[Congressional Bills 108th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. Res. 223 Introduced in Senate (IS)]







108th CONGRESS
  1st Session
S. RES. 223

 Expressing the sense of the Senate that the life and achievements of 
      Antonio Meucci should be recognized, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                           September 10, 2003

 Mr. Corzine submitted the following resolution; which was referred to 
                     the Committee on the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
 Expressing the sense of the Senate that the life and achievements of 
      Antonio Meucci should be recognized, and for other purposes.

Whereas Antonio Meucci, the great Italian-American 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 wife's second floor bedroom;
Whereas having exhausted most of his life's 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 York's 
        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 Meucci's 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 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 Senate that--
            (1) the life and achievements of Antonio Meucci should be 
        recognized; and
            (2) the work of Antonio Meucci in the invention of the 
        telephone should be acknowledged.
                                 <all>