[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 124 (Wednesday, September 10, 2003)]
[Senate]
[Pages S11354-S11355]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




SENATE RESOLUTION 223--EXPRESSING THE SENSE OF THE SENATE THAT THE LIFE 
AND ACHIEVEMENTS OF ANTONIO MEUCCI SHOULD BE RECOGNIZED, AND FOR OTHER 
                                PURPOSES

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

                              S. Res. 223

       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.
                                  ____

  Mr. CORZINE. Mr. President, I rise today to submit a resolution to 
recognize the life and achievements of Antonio Meucci, an Italian-
American inventor who had both an extraordinary and a tragic career. 
Mr. Meucci made a great contribution as a pioneer in the

[[Page S11355]]

development of the telephone, and his legacy deserves recognition.
  Born in 1808 in Florence, Italy, Antonio Meucci showed academic 
promise from an early age. After being educated at the Academy of Fine 
Arts, he rose to the position of assistant to the chief engineer for a 
leading Florentine theater. In 1835, he was recruited by a famous 
entrepreneur to work as chief engineer for a new theater in Havana, 
Cuba. There he began work on many of his inventions, including those 
relating to telephonic communication.
  Meucci left Havana for the United States in 1850 in search of a 
better environment to develop his ideas relating to the telephone. In 
1854, after his wife had fallen ill, Mr. Meucci set up a rudimentary 
communication link known as a ``speaking telegraph'' that connected her 
bedroom to his basement laboratory and the rest of his home.
  Mr. Meucci spent the next several years trying to advance his idea, 
and his efforts culminated in December 1871, when he hired an attorney 
to secure a patent caveat, a 1-year renewable notice of an impending 
patent, which reflected the promise of his work on the telephone. 
Although Mr. Meucci retained the caveat for 3 years, he was unable to 
produce the necessary $10 renewal fee after 1874.
  Unfortunately, Mr. Meucci died before he was able to complete his 
efforts. However, his work has not gone completely unnoticed. On the 
100th anniversary of the telephone, both the Smithsonian Institution 
and the International Telecommunication Union honored Mr. Meucci as 
among the most important pioneers of the telephone.
  Given his important contributions, I hope my colleagues will join in 
honoring both the life and achievements of Antonio Meucci.

                          ____________________