The real inventor of the telephone!

Narc

Official:
Antonio Meucci was
the real inventor of telephony

On the past June 15th, 2002, the US Congress officially recognized that the italian inventor Antonio Meucci is to be credited for the invention of the telephone, and not Alexander G. Bell, as so far claimed.

This was the end of a long controversy, started when a poor italian immigrant in New York sold the prototypes of his invention to a Telegraph company, that later gave them to Alexander G. Bell, who in turn patented the invention of the phone.

Still now in downtown Boston, MA, a monumet marks the spot where the "first" phone call took place (see ies, click them for a larger version). But things apparently went differently...

Born in 1808 in Florence, in 1845 he left his poor homeland to the new world. Initially obsessed with medical uses of electricity, Meucci realized soon that one could transmit voice via wire, and between 1850 and 1862 he developed at least 30 different models of telephone, although he was too poor to protect his inventions with a patent (this would have costed him $250, that he did not have). Even worse, he had to sell all his early models for $6 in 1870 when he fell ill. However in 1871 he managed to obtain a cheaper official document called a 'Caveat' stating his paternity of the invention (that he called teletrophone).

After te sale of the old prototypes, in 1874 he handed some new models to the vice-president of Western Union Telegraphs, and in 1876 he had the surprise to read from the newspapers that Alexander G. Bell was credited of this amazing new invention. In 1887 the judges annulled Bell's patent, but since his 1871 Caveat was by then expired, he was never credited with the invention.

In the years of poverty, he kept on repeating to his wife that his inventions would make them rich one day. He died poor in 1889 in New York City. After 113 years, the Congress on request of an italian-american representative officially stated that Meucci was to be considered the inventor of the telephone.

http://www.popular-science.net/history/meucci_bell.html



These fkn Canadians taking credit for everything eh.

Matt S.

I personally do not believe the story.

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