Abstract

The life and work of Antonio Meucci, an Italian immigrant who claimed to have invented the telephone, are reviewed on the basis of sound evidence retrieved by the author in various archives. Of paramount importance toward establishing the historical truth was an affidavit retrieved among the (never-printed) acta of the suit instituted by the U.S. government to annul the two basic patents of Alexander Graham Bell on the telephone. This affidavit contains the telephone notes of Meucci’s laboratory notebook, complete with drawings, translated into English. Both the notes and the drawings reveal advanced telephone techniques, such as inductive loading, antisidetone circuit, call signaling, line structure, and other contrivances that were to be adopted by the Bell Company many years after the affidavit was notarized, thus demonstrating the originality of Meucci’s inventions.