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Antonio Meucci.
Antonio Meucci (Florence, April 13, 1808 – October 18, 1889) was an Italian-born inventor who developed a form of voice communication apparatus in 1857. Many believe that he ought to be credited with the invention of the telephone. Antonio Meucci was recognized by the United States House of Representatives for doing important work on telephony, in House Resolution 269, dated 11 June, 2002.
Meucci set up a form of voice communication link in his Staten Island home that connected the basement with the first floor, but was unable to raise sufficient funds to pay for the patent application. He filed a patent caveat in 1871, which was forced to expire in 1874. In 1876, Alexander Graham Bell patented the electro-magnetic transmission of vocal sound by undulatory electric current.
On January 13th 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.Basilio Catania 2002 "The United States Government vs. Alexander Graham Bell. An important acknowledgment for Antonio Meucci" Bulletin of Science Technology Society.2002; 22: 426-442
On July 19th 1887, the judge William J. Wallace (Circuit Court, S. D. New York.) concluded : "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."Globe Telephone Company 1884 - Famous ATT Patent Fight © 1996 - 2007 Scripophily.com The judge 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.
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).Kent, Allen; Kent Kent (1978). Encyclopedia of Library and Information Science: Volume 25. CRC Press. ISBN 0-8247-2025-3. , p. 171 notes this claim in a discussion of nationalistic bias in encyclopedias The United States House of Representatives in its resolutions HRES 269 IH dated October 17th 2001 and HRES 269 EH 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 . This resolution noted 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"Mary Bellis
House of Representatives True inventor of telephone Recognition - 11 June 2002
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Meucci was born in no. 44, via di Serragli 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.Catania Basilio 2003 Antonio Meucci inventore del telefono, Notiziario Tecnico Telecom Italia, anno 12 n.1, dicembre 2003, pp. 109] In 1834 Meucci constructed a type of acoustic telephone as a way to communicate between the stage and control room at the Teatro della Pergola. This telephone was constructed on the principals of pipe-telephones used on ships and is still working.Picture of the acoustic telephone, page maintained by the Italian Society of Electrotechnics
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.Catania Basilio 2003 Antonio Meucci inventore del telefono, Notiziario Tecnico Telecom Italia, anno 12 n.1, dicembre 2003, pp. 109]
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.Catania Basilio 2003 Antonio Meucci inventore del telefono, Notiziario Tecnico Telecom Italia, anno 12 n.1, dicembre 2003, pp. 110]
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" (litt. "talking telegraph").Meucci\'s original drawings. Page maintained by the Italian Society of Electrotechnics 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.
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.
In 1856 Meucci reportedly constructed the first electromagnetic telephone.Meucci\'s original drawings. Page maintained by the Italian Society of Electrotechnics 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 SocietyAntonio Meucci stamp).
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.Catania Basilio 2003 Antonio Meucci inventore del telefono, Notiziario Tecnico Telecom Italia, anno 12 n.1, dicembre 2003, pp. 112] Then Meucci decided to publish his invention in 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,Globe Telephone Company 1884 - Famous ATT Patent Fight © 1996 - 2007 Scripophily 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.
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 was 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 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. Up to 1874 Meucci had only enough 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.Catania Basilio 2003 Antonio Meucci inventore del telefono, Notiziario Tecnico Telecom Italia, anno 12 n.1, dicembre 2003, pp. 114] Vito Fossella\'s 2002 Press Release on Resolution 269
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 the surface. In Meucci\'s drawing, this device is essentially an electromagnetic telephone encapsulated to be waterproof.Catania Basilio 2003 Antonio Meucci inventore del telefono, Notiziario Tecnico Telecom Italia, anno 12 n.1, dicembre 2003, pp. 116]Antonio Meucci\'s original drawing, page maintained by the Italian Society of Electrotechnics
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".
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.
