To inaugurate the Blog we got curious and nostalgic, so we wanted to start by making a historical tour of the origins of Telecommunications.
Reading information that tells how events unfolded, we have felt deep admiration and respect for those who have innovated and fought to carry forward their intuitions, beliefs and knowledge, which allowed us, through constant improvements and shared knowledge, to reach today's level of development that we enjoy thanks to their legacies.
It all began with Antonio Meucci, an Italian inventor, resident in Havana and later in the United States, who in 1849 discovered that the transformation of sound vibrations into electrical impulses allowed voices to be transmitted over a distance, via a cable.
It is amazing how many breakthroughs in the world of invention come about through “mistakes” or “non-intentional” situations. For Meucci, this was also the case. He was fascinated by the body’s responses to electrical stimuli, so he developed a method using short electrical pulses to treat pain. A patient who had a copper electrode applied to his tongue screamed when he received the small electric shock. Meucci heard the man scream in the other room.
Thus, Meucci came to conceive the first telephone system in 1849, when Alexander Graham Bell was only two years old.
Meucci used his invention, the “tele-phone,” to create a communication channel from his bedroom (on the second floor, where his wife was bedridden after suffering from an illness that prevented her from moving) to his workshop, where he worked.
Meucci systematically experimented with the various possible means of transmitting voice through electrical vibrations. From 1850 to 1862 he developed more than 30 models, with 12 different variations.
After constant improvements, in 1860 Antonio Meucci made the “teletrophone” public in a demonstration in order to attract investors for its production, but none of the offers that arose after the demonstration materialized.
Meucci presented his idea and documentation to several people, including the vice president of the Western Union Telegraph Company in New York, but after a while the documents “disappeared.” He was aware that someone could steal his patent, but he did not have enough money to patent his invention permanently, so in 1871 he began the process for a temporary patent that protected the idea until 1874.
In 1876, Alexander Graham Bell, an employee of Western Union, registered a patent for a type of telephone. When Meucci found out about this, he began legal proceedings, which had no positive results before his death in 1889.
Paradoxically and sadly, Meucci died poor, bitter at having been scammed and never saw the glory and recognition of his talent.
It was not until June 11, 2002, that the Official Gazette of the United States House of Representatives published a Resolution honoring the life and work of the inventor. It acknowledged that it was Antonio Meucci rather than Alexander Graham Bell who invented the telephone. It also acknowledged that Meucci demonstrated and published his invention in 1860 and concluded with an acknowledgement of his authorship of the invention.
The Italian-American community keeps the inventor's memory alive, and transformed his former residence on Staten Island into the Garibaldi-Meucci Museum, in honor of the famous inventor and his heroic guest, as well as a place to pay tribute to all Italians who contributed to the growth of the United States and made that country their second home.
By: The team of SimpleTECH©
Sources:
http://garibaldimeuccimuseum.org/
http://www.interestingamerica.com/2010-12-02_Garibaldi_Meucci_Museum_Grigonis.html
http://desdelteletrofono.blogspot.com.uy/2010/10/desde-el-teletrofono-hasta-hoy.html
https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonio_Meucci
