House Resolution 269
Text Honoring the Achievements of
Antonio Meucci
The following
resolution was passed on
June 11, 2002 in the U.S. House of Representatives:
HRES 269 IH
107th CONGRESS
1st Session
IN THE HOUSE OF
REPRESENTATIVES
Mr. FOSSELLA submitted
the following resolution:
RESOLUTION
Expressing the sense
of the House of Representatives to honor the life and
achievements of 19th Century Italian-American inventor Antonio
Meucci, and his work in the invention of the telephone.
Whereas Antonio Meucci,
the great Italian inventor, had a career that was both
extraordinary and tragic;
Whereas, upon immigrating to New
York, Meucci continued to work with ceaseless vigor on a
project he had begun in Havana, Cuba, an invention he later
called the teletrofono, involving electronic communications;
Whereas Meucci set up a rudimentary
communications link in his Staten Island home that connected
the basement with the first floor, and later, when his wife
began to suffer from crippling arthritis, he created a
permanent link between his lab and his wifes second floor
bedroom;
Whereas, having exhausted most of
his lifes savings in pursuing his work, Meucci was unable to
commercialize his invention, though he demonstrated his
invention in 1860 and had a description of it published in New
Yorks Italian language newspaper;
Whereas Meucci never
learned English well enough to navigate the complex American
business community;
Whereas Meucci was unable to raise
sufficient funds to pay his way through the patent application
process, and thus had to settle for a caveat, a one-year renewable notice of an
impending patent, which was first filed on December 28, 1871;
Whereas Meucci later
learned that the Western Union affiliate laboratory reportedly
lost his working models, and Meucci , who at this point was
living on public assistance, was unable to renew the caveat
after 1874;
Whereas in March 1876, Alexander
Graham Bell, who conducted experiments in the same laboratory
where Meuccis materials had been stored, was granted a patent
and was thereafter credited with inventing the telephone;
Whereas on January 13,
1887, the Government of the United States moved to annul the
patent issued to Bell on the grounds of fraud and
misrepresentation, a case that the Supreme Court found viable
and remanded for trial;
Whereas Meucci died in
October 1889, the Bell patent expired in January 1893, and the
case was discontinued as moot without ever reaching the
underlying issue of the true inventor of the telephone
entitled to the patent; and
Whereas if Meucci had
been able to pay the $10 fee to maintain the caveat after
1874, no patent could have been issued to Bell:
Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That it is
the sense of the House of Representatives that the life and
achievements of Antonio Meucci should be recognized, and his
work in the invention of the telephone should be acknowledged.
