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Fig. 6. Corradi’s 1883 recreation of the drawing that he furnished Meucci in 1858. (Garibaldi-Meucci Museum)
said vocal or other sound...”
Both Elisha Gray, an inventor who was also working on
a telephone with a liquid microphone invention unbe- knownst to Bell, and Bell both filed applications on February 14, 1876. Gray’s was for a Caveat, while Gardiner Hubbard’s lawyers filed a patent on behalf of Bell. On March 7, 1876 Patent #174,465 was issued to Alexander Graham Bell for his “Improvement in Telegraphy,” aimed at performing multiple message telegraphy. Here, an armature moving near the pole of a small electromagnet produced an undulating current. Bell also cited “...another mode...where motion to the arma- ture (is) by the human voice or musical instrument” and a corresponding claim. On March 10, 1876 Bell demonstrated converting words into electrical current using the variable-
15
After learning that Bell was granted the March 1876 patent on the transmission of voice over wires, Meucci demanded his priority in the matter. Technically this was possible on the basis of Meucci’s 1871 Caveat, renewed for a total of three years through 28 December1874 while Bell, as he later declared under oath, had his first idea of the (elec- tromagnetic) telephone the summer of 1874. Years later, Meucci’s precedence would be based on the fact that Bell’s patent did not constitute “new and useful art... not before known or used in this country, and not patented or described in one whichever printed publication, in this or other countries, and that has not been publicly used or sold for more than two
His assis- tant, in an adjoining room in Boston, heard Bell say over the experimental device the soon-to-be-famous words: “Mr.
Watson, come here, I want to see you.”
liquid resistance documented in a second patent.
sounds with their vocal organs. Bell became aware of Helmholtz’s works on tone sounds with an electric tuning fork, and those of Wheatstone who had reconstructed a speaking machine suggested by Baron von Kempelen. Alexander and his brother, Melville, attempted to build the same device from artificial vocal cords driven by the wind chest of their parlor organ. Later they caused a dog to pro- duce words by their manipulation of the dog’s mouth and throat. In Scotland and in London, as of age 18 (circa 1864), Bell was unaware of electricity and magnetism. Then he immigrated to Boston, Massachusetts to eventually become a professor of vocal physiology at Boston University. While in America, Bell undertook the study of electricity.
Bell’s quoted recollection of the foundation for his inven-
tion was only “my crude telephone of 1874–1876.”13 Review
of the facts now known of that time indicates that Bell’s
device would have been created while teaching at Boston
University and despite urgings from his associates Messrs.
Saunders and Hubbard that “multiple telegraphy” (transmis-
sion of several simultaneous telegraph messages over a single
wire line) would have much greater monetary value. Bell had
made it known in October 1874 of his intent to patent a tele-
14
Bell then used the New York facilities of Western Union in March, April and May 1875 for his telephone exper- iments. Bell was assisted by Henry Pope and George Prescott. In May1875 Bell announced the addition of variable resist- ance to his initial telephone conception. Bell signed his “Improvement in Telegraphy” patent application on 30 January 1876, which included “...causing electrical undula- tions, similar in form to the vibrations of air accompanying
phone.
Antonio Meucci 41