Antonio Meucci
| Antonio Meucci | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
13 April 1808 Florence, Italy |
| Died | 18 October 1889 (aged 81) New York, New York, U.S. |
| Residence | Staten Island, New York, U.S. |
| Citizenship | Italian |
| Fields | Communication devices, manufacturing, chemical and mechanical engineering, chemical and food patents |
| Alma mater | Accademia di Belle Arti |
| Known for | Inventing a telephone-like device, innovator, businessman, supporter of Italian unification |
Antonio Santi Giuseppe Meucci (Italian: [anˈtɔːnjo meˈuttʃi]; 13 April 1808 – 18 October 1889) was an Italian inventor and an associate of Giuseppe Garibaldi. Meucci is best known for developing a voice-communication apparatus that several sources credit as the first telephone.
Meucci set up a form of voice-communication link in his Staten Island, New York, home in which the second-floor bedroom connected to his laboratory. He submitted a patent caveat for his telephonic device to the U.S. Patent Office in 1871, but there was no mention of electromagnetic transmission of vocal sound in his caveat. In 1876, Alexander Graham Bell was granted a patent for the electromagnetic transmission of vocal sound by undulatory electric current.
Meucci was born at Via dei Serragli 44 in the San Frediano borough of Florence, Grand Duchy of Tuscany (now in the Italian Republic), on 13 April 1808, as the first of nine children to Amatis Meucci and Domenica Pepi. Amatis was at times a government clerk and a member of the local police, and Domenica was principally a homemaker. Four of Meucci's siblings did not survive childhood.
In November 1821, at the age of 15, he was admitted to Florence Academy of Fine Arts as its youngest student, where he studied chemical and mechanical engineering. He ceased full-time studies two years later due to insufficient funds, but continued studying part-time after obtaining employment as an assistant gatekeeper and customs official for the Florentine government. Meucci later became employed at the Teatro della Pergola in Florence as a stage technician, assisting Artemio Canovetti.
In 1834 Meucci constructed a type of acoustic telephone to communicate between the stage and control room at the Teatro della Pergola. This telephone was constructed on the principles of pipe-telephones used on ships and still functions. He married costume designer Esterre Mochi, who was employed in the same theatre, on 7 August 1834.
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