RE: 7 March 1876: Alexander Graham Bell is Granted a Patent f or The Teleph one

["Richard M. Smith" <rms () bsf-llc com>]

It looks like telephone related patent fights didn't start with NTP v. RIM:

http://www.italianhistorical.org/MeucciStory.htm

In 1876, Alexander Graham Bell filed a patent which does not really describe
the telephone but refers to it as such.  When Meucci learned of this, he
instructed his lawyer to protest to the U.S. Patent Office in Washington,
something that was never done.  However, a friend did contact Washington,
only to learn that all the documents relevant to the "Talking Telegraph"
filed in Meucci's caveat had been "lost." Later investigation produced
evidence of illegal relationships linking certain employees of the Patent
Office and officials of Bell's company.  And later, in the course of
litigation between Bell and Western Union, it was revealed that Bell had
agreed to pay Western Union 20 percent of profits from commercialization of
his "invention" for a period of 17 years.  Millions of dollars were
involved, but the price may been cheaper than revealing facts better left
hidden, from Bell's point of view.
 
In the court case of 1886, although Bell's lawyers tried to turn aside
Meucci's suit against their client, he was able to explain every detail of
his invention so clearly as to leave little doubt of his veracity, although
he did not win the case against the superior - and vastly richer - forces
fielded by Bell.  Despite a public statement by the then Secretary of State
that "there exists sufficient proof to give priority to Meucci in the
invention of the telephone," and despite the fact that the United States
initiated prosecution for fraud against Bell's patent, the trial was
postponed from year to year until, at the death of Meucci in 1896, the case
was dropped.

Richard
  

-----Original Message-----
From: funsec-bounces () linuxbox org [mailto:funsec-bounces () linuxbox org] On
Behalf Of Willy, Andrew
Sent: Tuesday, March 07, 2006 1:18 PM
To: funsec () linuxbox org
Subject: RE: [funsec] 7 March 1876: Alexander Graham Bell is Granted a
Patent f or The Teleph one

Two other interesting snippets from the same article.  (The underscores are
mine)

[snip]

In October 1835, Meucci and his wife left Florence, never to return. They
emigrated to the Americas, stopping first in Cuba, where Meucci accepted a
job at Gran Teatro de Tacón in Havana. ____There Meucci had developed a
popular method of using electric shocks to treat illness. While providing a
treatment to a friend, Meucci reportedly heard his friend's scream through
the piece of copper wire that was between them.____

[snip]

Ouch!

[snip 2]

The Parliament of Canada retaliated by passing a resolution recognizing
Canadian immigrant Alexander Graham Bell as the only inventor of the
telephone.

[snip 2]

Grumpy Canucks! =)

Andrew

-----Original Message-----
From: Fergie [mailto:fergdawg () netzero net]
Sent: Tuesday, March 07, 2006 11:03 AM
To: nick () virus-l demon co uk
Cc: funsec () linuxbox org
Subject: Re: [funsec] 7 March 1876: Alexander Graham Bell is Granted a
Patent f or The Teleph one


Indeed. Thanks for that. :-)

Via WIkipedia:

[snip]

Antonio Santi Giuseppe Meucci (April 13, 1808-October 18, 1896) was an
Italian inventor. In Italy, he is generally recognized as the inventor of
the telephone. Until recently, the rest of the world widely attributed this
to Alexander Graham Bell, but the matter was thrown into controversy when,
in June 2002, the United States House of Representatives passed a symbolic
bill officially recognizing Meucci for his contributions to the invention of
the telephone.

[snip]

More:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonio_Meucci

Thanks!

- ferg


-- Nick FitzGerald <nick () virus-l demon co uk> wrote:

Fergie wrote:

> At Boston University he continued his research in the same field, and 
> endeavored to produce a telephone which would not only send musical 
> notes, but articulate speech.
>
> With financing from his American father-in-law, on March 7, 1876, the 
> U.S. Patent Office granted him Patent Number 174,465 covering "the 
> method of, and apparatus for, transmitting vocal or other sounds 
> telegraphically ... by causing electrical undulations, similar in form 
> to the vibrations of the air accompanying the said vocal or other 
> sound", the telephone.

This "history" is rather contested.

If you're going to celeebrate the invention of the telephone, you should
probably search out the story of Antonio Meucci, a poor Florentine immigrant
to your country who (along with several others) clearly "invented"
functional telephones somewhat before Bell.  Meucci could not afford the
$250 patent fee, and could not even afford to maintain the $1/year fee for a
renewable notice of an impending patent, although he did file one of these
for one year in 1871.  In the hope of interesting the telegraph company in
the notion and to help him get his invention patented, he even sent
prototypes to Western Union, where Bell almost certainly saw them and could
have worked with them.

[snip]


--
"Fergie", a.k.a. Paul Ferguson
 Engineering Architecture for the Internet  fergdawg () netzero net or
fergdawg () sbcglobal net  ferg's tech blog: http://fergdawg.blogspot.com/


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