Alexander Graham Bell did NOT invent the telephone?!?!
Come on now!!! Surely this is just a load of nonsense. I mean this is information I have grown up with and accepted as a known and accepted truth.
But as so often happens in history, it is written by those that survived or won. This is the case here as well unfortunately.
For anyone that has a great idea that could change the world, or enrich them, it is important to keep those ideas quiet until you have patented them.....or else the sharks or like minded entrepreneurs could steal the idea, register the ideas as their own and be the beneficiaries of that idea for the rest of their lives.
This is not some conspiracy, this has happened too often to have to try and convince you.
Music, business, art, inventions....too many have been stripped of their ideas for the profit of another.
Turns out, Bell was not the first to invent the telephone, but he was the first to get the patenting done in 1876!
Not to say he wasn't researching and developing the system, because he actually was one of several men that were working on the telephone idea at the same time.
So who invented the phone?
In 2002, the US congress recognized the actual inventor of the telephone. An impoverished Florentine with the name of Antonio Meucci, was a mechanical genius of the day and an immigrant .
113 years after his death, and with some push from historians and Italian-Americans, the house of representatives voted to restore the claim to fame and fortune to the rightful inventor.
This redressed the historic injustice to Antonio, who demonstrated the "teletrofono" in New York in 1860, 16 years before Bell patented the design after having full access to his designs and materials.
Obviously all the praise and glory given to Bell has upset the Italians and Historians who knew the true origin story.
I for one hope more people hear the true story of Meucci, for these things are too commonplace.
The gentle, the easily entreated and honest are often taken advantage of by those that are willing to do so. Too often the aggressive and demanding are in charge and taking the praise. I have seen it, experienced it and experience it through others experiences too.
Why people like this are seen as 'leaders' is frustrating. They may stand out and take control, but that does NOT make them a leader......it makes them a boss.
Bosses have their place, but they are NOT leaders. There is a large difference.
A little about Antonio Meucci
he was born in 1808 and studied Mechanical engineering and design in the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence.
It was during his time as a stage technician at the Teatro della Pergola that he developed a simple method of communicating. It was developed to help his colleagues communicate.
In 1830 after moving to Cuba, he discovered that sounds could travel down copper wire using electrical impulses. He found this out while trying to treat illnesses using electrical shocks.
He moved to Staten Island near NY in 1850 to work on the technology, and 10 years later when his wife, Ester, became paralyzed he created a system to link her bedroom to his workshop.
This system was demonstrated in 1860 to the public and was also reported on in New York's Italian language press.
He struggled to find financial backing. This could be due to language barriers, giving shelter to political exiles and being severely burned aboard a steamship.
He just could not afford the $250 needed to permanently patent his design, the same design that was used for decades afterwards for long distance connections.
This was an inductor formed around an iron core in the shape of a cylinder, and was a sophisticated technology of the day.
Because in 1871 he could only afford a 1 year patent for his "talking telegraph" and 3 years later was so broke he couldn't renew it, you can guess the rest of this sad tale.
No its worse than that....read on!
He in actual fact sent the model and technical details to Western Union telegraph company who wouldn't meet with him.
When he asked for the return of his work he was told in 1874 that they were "lost".
Only 2 years later, Bell' who happened to share labaratory space with Antonio, filed for a patent on the telephone.
He signed a lucrative deal with the same Western telegraph union and became a celebrity.
Meucci didn't leave it there and took it to court. When he was near to winning the case and fraud charges against Bell, Antonio died and the case died with him in 1889.
Again, does this sound too close to home.....this is all too common to this day.
Bell was in fact built his empire on theft and crookery however for decades he has been lauded for something that was not even his.
Unfortunately cheating DOES pay in this world. So for those with a weaker constitution it can be VERY appealing.
We see people get ahead on a daily basis with cheating, stealing and lying. We only need to look at our 'leaders' in the government and business to know this is true!
Going forward I think it is important to give credit where it is due....howbeit posthumously.
Other inventions from Meucci [Wikipedia]
- 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 height.
- 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. Previously, 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 invention of electrical transmission of speech.
- 1850 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 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 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 cannons, proposed to the US army and to General Giuseppe Garibaldi.
- 1864 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, NJ. 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 patent caveat, (not a 'patent') for a telephone device in December with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).
- 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.
Nice post.
Thank you :)
As a Canadian, I'm disgusted. .... No, as a human, I'm disgusted.
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It is wrong and it grates me the same....150 years later and we still laud Bell
holy cow, look at all those inventions! It's astounding. I knew Bell wasn't the first to invent it but I didn't know the story so thanks sir towjam, this was great!
Thanks mate....I found it most interesting. Ive always been apposed to bullies, so this was a history lesson that touched a nerve :)
I can tell. History is full of bullies isn't it?