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 October 21th 1865 (both existing today).Basilio Catania\'s Proofs of Antonio Meucci\'s Priority
One of the most important pieces of evidence brought up in the trial was Antonio Meucci\'s "Memorandum Book". This book, produced by Rider&Clark, contained Antonio Meucci\'s 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 that William E. Rider himself, one of the owners, had given him a copy of the memorandum book in 1862. But he was not believed.Antonio Meucci\'s Memorandum Book, page maintained by the Italian Society of Electrotechnics
On January 13th 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. JenksBasilio Catania 2003 The United States Government vs. Alexander Graham Bell. An important acknowledgment for Antonio Meucci
Bell telephone company obtained reason in the trial "The U.S. Government Versus Antonio Meucci" by a sentence on July 19th1887 by judge William J. Wallace, according to whom Meucci had realised a mechanical and not an electrical telephone. According to Wallace\'s ruling, "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[...]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. [...] 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 12th, 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"."Globe Telephone Company 1884 - Famous ATT Patent Fight © 1996 - 2007 Scripophily.comThe 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.
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.[citation needed]
Meucci died before the Court reached a verdict for his own case, which was closed at the death of the prosecutor.
There exists much dispute over who deserves priority as the first inventor of the telephone, although Alexander Graham Bell was credited with being 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 [1] [2]. They both support the claim that Antonio Meucci was the real inventor of the telephoneBasilio Catania\'s reconstruction, in English However, many modern scholars outside of Italy do not recognize the claims that Meucci\'s device had any bearing on the development of the telephone. Tomas Farley also writes that, "Nearly every scholar agrees that Bell and Watson were the first to transmit intelligible speech by electrical means. Others transmitted a sound or a click or a buzz but our boys [Bell and Watson] were the first to transmit speech one could understand."[3]
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.Picture of the acoustic telephone, page maintained by the Italian Society of Electrotechnics
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").Meucci\'s original drawings. Page maintained by the Italian Society of Electrotechnics
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.Meucci\'s original drawings. Page maintained by the Italian Society of Electrotechnics 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".
It is claimed that about 1873 a certain Bill Carroll from Boston, who had news about Meucci\'s invention, asked him to construct a device to allow divers to communicate with people on the surface. In Meucci\'s drawing, this device appears to be an electromagnetic telephone, encapsulated to make it waterproof.
This list is also taken from Basilio Catania\'s historical reconstructionBasilio Catania\'s chronological list of Meucci\'s inventions
US patent images in TIFF format
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. 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).
N. Herbert in his 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.Casson, Herbert N., "The History of the Telephone" Chicago: McClurg, 1910, p. 96-97
However, an Italian researcher in telecommunications Basilio Catania provided evidence that Alexander Graham Bell was condemned for fraud and misrepresentation in 1887Basilio Catania 2002 "The United States Government vs. Alexander Graham Bell. An important acknowledgment for Antonio Meucci" Bulletin of Science Technology Society.2002; 22: 426-442 . Catania recounted that Meucci gave his prototypes to Edward B. Grant, Vice President of the American District Telegraph Co. of New York .Catania Basilio 2003 Antonio Meucci inventore del telefono, Notiziario Tecnico Telecom Italia, anno 12 n.1, dicembre 2003, pp. 114. Grant reportedly said he had lost the prototypes.
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.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 on the occasion of the Meucci Day celebration in 2003 by the Italian Telecommunication Ministry
On the initiative of the Italian American deputate Vito Fossella, with the Resolution 269 the U.S. House of Representatives 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.). Resolution 269 clearly makes innuendo about Alexander Graham Bell\'s morality.The United States House of Representatives recognized 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).
Taken from Scripohily.com
From 31 Federal Reporter 728-735
American Bell Telephone Co. v. Globe Telephone Co. and others
Circuit Court, S. D. New York. July 19, 1887
1. PATENTS FOR INVENTIONS—INFRINGEMENT—ACTS WARRANTING INJUNCTION—BELL TELEPHONE.
Letters patent No. 174,465 were granted March 7, 1876, to Alexander Graham Bell, for certain improvements in telegraphy, the fifth claim of which, relating to the transmission of speech by electricity, became entitled, by judicial construction, to abroad interpretation in favor of the inventor. Prior to 1885 the Globe Telephone Company was incorporated under the laws of New York, the object of its formation being to manufacture, sell, license, and lease telegraphic, telephonic, and electric instruments, and supplies therefor, and to acquire and dispose of patents, patent‑rights, and inventions relating thereto. The company acquired certain patents, which were shown to be infringements upon the Bell patent, and put up in their office sample instruments of an infringing character. They also, by advertisements, invited the public to purchase their instruments, and become licensees of their patents and claims. No instruments, however, were ever actually made or used, except experimentally, and none were ever sold. Held, that the acts of the company were sufficient to warrant a decree restraining infringement.
