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Antonio Meucci was born in 1808, and studied mechanical
engineering and design in Florence at the Academy of Fine Arts.
He moved to Cuba in the 1830s. He was experimenting with methods
of treating illness with electric shocks when he made the discovery
that sounds could travel through copper wire. In 1850 he moved
to the U.S.A to continue research into this discovery.
Some years later, Meucci's wife Ester became paralysed, and he made a communication system between her bedroom and his workshop nearby. In 1860, he conducted a public demonstration of this system, which he called 'teletrofono'. He continued to refine his system.
Meucci could not afford the expensive $250 fee to take out a patent on his invention, and instead filed a one year notice of impending (meaning coming soon) patent in 1871. However, a year later he could not afford to renew it.
He sent a model and technical specifications to the Western Union telegraph company, but could not manage to get an appointment to meet the senior executives of the company.
Two years later, Alexander Graham Bell, who shared a laboratory with Meucci, paid for a patent for a telephone, and made a deal with Western Union telegraph company that made him a lot of money.
Antonio Meucci sued Bell. The Supreme Court agreed to hear the case, and fraud charges were started against Bell. In 1889, just when it looked like Meucci may win his case, he died, and the court case stopped. Alexander Graham Bell has been known as the inventor of the telephone ever since.
However in 2002, 113 years after Meucci's death, the American Congress recognised officially that it was Meucci and not Bell who invented the telephone.
Read more about
Antonio Meucci here
http://www.italianhistorical.org/MeucciStory.htm
Read more about Alexander Graham Bell and his inventions
http://www.invent.org/hall_of_fame/11.html
Gives a biography of the
inventor.
http://www.fitzgeraldstudio.com/html/bell/humanitarian.html
Information about Bell's early life
and his work as a teacher of the deaf.
http://www.fitzgeraldstudio.com/html/bell/inventor.html
Information about Bell's
major inventions
http://www.telephonymuseum.com/history.htm
3 sections, including
the development of the telephone, detailed biography of Bell.
Go here to read about How the Telephone Works
Always
acknowledge where you found information
If you use any part of this in your work, list the source in your
bibliography like this: Telephone (2003). [Online], Available: www.kidcyber.com.au
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Technology and Inventions
Updated March 2003