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The caveat which Meucci filed contained the drawing made by Nestori, and as shown in the cut, which is a facsimile, represents two persons with telephones connected by wires and batteries in circuit.
The evidence which the companies above mentioned have presented includes not only the statement of Prof. Gray and the circumstances connected with his caveat, but brings out fully, for the first time, the claims of Antonio Meucci. The latter evidence is intended to show that Meucci invented the speaking telephone not only before Bell, but that he antedated Reis by several years.
To explain this seeming incongruity, it must be stated that Meucci communicated with his attorney through an interpreter, as he was not master of the English language; and even at the present time he understands and speaks the language very poorly, so much so that we found it necessary to communicate with him in French during the conversation in which these facts were elicited.
When Meucci arrived in this country, he had property valued at $20,000, and he entered into the brewing business and into candle making, but he gradually lost his money, until in 1868 he found himself reduced to little or nothing. To add to his misery, he had the misfortune of being on the Staten Island ferryboat Westfield when the latter's boiler exploded with such terrible effect in 1871.
To ascertain that he was able to hear the sound, he covered the device with a funnel of pasteboard, shown in the adjoining figure, and held it to his ear, and thought that he heard the sound more distinctly. These instruments were constructed in 1849 in Havana, where Meucci was mechanical director of a theater.
Stetson advised Meucci to apply for a patent, but Meucci, without funds, had to content himself with a caveat. To obtain money for the latter he formed a partnership with A.Z. Grandi, S.G.P. Buguglio, and Ango Tremeschin.
Meucci fixes the dates from the fact that Garibaldi lived with him during the years 1851-54, and he remembers explaining the principles of his invention to the Italian patriot. After constructing the instrument just described, Meucci devised another during 1853-54.
Meucci made experiments in this direction, and at one time thought that he heard the sound of a sick person's voice more distinctly than usual, when he had the spatula connected with the wire and battery in his mouth. It consists of an oval disk or spatula of copper attached to a wire which was coiled and supported in an insulating handle of cork.
At the same time Meucci described his invention in L'Eco d'Italia, an Italian paper published in this city, and awaited the return of Bendalari. Meucci, however, kept at his experiments with the object of improving his telephone, and several changes of form were the result.
When Professor Bell exhibited his inventions at the Centennial, Meucci heard of it, but his poverty, he claims, prevented him from making his protestations of priority effective, and it was not until comparatively recently that they have been brought out with any prominence. The Electrical World. By ALEXANDER WATT, F.I.C., F.C.S. The late Dr.
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