Santi Santi Giuseppe Meucci was an Italian inventor who lived in the 18th century. He wasn’t born into a wealthy household and had to drop out of school. He performed odd jobs to pay for his schooling because he couldn’t afford it. In all of his professions, he experimented with technology, creating devices and methods that advanced science. At the ‘Teatro della Pergola’, he tinkered with technology and devised a communication device that connected the control room with the stage. He later worked at a clinic and invented a device to treat rheumatic patients. During the development of this system, he came up with the concept of constructing a new technology that would make unintelligible voices audible. He tried his hand at entrepreneurship and opened a candle factory, but it failed due to lack of funds. Because of his poverty, Meucci was unable to patent several of his successful ideas. His communicating apparatus was often regarded as the first telephone.
Early Childhood of Antonio Meucci
The son of Domenica Pepi and Amatis Meucci in Florence, Tuscany. Antonio was the eldest of eight siblings, only four of whom reached adulthood.
The ‘Florence Academy of Fine Arts’ accepted him as a mechanical and chemical engineer. However, due to financial restrictions, he had to leave school two years later.
A Career of Antonio Meucci
He got a position at the Florentine government and studied through correspondence.
Later, he worked as a stage technician at the Teatro della Pergola, under Artemio Canovetti.
In 1834, he devised a device to enable individuals communicate from the theatre’s control room to the stage. The idea came from the speaking tube, which was used on ships and is still used.
Antonio was briefly imprisoned in 1833-34, along with politician Francesco Domenico Guerrazzi, for alleged ties to the ‘Italian Unification Movement’.
In 1835, he moved to Cuba with his wife and worked at the ‘Great Tacón Theater’ in Havana. He restored the ‘Gran’ theatre and invented a method to cleanse water.
In 1848, he joined the ‘Franz Anton Mesmer’s therapy technique’ treating rheumatic sufferers. An idea came to him while utilizing electric shocks to treat patients the next year. This concept inspired him to create the ‘telegrafo parlante’, a method of articulating unintelligible utterances using electrodes and cables.
In 1850, he and his wife departed Cuba and settled in Staten Island, New York. He had heard of scientist Samuel Morse’s inventions and wished to be an inventor.
On his return to Italy he set up a candle factory, where he hired numerous exiled Italians active in the ‘Italian Unification movement’.
Years of research and development helped Meucci learn how voice is transferred via electromagnetic waves, and design a gadget to enable him converse with his wife at home.
During the next decade, he created various variations of the same gadget, extending its range of communication. But the candle factory lost money, forcing Antonio into bankruptcy. He couldn’t upgrade his device prototype because of his financial situation.
Antonio sought wealthy patrons for his innovations, but the turbulent state of the country at the time made this difficult.
His house had to be sold, but the new owner let him and his wife live there. But he had to rely on his friends and acquaintances for other family costs.
By the end of the 1850s, he had found a patron for his innovations, William E. Ryder, who agreed to fund him. They were good friends in the 1860s.
In 1870, he reportedly succeeded in transmitting a mile-long human voice using copper as a conductor and a cotton shield. Meucci called this instrument a ‘telettrofono’.
He subsequently tried to secure a patent for his gadget but was denied due to technical flaws in the description of the device’s construction.
Graham Bell patented his telephonic device in 1876, and Meucci lacked funds to pursue a patent. He also risked patent infringement because Bell had previously patented his device.
He has many patents to his credit and a few of them include Candle mold, Lamp burner, Preparation of hydrocarbon liquid, Improved wood pulping process Improved way of making fruit effervescent drinks Hygrometer and plastic paste for billiard balls and vases
Grandiose of Antonio Meucci
He developed numerous key inventions that were recognized and advanced science. His telephonic device, designed in the 1860s, is his most famous invention. On argues about who invented the first communicating gadget and when it was invented.
Personal Legacy of Antonio Meucci
On August 7, 1837, Antonia Meucci married Esterre Mochi, a clothing designer at the ‘Gran’.
His wife had rheumatoid arthritis and was therefore ill. Initially, he devised his telephonic apparatus to converse with his wife from other rooms. Esterre died in 1884 after a protracted illness.
On October 18, 1889, he died at Clifton, Staten Island, New York.
In 2002, the ‘U.S. House of Representatives’ passed a resolution entitled ‘United States HRes. 269 on Antonio Meucci’, which stated that ‘the life and achievements of Antonio Meucci should be recognized, and his work in the creation of the telephone should be acknowledged’.
Trivia
The artist Nestore Corradi depicted Meucci’s thoughts on a stamp released by the Italian Postal and Telegraph Society in 2003.
Estimated Net Worth
Antonio is one of the wealthiest and most famous inventors. Antonio Meucci net worth is estimated at $1.5 Million by Wikipedia, Forbes, and Business Insider.