Our readers have already been informed through these columns that,
notwithstanding the refusal of the Attorney-General, Mr. Garland, to
institute suit for the nullification of the Bell patent, application has
again been made by the Globe Telephone Co., of this city, the Washington
Telephone Co., of Baltimore, and the Panelectric Co. These applications
have been referred to the Interior Department and Patent Office for
examination, and upon their report the institution of the suit depends.
The evidence which the companies above mentioned have presented includes
not only the statement of Prof. Gray and the circumstances connected with
his caveat, but brings out fully, for the first time, the claims of
Antonio Meucci.
[Illustration: MEUCCI'S CAVEAT, 1871.]
The latter evidence is intended to show that Meucci invented the
speaking telephone not only before Bell, but that he antedated Reis by
several years. In a recent interview with Meucci we obtained a brief
history of his life and of his invention, which will, no doubt, interest
our readers. Meucci, a native of Italy, was educated in the schools of
Florence, devoting his time as a student to mechanical engineering. In
1844 he gave considerable attention to the subject of electricity, and
had a contract with the government of the island of Cuba to galvanize
materials used in the army. While experimenting with electricity he read
the works of Becquerel, Mesmer, and others who treated largely of the
virtues of electricity in the cure of disease. Meucci made experiments in
this direction, and at one time thought that he heard the sound of a sick
person's voice more distinctly than usual, when he had the spatula
connected with the wire and battery in his mouth.
[Illustration: FIGS. 1 AND 2.--1849.]
The apparatus he used for this purpose is shown in Fig. 1. It consists of
an oval disk or spatula of copper attached to a wire which was coiled and
supported in an insulating handle of cork. To ascertain that he was able
to hear the sound, he covered the device with a funnel of pasteboard,
shown in the adjoining figure, and held it to his ear, and thought that
he heard the sound more distinctly.
These instruments were constructed in 1849 in Havana, where Meucci was
mechanical director of a theater. In May, 1851, he came to this country,
and settled in Staten Island, where he has lived ever since. It was not
until a year later that he again took up his telephonic studies, and then
he tried an arrangement somewhat different from the first. He used a tin
tube, Figs. 3 and 4, and covered it with wire, the ends of which were
soldered to the tongue of copper. With this instrument, he states, he
frequently conversed with his wife from the basement of his house to the
third floor, where she was confined as an invalid.
[Illustration: FIGS. 3 AND 4.--1852.]
Continuing his experiments, he conceived the idea of using a bobbin of
wire with a metallic core, and the first instrument he constructed on
this idea is shown in Fig. 5. It consisted of a wooden tube and
pasteboard mouth piece, and supported within the tube was a bundle of
steel wires, surrounded at their upper end by a bobbin of insulated wire.
The diaphragm in this instrument, was an animal membrane, and it was slit
in a semicircle so as to make a flap or valve which responded to the air
vibrations. This was the first instrument in which he used a bobbin, but
the articulation naturally left much to be desired, on account of the use
of the animal membrane. Meucci fixes the dates from the fact that
Garibaldi lived with him during the years 1851-54, and he remembers
explaining the principles of his invention to the Italian patriot.
After constructing the instrument just described, Meucci devised another
during 1853-54. This consisted of a wooden block with a hole in the
center which was filled with magnetic iron ore, and through the center of
which a steel wire passed. The magnetic iron ore was surrounded by a coil
of insulated copper wire. But an important improvement was introduced
here in the shape of an iron diaphragm. With this apparatus greatly
improved effects were obtained.
[Illustration: FIG. 5.--1853.]
In 1856 Meucci first tried, he says, a horseshoe magnet, as shown in Fig.
6, but he went a step backward in using an animal membrane. He states
that this form did not talk so well as some which he had made before, as
might be expected.
During the years 1858-60 Meucci constructed the instrument shown in Fig.
7. He here employed a core of tempered steel magnetized, and surrounded
it with a large coil. He used an iron diaphragm, and obtained such good
results that he determined to bring his invention before the public. His
national pride prompted him to have the invention first brought out in
Italy, and he intrusted the matter to a Mr. Bendalari, an Italian
merchant, who was about to start for that country. Bendalari, however,
neglected the matter, and nothing was heard of it from that quarter. At
the same time Meucci described his invention in _L'Eco d'Italia_, an
Italian paper published in this city, and awaited the return of
Bendalari.
