The man pictured, Antonio Meucci, is the real inventor of the telephone. So, why do we credit Alexander Graham Bell as the telephone’s inventor you may ask?
Here’s the interesting story.
Italian Antonio Meucci, begun testing primitive telephones while working in Florence as a theatre technician. When he moved to the US for political reasons, he continued his research and actually developed a voice-communication apparatus, the first telephone. To protect his findings, in 1871 he filed a patent caveat – not a full patent that would have cost US$250, as he did not have the money. This was five years before Bell filed his patent. So, what happened? (the article continues after the ad)
Bell is credited of inventing the phone because he… had the money and all the connections. That’s why he was able to close deals that actually put telephone on the map, something that was quite difficult for an immigrant at the time.
For example, when Meucci took his notebooks with all his experiments and prototype of telephone to Western Union, their executives didn’t meet him and later claimed that they lost the items he had given them. Two years later, Bell filed a patent and set up a company with Western Union.
Antonio Meucci died poor and with zero recognition for inventing the telephone. The recognition came 113 years after his death. In 2002, the US Congress acknowledged that Antonio Meucci, was, in fact, the real inventor of the telephone and that Graham Bell had access to his material.
If you like what you read, then you will definitely love this one: Automatic Telephone Switching Was Invented By An Undertaker Because He Was Losing Customers
Photo: Biografieonline.it
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