Who really invented the Telephone?

[W3GMS]

Just in from the latest issue of EDN.  I never even heard of Meucci before!
Joe, GMS


Meucci acknowledged as telephone inventor, June 11, 2002

On June, 11, 2002, the United States Congress acknowledged Italian immigrant Antonio Meucci as the true inventor of the telephone.
The declaration, approved by the House of Representatives, was made to little fanfare in the US. Meucci’s hometown of Florence, where he was recognized as the telephone inventor without such political support, is said to have celebrated the acknowledgement.
Meucci began developing the design of a “telegrafo parlante" or talking telegraph in 1849. He and his wife moved to Staten Island, NY, in 1850, where he continued his work mostly form a home lab.
In 1871, he filed a caveat for his design. However, then facing financial hardship due to his wife’s health and lacking enough English to navigate the business community, Meucci could not renew his caveat when it expired.
As most engineers know, credit often goes to the person with the patent and history recorded Alexander Graham Bell as the inventor of the telephone after Bell was awarded US Patent Number 174,465, Improvement on Telegraphy, on March 7, 1876.
Further clouding history, Elisha Gray, a professor at Oberlin College, applied for a patent on the same day as Bell but arrived at the office later that day (February 14, 1876). Bell’s was the fifth entry of the day; Gray’s was the 39th.
Adding some scandal, the Western Union affiliate laboratory Meucci had been working with lost his functioning models of his invention. Statements made to Congress in June 2002 pointed out that Bell conducted experiments in the same laboratory where Meucci's materials had been stored.
In January 1887, Bell’s patent came into question in court and a move to annul the patent was issued on the grounds of fraud and misrepresentation. The case was discontinued as moot when Meucci died in October 1889 and the Bell patent was set to expire in January 1893.
Meucci died penniless and remains virtually unknown in the US today.

[KA2DZT]

Joe,

Thanks for posting the story, very interesting.  Never really believe Bell's claim to the telephone.  It's usually us Italians that do most of the inventing HiHi.  Although, I don't hold any patents.

Fred

[ve6pg]

..i herd of this before...funny stuff these invention claims...bell lived in brantford, ontario for a while...the first long distance call was made from brantford to paris, ontario..(plaster of paris was invented there, not france)...
..look up the inventor(s) of the light bulb...2 guys in toronto...they sold the rights to edison, who all think invented it...i heard something about the phonograph as well..someone else was first...

..tim..

..sk..

[W4AAB]

Edison was a BS artist. Nikola Tesla and others were way ahead of him. I never believed that Bell invented the telephone, either.And Doc Loomis had wireless telegraphy before Marconi (sorry, Fred:-). Glad that someone is getting their due, albeit posthumously.
                                                Joe W4AAB

[vincent]

Besides the invention of the telephone, Antonio Meucci obtained several other patents.
Thanks to the interest of Eng. Basilio Catania (who started a research in 1989) some original Meucci’s documents were unearthed, in one of them was indicated a system to improve and extend long-distance telephone communication by placing loading coils, this in 1870. This system is universally recognized as pupinization, named after its inventor M.I. Pupin, who invented (or reinvented?) in 1900, 30 years after Meucci!

Fred, yes Italians are known as inventors and navigators but unfortunately some time they must be supported by other countries; G. Marconi by England, C. Colombo by Spain………………

[k4kyv]

Further clouding history, Elisha Gray, a professor at Oberlin College, applied for a patent on the same day as Bell but arrived at the office later that day (February 14, 1876).

Gray also invented the telautograph, a device that electrically transmitted handwritten messages. Sort of an analogue fax machine, with a mechanical pen in the receiving unit that reproduced the motions of the hand-operated pen in the transmitting unit.  In the 70s the machines were still in use, much improved with solid state servo technology.  I worked as a field service rep for several years during the 1970s, installing and maintaining telautograph machines.

I think computers and fax machines have now pretty much rendered them obsolete.

http://www.jmcvey.net/cable/elements/telautograph1.htm

[Steve - K4HX]

Fax machines? Who used those in the last 10 years?

I think computers and fax machines have now pretty much rendered them obsolete.

[WA2TTP Steve]

I used the fax mode of my all in one HP printer to send a form back to LG to authorize a warranty replacement of a dehumidifier. By the way if you need a dehumidifier steer clear of LG. LG has replaced mine twice in 3 years. My Sears units lasted about 10 years each. Maybe number three will be the charm!

Steve

[W1TAV]

Well!.. My Dad always told me that Don Ameche invented the Telephone!

[KA2DZT]

That's why I know Bell didn't invent the phone,  he was just an actor.

[k4kyv]

Fax machines? Who used those in the last 10 years?

Before I left Telautograph corp. they had begun pushing fax machines as replacements for the handwriters.  Those fax machines were about the same size and weight as a DX-100, and full of mechanical parts to go out of adjustment. To-day, modern fax machines are about the same size and weight as a contemporary computer printer.

A lot of businesses still list a fax number along with the telephone number in the phone book.  Where my wife works, they use fax to transmit sensitive data, such as medical records, because it is perceived as more secure than e-mail and the internet.

[W9GT]

Probably much like radio (or TV)  many were working on similar ideas at the same time.  Timing and business advantage sometimes allowed an individual or organization to prevail over many others who had the same idea or similar ideas at the same time.

A similar situation exists in the debate over who really invented TV (electronic, not mechanical).  Sarnoff had the advantage of big bad RCA with its huge financial and legal resources and nearly prevailed over Farnsworth in legal battles that lasted for many years.  Sarnoff insisted that his company and his employees really invented TV.  Farnsworth finally won in court, but not before he was nearly ruined and lost most of the business advantage of timing in introducing television. He remains a somewhat little recognized and largely misunderstood figure in history.  He was obviously a genius many times over, but the reality of the business world nearly did him in.

