Page 39 - Spring 2007

ANTONIO MEUCCI, THE SPEAKING TELEGRAPH, AND THE FIRST TELEPHONE
Angelo J. Campanella
Campanella Associates Columbus, Ohio 43026
(1885).
word, not distinct, a murmur, an inarticulate sound.” This test was repeated several times that day, and several times on days thereafter. In his words: “From those moments on, I rec- ognized that I had attained the transmission of human words by means of a wire conduc- tor with a battery of electrical cells, and so named it the Speaking Telegraph.”
After 1847 public attendance at the Teatro Tacon diminished, and the owner was consid- ering closing it permanently. From 1847 to 1852 the Havana Opera Company engaged in tours to Charleston, Philadelphia, New York, and Boston. Since Meucci’s contract with the Teatro Tacon was expiring, his friends suggest-
ed that he should move from Cuba, where venture capital was invested only into sugar production, to the United States where business opportunities for his inventions should be better. Other reasons for leaving Havana were that the local authorities were suspicious of his support of separatist activities and that he was a member of the Mason Lodge. By early 1850 he was con- vinced to make the move and the Meucci family made travel plans to accompany the Havana Opera Company on their next U.S. tour.
They sailed to New York in April 1850 on the frigate Norma bringing with them Antonio’s laboratory supplies and their life savings of twenty-six thousand ‘pesos fuertes’ (about $500,000 today). Antonio planned to continue his experiments and to develop and sell his chemical and electrical discoveries, despite his lack of knowledge of the English language, so vital in navigat-
Antonio Meucci (Fig. 1) was born in 1808 in San Frediano near Florence, Italy. He attended the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence and studied mechanical arts, chemistry, and physics including electrology. In 1833 he became assistant chief mechani- cian of Teatro della Pergola in Florence, where he built a stage house air-tube intercom. His involvement in Risorgimento (Italian reunifi- cation) landed him in jail for a time after which he married stage costumer Ester Mochi. They left Florence in 1835 with the Italian Opera Company troupe bound for Havana’s Teatro de Tacon where Antonio became the principal “mechanician.”
Fig. 1. Antonio Meucci
During the period 1842 to 1844, Meucci read treatises on galvinoplastics (electroplating) and galvanism by Becquerel, Jacobi, Mesmer and others. At about that same time, he obtained a contract to electroplate army supplies, acquiring a bank of 60 Bunsen electrical wet cells.
In1849–1850 Meucci became interested in electrothera- py and collaborated with a local doctor using the Bunsen cells. He had already applied some electrotherapy to his wife who was developing arthritis. Meucci’s method was com- prised of two cork insulated metal contacts (Fig. 2-1)1 wired to and from a “battery room,” where the cells could be con- nected in series to apply any voltage up to 114 volts DC, though lesser voltage with fewer cells was usually sufficient for effective therapy. One contact was to be held in a patient’s left hand, while the second was to be placed wherever the affliction might be on the patient’s body. To treat a migraine headache, for example, a patient would place the second con- tact in his mouth when Meucci called out commands from three rooms away where the Bunsen cells were located. He could connect any number of cells in series with the wires to and from the patient as well as to connect himself to the device as a “monitor.” Details of this event were later record- ed during the “Globe trial” of the 1880s at which Meucci sub- mitted an affidavit as well as trial testimony. In his (translat- ed) words; “...I held a similar instrument in my left hand. As soon as the person placed the contact on his lip, he received a discharge and shouted out. At the same time, I thought I heard this sound more distinctly than natural. I then put the copper of my instrument to my ear and heard the sound of his voice through the wire.”
To continue testing his discovery Meucci added a card- board bag—a funnel—around each copper contact to avoid injury by flesh contact (See Fig. 2-2). Meucci testified that he ordered the sick person to speak freely into the funnel, relating that “He put the funnel to his mouth, and I put mine to my ear. At each moment that said individual spoke, I heard sound of a
Fig. 2-1. Phone used for transmitting and receiving; “a” is metal contact; “b” is handle; and “c” is wires going through the handle. (New York Public Library)
Fig. 2-2. Phone used for transmitting and receiving. (New York Public Library)
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