2. SAME—INVENTION OF MEUCCI—PRIORITY
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.
E. N. Dickerson and J. J. Storrow, for complainant. D. Humphries and S. R. Beckwith, for defendants.
WALLACE, J. The complainant has filed this bill to restrain infringement of the patent granted by the United States to Alexander Graham Bell, dated March 7, 1876, No. 174,465, for improvements in telegraphy. Infringement is also alleged of the United States patent to Bell, No. 186,787, dated January 30, 1877, for improvements in electric telephony, but the proofs have not been addressed to the question of the infringement of this patent, and it is practically out of the case. The fifth claim of the first patent has been judicially construed in two cases by the circuit court for the district of Massachusetts, and in both of these cases it was substantially held that Bell was the discoverer of the new art of transmitting speech by electricity, and that the claim should receive the broadest interpretation to secure to the inventor, not the abstract right of sending sounds by telegraph without regard to means, but all means and processes described which are essential to the application of the principle. American Bell Telephone Co. v. Dolbear, 15 Fed. Rep. 448; Same v. Spencer, 8 Fed. Rep. 509. This court, in American Bell Telephone Co. v. Molecular Telephone Co., followed the construction thus placed upon the claim. 23 Blatchf. 253, 32 Fed. Rep. 214.
The proofs for the complainant show that the apparatus, which it is alleged has been used and offered for sale by the defendants, embodies the means and process for transmitting speech by electricity which are the subject of the fifth claim of the patent to Bell; and no evidence has been introduced by the defendant to controvert this fact.
The defendants answer separately. The answer of the Globe Telephone Company and of the defendant Rogers consists merely of general and specific denials of the averments of the bill. The answer of the defendant Meucci alleges that he was the first and prior inventor of the telephone; that in 1871, by a series of improvements and experiments in telephony, he had perfected a perfect speaking telegraph, which comprised all the electrical principles since known in the art of telegraphy; that he has never made, used, or sold any telephones or speaking telegraphs for any purpose whatever, except that for more than 24 years he has had, during most of the time, at his residence at Staten Island, a speaking telephone for domestic use; that prior to 1876 he endeavored to introduce the invention of said telephones into public use, but, by reason of his poverty, was unable to do so; and to that end did cause the same to be published in the newspaper the Eco D’Italia, and did endeavor to secure the assistance of others by making known to them his said invention. The answer of the defendant Beckwith consists of a general denial of the averments of the bill, and sets up the priority of the invention of Meucci.
Inasmuch as none of the defendants set up, by way of defense, any prior patents, publications, or instances of prior invention or public use, except the prior invention of Meucci, and their proofs consist only of evidence of Meucci’s invention, and evidence to show that they have never used, manufactured, or sold electric speaking telephones, or procured or assisted others to do so, it is unnecessary, and would be extraneous to the real questions in the case, to consider the point, made in the brief of the counsel for one of the defendants, that the fifth claim of Bell’s patent of 1876 is not entitled to the broad construction which has heretofore been given to it by the courts. The only questions really involved are whether the acts of the defendants are an infringement of the exclusive rights of the complainant to manufacture, use, and sell the electric speaking telephone, and whether the proofs establish the defense that Meucci was the prior and original inventor of that apparatus.
