Graham Bell

Alexander Graham Bell is often credited as the inventor of the telephone since he was awarded the first successful patent. However, there were many other inventors such as Elisha Gray and Antonio Meucci who also developed a talking telegraph.

Antonio Meucci, an Italian immigrant, began developing the design of a talking telegraph or telephone in 1849. In 1871, which is five years before Bell applied for a telephone patent, Meucci filed a one-year renewable notice of an impending patent on his ‘talking telegraph’. This is different from the full patent which costs US$250, an amount he could not afford. Three years later, he could not even pay for the $10 to renew the patent caveat. His series of unfortunate events did not end there. Months after he filed the impending patent, he got into an accident while aboard the Staten Island Ferry. A boiler exploded causing 125 casualties and hundreds more with injuries. Meucci, while recovering from his burns, found that his wife had sold the content of his lab, including the telephone, for only US$6 to spend for medications. Determined about his dream, Meucci took to his notebooks containing his experiments and made a prototype of the telephone. He sent the device and some notes to the Western Union Telegraph Company, which executives were friends and colleagues of Bell. Meucci was supposed to meet with the Western Union but failed, and later claimed that the company has lost the items he had given them. Only two years later, Bell filed the full patent for the telephone and set up a company with the Western Union.