Meucci, however, kept at his experiments with the object of improving his
telephone, and several changes of form were the result. Fig. 8 shows one
of these instruments constructed during 1864-65. It consisted of a ring
of iron wound spirally with copper wire, and from two opposite sides iron
wires attached to the core supported an iron button. This was placed
opposite an iron diaphragm, which closed a cavity ending in a mouthpiece.
He also constructed the instrument which is shown in Fig. 9, and which,
he says, was the best instrument he had ever constructed. The bobbin was
a large one, and was placed in a soapbox of boxwood, with magnet core and
iron diaphragm. Still seeking greater perfection, Meucci, in 1865, tried
the bent horseshoe form, shown in Fig. 10, but found it no improvement;
and, although he experimented up to the year 1871, he was not able to
obtain any better results than the best of his previous instruments had
given.
[Illustration: FIG. 6.--1856.]
When Meucci arrived in this country, he had property valued at $20,000,
and he entered into the brewing business and into candle making, but he
gradually lost his money, until in 1868 he found himself reduced to
little or nothing. To add to his misery, he had the misfortune of being
on the Staten Island ferryboat Westfield when the latter's boiler
exploded with such terrible effect in 1871. He was badly scalded, and for
a time his life was despaired of. After he recovered he found that his
wife, in their poverty, had sold all his instruments to John Fleming, a
dealer in second-hand articles, and from whom parts of the instruments
have recently been recovered.
[Illustration: FIG. 7.--1858-60.]
With the view of introducing his invention, Meucci now determined to
protect it by a patent; and having lost his instrument, he had a drawing
made according to his sketches by an artist, Mr. Nestori. This drawing he
showed to several friends, and took them to Mr. A. Bertolino, who went
with him to a patent attorney, Mr. T.D. Stetson, in this city. Mr.
Stetson advised Meucci to apply for a patent, but Meucci, without funds,
had to content himself with a caveat. To obtain money for the latter he
formed a partnership with A.Z. Grandi, S.G.P. Buguglio, and Ango
Tremeschin. The articles of agreement between them, made Dec. 12, 1871,
credit Meucci as the inventor of a speaking telegraph, and the parties
agree to furnish him with means to procure patents in this and other
countries, and to organize companies, etc. The name of the company was
"Teletrofono." They gave him $20 with which to procure his caveat, and
that was all the money he ever received from this source.
The caveat which Meucci filed contained the drawing made by Nestori, and
as shown in the cut, which is a facsimile, represents two persons with
telephones connected by wires and batteries in circuit. The caveat,
however, does not describe the invention very clearly; it describes the
two persons as being insulated, but Meucci claims that he never made any
mention of insulating persons, but only of insulating the wires. To
explain this seeming incongruity, it must be stated that Meucci
communicated with his attorney through an interpreter, as he was not
master of the English language; and even at the present time he
understands and speaks the language very poorly, so much so that we found
it necessary to communicate with him in French during the conversation in
which these facts were elicited.
[Illustration: FIG. 8.--1864-65.]
In the summer of 1872, after obtaining his caveat, Meucci, accompanied by
Mr. Bertolino, went to see Mr. Grant, at that time the Vice President of
the New York District Telegraph Company, and he told the latter that he
had an invention of sound telegraphs. He explained his inventions and
submitted drawings and plans to Mr. Grant, and requested the privilege of
making a test on the wires of the company, which test if successful would
enable him to raise money. Mr. Grant promised to let him know when he
could make the test, but after nearly two years of waiting and
disappointment, Mr. Grant said that he had lost the drawings; and
although Meucci then made an instrument like the one shown in Fig. 9 for
the purpose of a test, Mr. Grant never tried it. Meucci claims that he
made no secret of his invention, and as instance cites the fact that in
1873 a diver by the name of William Carroll, having heard of it, came to
him and asked him if he could not construct a telephone so that
communication could be maintained between a diver and the ship above.
Meucci set about to construct a marine telephone, and he showed us the
sketch of the instrument in his memorandum book, which dates from that
time and contains a number of other inventions and experiments made by
him.
[Illustration: FIG. 9.--1864-65.]
[Illustration: FIG. 10.--1865.]
When Professor Bell exhibited his inventions at the Centennial, Meucci
heard of it, but his poverty, he claims, prevented him from making his
protestations of priority effective, and it was not until comparatively
recently that they have been brought out with any prominence.--_The
Electrical World._
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