The bill was filed November 10, 1885. At that time the Globe Company had been incorporated about two years and a half. It was a New York corporation. Its certificate of incorporation recites that the objects for which the company is to be formed are to “manufacture, sell, license, and lease telegraphic, telephonic, and electric instruments, and supplies therefor of every description, and to acquire, by purchase or license or otherwise, and dispose of by sale, license, or otherwise, patents, patent-rights, and inventions relating thereto, and incidental to the manufacture of said instruments and supplies.” In August, 1885, the defendant Beckwith became the general manager of that company. At that time he was interested in an invention patented in England known as the “Bassano-Slater telephone,” and had agreed with the owners to procure a patent for the invention in this country, and had the right to use and introduce the invention here. That company was the owner of patents which had been issued to Shaw and to Hadden for inventions in telephonic instruments. When Beckwith became manager, the company entered into a written agreement with him by which it promised to use the Bassano-Slater invention in its business, unless by subsequent agreement the parties should agree to substitute other inventions. Beckwith was to have a large share of the profits of the company. It was also agreed between Beckwith and the company that the latter would secure, “for purposes of defense, the so-called Antonio Meucci claims evidenced by caveat filed in the United States patent office. From the time Beckwith became manager until this suit was brought the company seems to have been mainly engaged in advertising its pretensions as a competitor of the American Bell Telephone Company in trying to procure money, and in endeavoring to enlist others to become purchasers or licensees of its rights in telephone inventions. It had a capital stock of nominally $10,000,000, and but very little real capital. Its officers soon became aware that its patents were worthless, unless the Bell patent could be invalidated. It had not manufactured any telephone instruments, nor did it have any for sale, but it had in its office certain instruments, the history of which is stated by Mr. Bowen. one of its directors. He testifies as follows: “At a board meeting I raised the question, have we got any instruments of any kind?’ and it was stated by Mr. Beckwith that we had the Bassano-Slater instruments. The Shaw and Hadden were both infringements upon the Bell, and could not be used. It was then suggested by Mr. Beckwith that we could use the Bassano-Slater instruments; that we could use them in connection with the Meucci instruments, and it would make a first-class instrument. Then I think the question came up before the board in reference to having made a set of instruments for a sample set, to have in the office to show what they were, as we had nothing, I think I stated at that time that as long as I had been a member of the company I had not seen anything that looked like an instrument to show anybody. At that meeting there was an order issued by the board authorizing Mr. Beckwith to have made a set of sample instruments, such as he deemed proper and sufficient for testing, for samples, to have in the office to be exhibited.” These instruments were put up in the office of the company in the Mills Building, on Broad street, New York city, by Beckwith, and connected with the office of Mr. Hadden, the electrician of the company across the street. They were used for several weeks to communicate with Mr. Hadden, and for the purpose of illustrating to others what telephones, the company proposed to introduce to compete with the American Bell Telephone Company.
During all this time the officers of the company were unwilling to commit it to any acts of open infringement of the Bell patents, fearing that the Bell Company might obtain an injunction, and thus embarrass their operations. But they were holding themselves out to the public as the owner of patents which would protect the purchasers or licensees against the claims of the Bell Company, and as prepared to furnish to purchasers or licensees telephone instruments made in accordance with such patents. In September, 1885, the company issued a circular, in which it recited the history of the first Bell patent, and the discovery of the prior invention of Meucci. The circular stated that the company was able to fully substantiate the fact that Meucci was the first inventor, and that, besides securing his title to the original invention of the Electro Magnetic Telephone, the company had procured telephone instruments operating upon a different principle from those of the American Bell Telephone Company, and which were not infringements of the patents of that company. The circular invited the public to purchase the instruments, and to promote the formation of companies to become licensees under its patents and claims.
The theory of the Globe Company is that it has never made or used telephone instruments, except experimentally, to test their operativeness; that it has never sold any; that its officers were aware that it could not do so without danger of legal proceedings by the American Bell Telephone Company until the Bell patent could be successfully contested; and that they were waiting until that time should arrive, and in the mean time proposed studiously to avoid allowing anything to be done that would bring their company in conflict with the American Bell Telephone Company. The testimony of its officers is inconsistent with their conduct. The instruments put up in the office of the company were undoubtedly put there and used to demonstrate to the public that the company could supply practical commercial telephones to licensee and subcompanies. When the September circular, inviting the public to purchase telephones, was issued, the officers of the company doubtless intended to refer to telephones of the description put upon exhibition in their office as the instruments which could be used. This is indicated by what took place subsequent to the filing of the present bill. It is shown that after this suit was commenced, and after an application for an interlocutory injunction against the company had been denied by this court because there was not sufficient proof of acts of infringement on the part of the company, the company, by its manager, Mr. Beckwith, procured a company to be organized in New Jersey, called the Meucci Telephone Company, for the purpose of erecting a telephone exchange in the city of Elizabeth, and purchasing the rights of Meucci in his invention of telephones for such purpose. The contract made by Beckwith with the Meucci Company authorized that company to use in their exchange the inventions of Meucci, Bassano, Shaw, and Hadden, one or more of them; and that contract was ratified by the board of directors of the Globe Company by a resolution of March 30, 1866 [86]. Shortly thereafter the officers of the company concluded it would be safer not to execute the contract made in the name of Beckwith until it had the approval of their attorney, and, after consultation with the attorney, there was never any formal execution of a contract. The Meucci Company erected a telephone line in Elizabeth, and used upon it telephone apparatus similar to that which had been used in the office of the Globe Company.