73,  Jack, W9GT

[K5UJ]

Fax machines? Who used those in the last 10 years?

seriouis question?

faxes are still used heavily to communicate signed secure documents when the parties want to avoid spoofing, and tampering.  It is much harder to intercept a fax.   They are used in financial and pharmaceutical industries.

[Steve - K4HX]

It is much harder to intercept a fax.

Says who?

Show me how it is easier than intercepting an SSL session or an AES encrypted email.

[WA1GFZ]

but who invented STRAAAAP

[Steve - K4HX]

All kidding aside, if your wife's business is sending medical records via fax, they are very like not HIPAA complaint, thus open to legal action and or government sanctions. They should be using FIPS 140 encryption, basically AES.

Fax machines? Who used those in the last 10 years?

A lot of businesses still list a fax number along with the telephone number in the phone book.  Where my wife works, they use fax to transmit sensitive data, such as medical records, because it is perceived as more secure than e-mail and the internet.

[W7TFO]

The story plays like that of Ed Armstrong & regeneration patents.

Out the window he went, a sad end to a genius' life.  RCA was indeed a business ogre.

Legal wrangling for years over the phone left many fallouts, but an interesting one is Graybar.

In 1869, Elisha Gray and his partner Enos M. Barton founded Gray & Barton Co.

They got the deal to sell publicly everything Western Electric/A.T.&T./Bell Labs made by agreement.  Not as good as a patent, but they made good money on the back of Bell.

73DG

[k4kyv]

..i herd of this before...funny stuff these invention claims...bell lived in brantford, ontario for a while...the first long distance call was made from brantford to paris, ontario..(plaster of paris was invented there, not france)...
..look up the inventor(s) of the light bulb...2 guys in toronto...they sold the rights to edison, who all think invented it...i heard something about the phonograph as well..someone else was first...

And Bell was Scottish by birth.  Fessenden was born in Québec, but became a naturalised US citizen. Marconi was Italian, but did most of his work in the UK.  In the Soviet days, I'm sure the Russians would have claimed that they really were the ones who invented the radio, the telephone and the telegraph.  They might still do.

[K5UJ]

It is much harder to intercept a fax.

Says who?

Show me how it is easier than intercepting an SSL session or an AES encrypted email.

You are the one who started the thing asking about faxes.  You implied they are no longer used.  You were corrected with facts.  Now you want me to prove something based on new circumstances you have set forth.  I don't think so.  I am not here to debate. 

You go intercept a fax and tell us how easy it was.   

[k4kyv]

Speaking of Fessenden, he is probably best known for his alleged Xmas eve broadcast, the first time the sounds of voice and music were transmitted by radio.  Whether or not the Xmas eve broadcast actually occurred is a subject of debate.  But more importantly, he is said to have set up the first two way trans-Atlantic telegraph. Remnants of the 420-foot tower he used to achieve this feat are said to still exist.

http://www.marshfield.net/History/mar3.htm

[W7TFO]

Getting back to the topic, who cares?  

It all went in the toilet back in '84 with the divestiture that let 'wireless' phones come to pass, with service on par with a crappy QSO full of QRM & QRN.

We're lucky in AZ that the Corporation Commission still regulates wire phones and the repair & maintenance thereof.

I won't be giving my line up anytime soon.

73DG

[Pete, WA2CWA]

Actually, the inauguration of mobile/wireless service occurred in June 1946. If there was no divestiture, we probably would not have much of the cool electronic communication type stuff we have today. Divestiture didn't help the Bell System but, over the years, the rest of the world reaped the benefits.

[Steve - K4HX]

LOL. You're funny when you get all worked up about a joke. I know people still use fax machines. I have one in my office, although it gets used maybe 2-3 times a year. That said, it is clearly not a fact that a fax is more secure than email. Such inaccuracies should not be spread. It is also a fact that all medical info should be sent via FIPS approved encryption. This is a matter of Federal law, not heresay or my opinion.

It is much harder to intercept a fax.

Says who?

Show me how it is easier than intercepting an SSL session or an AES encrypted email.

You are the one who started the thing asking about faxes.  You implied they are no longer used.  You were corrected with facts.  Now you want me to prove something based on new circumstances you have set forth.  I don't think so.  I am not here to debate.  

You go intercept a fax and tell us how easy it was.  

[WU2D]

The regeneration debate will never settle down and ultimately it was settled by the courts - legally: DeForest in his 1916 patent Supreme Court 21, May 1931 - of public Opinion: Armstrong with his 1914 patent but many others had as strong or stronger claims that were discarded by politics or notebook date or Patent application disputes. Indeed any valve circuit of that era around 1910-13 was more likely to oscillate than amplify anyway!

Here are a short list of candidates for the Father of Regeneration title:

Irving Langmuir (Engineer General Electric)
Edwin Armstrong (Engineering Student)
Lee deForest (Inventor)
Alexander Meissner (Physics/Engineering Telefunken)
Tesla's Assistant Fritz Lowenstein
H. J. Round (Engineer Marconi Co.)
C. S. Franklin (Engineer Marconi Co.)

Of course Fleming's Valve Patent, Fessenden's heterodyne Patent and deForest's Audion and Telefunken's Lieben valve devices provided the raw tools.

Based on looking at the old patent diagrams, I sure like what I see from Meissner in Germany and am somewhat confused by the Armstrong and deForest schematics

[n1bnc]

I thought he invented the wrong number.