So many of us know of and have contributed to the Garibaldi-Meucci Museum, but what do we actually know about Antonio Meucci?
Antonio was born in Florence on April 13,1808, the first of nine children of Guiseppe Meucci and Maria Domenica Pepi. When he was thirteen and a half he was admitted to the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence to study design, basic arts, chemistry and mechanics.
On August 7, 1834 Meucci married Maria Matilde Esther Mochi in the church Santa Maria Novella.
As Italian opera reached a global success, a Cuban theater manager, Don Francisco Marty e Torrens came to Italy to form an Italian theater company to debut in Havana. Antonio and his wife were hired-Antonio as an engineer, machinist and scenic designer and Esther as director of tailoring.
They spent fifteen years in Havana. In 1849, during some experiments, Meucci discovers the voice transmission via electricity. Alexander Graham Bell was two years old at that time. Antonio named the system “telegrafoparlante” or (speaking telegraph) which became “telettrofono”.
In 1850 the Meuccis moved to Staten Island, New York in a house that today hosts the Garibaldi-Meucci Museum named for Guiseppe Garibaldi who stayed there for some months.
In 1871, five years before the patent of Alexander Graham Bell, Antonio borrowed $20.00 from friends to deposit with the US Patent Office the caveat of his invention, until he could find the money to file a definitive patent.
In the summer of 1872 he asked the American District Telegraph Company to try his invention on their ownlines. Among their directors was Alexander Graham Bell. Even though the President of the company agrees, he refuses to proceed and claims to have lost Meucci’s projects.
Bell, taking advantage of the situation in March 1876 filed a patent for an invention similar to Meucci’s. Although Antonio tried to defend himself in court, the caveat was not admissible in court having already expired for two years. The court decided in favor of Bell in 1891. Meucci was already dead for two years.
Early in 2000, the City Council of New York unanimously approved a resolution that requires Congress to recognize the paternity of the invention to Antonio Meucci.
On June 11, 2002 the US Congress proclaimed Meucci the sole inventor of the telephone.
How many non -Italians do you think are aware of this?