The proofs establish satisfactory that the instruments used in the office of the Globe Company are infringing instruments; and it is plain that the use of these instruments in the manner and for the purposes disclosed by the proofs is sufficient to authorize an injunction against the defendant. All the defendants were acting in concert together. Rogers was the secretary and treasurer of the Globe Company. Beckwith, as has been stated, was its manager. Meucci was its nominal electrician. All of them were acting in cooperation, in endeavoring to incite others to appropriate and infringe the rights of the complainant.
The defense, so far as it rests upon the priority of invention by Meucci, may be briefly disposed of. The circumstance that this defense is not relied upon by the Globe Company in its answer, and that its counsel has insisted in his argument that it should not be considered because not satisfactorily presented by the proofs, although indicating that the principal defendant has no confidence in the asserted priority of invention by Meucci, ought not to prejudice the position of the defendant Beckwith, who relies upon this defense, has urged it with great zeal, and is evidently convinced of its truth.
As was held in the Drawbaugh Case, 22 Blatchf. 531, 22 Fed. Rep. 309, the patentee starts with the benefit of the presumption of law that he was the first and original inventor of that for which the letters patent were granted him, and whoever alleges the contrary must assume the burden of proof, and the defense of want of novelty or originality must be made out by evidence so clear and satisfactory as to remove all reasonable doubt.
According to Meucci’s story, while he was at Havanna [sic], employed as a machinist and decorator of a theater there, and in the year 1849 or 1850, he discovered how to obtain the transmission of words by means of conducting wire, united with several batteries to produce electricity, and gave his discovery the name of the “Speaking Telegraph.” In 1850 he came to this country, and took up his residence at Clifton, Staten Island, where be has ever since resided. He was engaged in various kinds of business, particularly candle making, and the manufacture of paper from vegetable fibre, and at one time had a brewery. He states that soon after coming here he resumed his experiments with the telephone; that before 1860 he had good working instruments; and before 1865 had instruments which embodied the essentials of the modern magnetic instruments. These instruments he asserts were known to his friends; were in use at his house before and during the years 1864 and 1865, and subsequently. He describes them from his memory. The originals are not in existence. He states that in 1860 he thought his invention sufficiently perfected to introduce it, and about that time applied to his friend Bendelari, who was going to Italy, to try to get assistance to perfect the invention, and bring it into use. He says that he felt anxious to have his invention first appear from his old home, and thought Bendelari would be able to bring the invention out there; and be therefore gave a pretty full description of it to Bendelari, and also about this time published the fact that he had made the invention in an Italian newspaper published in New York called “Echo L’Itallienne.” He states that after this, until 1871, from time to time, he experimented to make improvements in his invention, but made no particular improvements after 1864 or 1865. He says that in 1871 be found that his wife, during his illness, bad, without his knowledge, sold all the instruments and devices he had used in his experiments in sound telegraphy, except some bobbin, a part of a permanent magnet, and some fragments of pasteboard, which lie subsequently found, to a dealer in second-hand articles. In the latter part of 1871 he entered into an agreement with three of his Italian friends, by which they became copartners in the business of perfecting and introducing his invention. The written agreement bearing date December 12, 1871, is produced, and recites the business of the copartnership as that of “making and trying all the necessary experiments for the accomplishment of the transmission of the human voice through electric wires invented by the aforesaid Antonio Meucci.” These parties immediately took steps looking to the procurement of a patent, consulted Mr. Stetson, a patent expert and solicitor, and, under his supervision, an application for a caveat was prepared, and was filed in the patent-office, December 28, 1871. Soon thereafter Meucci consulted again with Mr. Stetson, with a view of making an application for a patent for the invention, but Mr. Stetson discouraged the attempt. Upon the application of Meucci, the caveat was renewed in December, 1882, and again in December, 1883. It is not claimed that Meucci made essential improvements upon his invention subsequent to the time he obtained the caveat, but, as has been said, he states himself that be made none after 1865.
