Official:

Antonio Meucci was

the real inventor of telephony
On the past June 15th, 2002, the US Congress officially recognized
that the italian inventor Antonio eucci is to !e credited for the
invention of the telephone, and not Ale"ander #$ %ell, as so far
clai&ed$
'his (as the end of a long controversy, started (hen a poor italian
i&&igrant in )e( *or+ sold the prototypes of his invention to a
'elegraph co&pany, that later gave the& to Ale"ander #$ %ell, (ho in
turn patented the invention of the phone$
Still no( in do(nto(n %oston, A, a &onu&et &ar+s the spot (here
the ,first, phone call too+ place -see ies, clic+ the& for a larger
version.$ %ut things apparently (ent differently$$$
%orn in 1/0/ in 0lorence, in 1/15 he left his poor ho&eland to the ne(
(orld$ 2nitially o!sessed (ith &edical uses of electricity, eucci
realized soon that one could trans&it voice via (ire, and !et(een
1/50 and 1/32 he developed at least 40 different &odels of telephone,
although he (as too poor to protect his inventions (ith a patent -this
(ould have costed hi& 5250, that he did not have.$ 6ven (orse, he
had to sell all his early &odels for 53 in 1/70 (hen he fell ill$ 8o(ever
in 1/71 he &anaged to o!tain a cheaper official docu&ent called a
9Caveat9 stating his paternity of the invention -that he called
teletrophone.$
After the sale of the old prototypes, in 1/71 he handed so&e ne(
&odels to the vice:president of ;estern Union 'elegraphs, and in 1/73
he had the surprise to read fro& the ne(spapers that Ale"ander #$
%ell (as credited of this a&azing ne( invention$ 2n 1//7 the <udges
annulled %ell9s patent, !ut since his 1/71 Caveat (as !y then e"pired,
he (as never credited (ith the invention$
2n the years of poverty, he +ept on repeating to his (ife that his
inventions (ould &a+e the& rich one day$ 8e died poor in 1//= in
)e( *or+ City$ After 114 years, the Congress on re>uest of an italian:
a&erican representative officially stated that eucci (as to !e
considered the inventor of the telephone$
'he &oral <udg&ent of %ell and of the effect of his actions of course
are left to our readers$