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WPCNR MILESTONES. By John F. Bailey. February 25, 2004: Sunday afternoon, the Antonio Meucci Lodge on Maple Avenue, celebrated its 90th anniversary with over 100 Italian Americans gathering for the unveiling of a plaque honoring Antonio Meucci, recognized by Act of Congress as the true inventor of the telephone who had his invention stolen by Alexander Graham Bell.
Italian Americans Gather to Salute Antonio Meucci Sunday. Photo by WPCNR News
The celebration attracted many well-know personalities and politicians of White Plains and was highlighted by the unveiling of a plaque in honor of the man whose name is honored by the Lodge name: Antonio Meucci. President of Lodge 213, Antonio Amato, with carnation, beams after plaque is unvieled. Photo by WPCNR News
In a poignant way his story is the story of what immigrants to America still face today: difficulty with language, prejudice, and being taken advantage of by our society, and unscrupulous fellow immigrants. Meucci’s case is an example of why persons of immigrant background formed societies such as the Sons of Italy because they needed to stick together and help each other.
90 Years of the Meucci Lodge, Heartwarming Memories in the Lobby: senior members of the Lodge, paused to pick out faces from the past in a photograph of the Sons of Italy taken in the 1950s at the Playland Ice Casino on display and reminisced about their forefathers. Photo by WPCNR News.
The introduction of dignitaries in the newly renovated lodge was proud and moving as generations of previous Lodge Presidents and today’s State President, Joseph Ditrapani and National President Joseph Sciame were introduced. Photo by WPCNR News.
The singing of the American and Italian National Anthems was solemn and heartfelt. Ninety years of pride in Italy and America were celebrated by beaming participants.
The Man Who Was Having Telephone Conversations Before Bell.
Now let me tell you Antonio Meucci’s story, courtesy of the Italian Historical Society. I never knew him until Sunday. But, I know him now.
As you read his story, perhaps you can think of immigrants today you know who are a lot like him, and maybe you can reach out and give them a helping hand, the helping hand, Mr. Meucci never received.
His story is how Alexander Graham Bell stole his invention and got away with it.
Meucci’s main problem was his inability to communicate in any language but Italian which was used against him.
A Genius in Conductivity
Born in Florence, Italy in 1808, he was educated in design and mechanical engineering at Florence’s Academy of Fine Arts, working in theater as a stage hand when he immigrated to Havana, Cuba to work in theater there.
He researcher and experimented in Havana, introducing a new technique of galvanizing metals for Cuban military equipment. In the course of his experiments, he devised a treatment using electronic shocks to treat illness which gained him a clientele.
While preparing to administer the shock treatment to a friend one day, Meucci hard his friend’s voice over a copper wire attached to the next room. It was the first voice transmission over a “phone line.”
A helping hand betrayed.
For a decade he worked on developing the voice line and traveled to America in 1850 to live in Staten Island. Settled there, Meucci helped many Italian political refugees. Giuseppe Garibaldi, in exile, lived with Meucci for a time. Meucci createded industrial innovations for manufacturing goods which he provided to other immigrants, while continuing his telephone development to the point of setting up a telephone system between several rooms in his house.
He organized a public demonstration of his telephone in 1860 in which a singer’s voice was heard over a vast distance through the “phone line.” A New York Italian newspaper covered the demo and Meucci arranged to give a model of the telephone to a man who took it to Italy to start production there, but it was fool’s gold. Financial backing did not develop.
While Meucci recovered from being severely burned in a steamship disaster, Meucci’s wife sold his working telephone prototype to an unknown individual.
A Patent too Expensive — A Shady Western Union
When he was well, Meucci reconstructed the telephone in the hopes of getting a patent, but was unable to raise the $250 patent fee, and instead filed a caveat notice of intent to file a patent, dated December 28, 1871, which he renewed through 1873.
He delivered a model to a Vice President Edward Grant of Western Union Telegraph Company, asking for the opportunity to demonstrate it over the wires of Western Union. Grant said several times when Meucci inquired about the possibilities of a test, that the had not been arranged. After two years, Meucci asked for the model to be returned, he was told his model had been lost. This was in 1874.
Bell “Invents” It.
Then, in 1876, Alexander Graham Bell filed the patent for a device called a “telephone.” Meucci asked his lawyer to complain to the U.S. Patent Office. His lawyer never followed through.
A friend did contact the patent office, learning that the original documents Meucci had filed as part of his Notice of Intent to file a patent on the telephone had been mysteriously lost by the Patent Office.
An investigation revealed that employees of the patent office had conspired with officers of Alexander Graham Bell’s company.
Payoff?
It was later discovered in a case of litigation between Western Union and Bell that Bell was to pay Western Union 20% of profits from sale of the “invention” for 17 years in the millions, indicating that there had been collusion between the two companies.
Meucci sued Bell for stealing his invention and the case went to trial in 1886. Meucci testified clearly on every step of his invention, but still lost the case.
The Secretary of State at the time noted “there exists sufficient proof to give priority to Meucci in the invention of the telephone,” and the United States began prosecution for fraud against Alexander Graham Bell’s patent.
Postponements Until Death
However, the trail continued to be postponed for years until Meucci’s death in 1896, when the case was quietly dropped.
The Meucci story of how his invention was virtually stolen from him by Western Union and Alexander Graham Bell was a revelation to me.
Now you know the next time you make a telephone call or a cellphone today, who was really responsible for this device.
How he trusted and was betrayed by persons he thought could help him.