Such in brief is Meucci’s own history of his invention. There is no reason to doubt that for many years prior to 1865, and from that year until he applied for the caveat, he had been experimenting with telephonic and electrical apparatus with a view of transmitting speech, and during this time had convinced himself that he had made interesting discoveries, which might eventually become useful ones. To this extent he is corroborated by the testimony of a number of witnesses. But the proofs fail to show that be had reached any practical result beyond that of conveying speech mechanically by means of a wire telephone. He doubtless employed a metallic conductor as a medium conveying sound, and supposed that by electrifying the apparatus or the operator be could obtain a better result. That he did not, believe he had accomplished anything of practical commercial utility is a reasonable inference from the fact that he did not communicate his invention to those who would have been likely to appreciate it and assist him in perfecting and introducing it to the public. Between 1859 and the time of his application for a caveat he filed many applications for patents for other inventions. During the years 1859, 1860, and 1861 he was in close business and social relations with William E. Ryder, who was interested in his inventions, paid the expenses of his experiments, and, in connection with others whom he introduced to Meucci, invested a considerable amount of money in Meucci’s inventions, and their use in business enterprises. He was a constant visitor at Meucci’s house, lived near him, and seems to have been his closest personal friend and business adviser. Their intimate relations continued until 1867, when Ryder became satisfied that Meucci’s inventions were not sufficiently practical or profitable to devote more time and money to them, and their intimacy ceased, although as late as in 1871 he interested himself for Meucci to dispose of some of his inventions. During all these years, according to the testimony of Mr. Ryder, he never heard from Meucci, or anybody else, of Meucci’s telephone. In 1864 and 1865 David H. Craig was a partner with Meucci and Ryder in the paper manufacture. He had been intimately associated with other xxx telegraph inventions and patents, and his interest in such matters must have been known by Meucci. He never heard, from Meucci or otherwise, that Meucci had invented or was experimenting with the telephone.
The caveat itself is sufficient to indicate that he had reached no practical result,. There is no reason to doubt that his application contained the best description of his invention which was then able to give. Before consulting Mr. Stetson, Meucci prepared a description of his invention, intending to make an application for a patent. After consulting Mr. Stetson, he concluded to make application for a caveat only. With the aid of an interpreter, and the manuscript containing the description, Mr. Stetson prepared the formal application. After it had been prepared by Mr. Stetson, it was sent by him to Meucci, and returned by the latter with amendment, to be inserted in it. It is sufficient to say that 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.
Without adverting to other evidence tending to indicate that Meucci was merely an experimentalist who had not produced anything new in the art of transmitting speech by electricity, it suffices to say that his pretensions are overthrown by his own description of the invention at a time when he deemed it in a condition to patent, and by the evidence of Mr. Stetson. The evidence leaves the impression that 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.
A decree is ordered for the complainant.
On the initiative of the Italian American congressman 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.. Vito Fossella\'s 2002 Press Release on Resolution 269
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.The Garibaldi-Meucci MuseumThe Garibaldi-Meucci Museum (Staten Island site)
In the 1990 motion picture The Godfather Part III, the character Joey Zaza mentions Meucci as the inventor of the telephone. Meucci\'s name was also on the license plate of the Cadillac Zaza was auctioning off.
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 en su memoria"Antonio Meucci plaques
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.
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.RAI "Meucci l\'Italiano che ha inventato il telefono"RAI International "Meucci l\'uomo che ha inventato il telefono", pages in Italian
Documents of the trial
Scientific and Historic Research
US Congress Resolution 269, recognizing AntonioMeucci
Museums and celebrations
Newspapers comments
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