotechnics
[4] Catania Basilio 2003 Antonio Meucci inventore del telefono], Notiziario Tecnico Telecom Italia, anno 12 n.1, dicembre 2003, pp. 109
[5] Catania Basilio 2003 Antonio Meucci inventore del telefono], Notiziario Tecnico Telecom Italia, anno 12 n.1, dicembre 2003, pp. 110
[6] Meucci's original drawings. Page maintained by the Italian Society of Electrotechnics
[7] Meucci's original drawings. Page maintained by the Italian Society of Electrotechnics
[8] Antonio Meucci stamp
[9] Catania Basilio 2003 Antonio Meucci inventore del telefono], Notiziario Tecnico Telecom Italia, anno 12 n.1, dicembre 2003, pp. 112
[11] Catania Basilio 2003 Antonio Meucci inventore del telefono], Notiziario Tecnico Telecom Italia, anno 12 n.1, dicembre 2003, pp. 114
[12] Vito Fossella's 2002 Press Release on Resolution 269
[13] Catania Basilio 2003 Antonio Meucci inventore del telefono], Notiziario Tecnico Telecom Italia, anno 12 n.1, dicembre 2003, pp. 116
[14] Antonio Meucci's original drawing, page maintained by the Italian Society of Electrotechnics
[15] Basilio Catania 2003 The United States Government vs. Alexander Graham Bell. An important acknowledgment for Antonio Meucci
[17] Casson, Herbert N., "The History of the Telephone," Chicago: McClurg, 1910, p. 96-97
[18] Basilio Catania's Proofs of Antonio Meucci's Priority
[19] Antonio Meucci's Memorandum Book, page maintained by the Italian Society of Electrotechnics
[20] Basilio Catania 2003 The United States Government vs. Alexander Graham Bell. An important acknowledgment for Antonio Meucci
[23] Catania Basilio "Antonio Meucci una vita per la scienza e per l'Italia, vol.1 "Antonio Meucci una vita per la scienza e per l'Italia, vol.2(in Italian), summary of Meucci's life and work and his trial against Alexander Graham Bell, written in the occasion of the Meucci Day celebration in 2003 by the Italian Telecommunication Ministry
[24] Vito Fossella's 2002 Press Release on Resolution 269
[25] Catania Basilio 2003 Antonio Meucci inventore del telefono, Notiziario Tecnico Telecom Italia, anno 12 n.1, dicembre 2003, pp. 114
[26] Basilio Catania's reconstruction, in English
[27] Picture of the acoustic telephone, page maintained by the Italian Society of Electrotechnics
[28] Meucci's original drawings. Page maintained by the Italian Society of Electrotechnics
[29] Meucci's original drawings. Page maintained by the Italian Society of Electrotechnics
[30] Basilio Catania's chronological list of Meucci's inventions
[31] The Garibaldi-Meucci Museum
[32] The Garibaldi-Meucci Museum (Staten Island site)
[33] Antonio Meucci plaques
[34] Antonio Meucci stamp
[35] RAI "Meucci l'Italiano che ha inventato il telefono"
[36] RAI International "Meucci l'uomo che ha inventato il telefono", pages in Italian
[37] Meucci

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