Antonio Meucci

Antonio Santi Giuseppe Meucci (April 13, 1808 – October 18, 1896) was an Italian inventor; he is credited as the inventor of the telephone. In June 2002, Meucci was officially credited by the United States House of Representatives with the invention of the telephone, instead of Alexander Graham Bell.

Biography

Meucci was born in San Frediano, a borough of Florence. He studied chemical and mechanical engineering at the Florence Academy of Fine Arts and later worked in theatres as a stage technician. 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.

Related Topics:
San Frediano - Florence - Chemical - Mechanical engineering - Florence Academy of Fine Arts - Ester Mochi - August 7 - 1834 - 1833

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In October 1835, Meucci and his wife left Florence, never to return. They emigrated to the Americas, stopping first in Cuba, where Meucci accepted a job at Gran Teatro de Tacón in Havana. Here Meucci had developed a popular method of using electric shocks to treat illness. During a treatment to a friend Meucci heard a scream of this one from the piece of copper wire running between them.

Related Topics:
1835 - The Americas - Cuba - Gran Teatro de Tacón - Havana

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In 1850, Meucci and his wife immigrated to the United States, settling in the Clifton area of Staten Island, New York, where he lived for the remainder of his life.

Related Topics:
1850 - Staten Island - New York

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Meucci constructed a form of telephone around 1854 as a way to connect his second-floor bedroom to his basement laboratory, as his wife was an invalid suffering from rheumatism. Before then he had constructed a kind of pipe-telephone (that transported sound through a pipe) as a way to communicate between the stage and control room at the theatre.

Related Topics:
Telephone - 1854

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Though his assets had been substantial, they were quickly used up in the United States. Not only was Meucci helping his countrymen to reach America, but there was also an expensive accident in one of his laboratories. His private finances dwindled so that he soon had to live on public funds and by depending on his friends. It has also been said that his wife sold some of his inventions, including the telephone, to raise cash.

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