# Who invented the telephone? Or "Luigi, come here, I want you." **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 23, 2002, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-invented-the-telephone-or-luigi-come-here-i-want-you/115596 "2002-06-23T20:48:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Ringo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/779978/32.png) [@Ringo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ringo)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2002, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-invented-the-telephone-or-luigi-come-here-i-want-you/115596/1 "2002-06-23T20:48:28Z")
I vaguely remember being told that the Soviets had once laid claim to a Russian having invented the telephone, but that’s not easily ferreted out on the 'net, and I don’t know of anyone who takes that seriously. So, back to Alexander Graham Bell, right? Well, not if you believe the folks who claim that one [Antonio Meucci](http://www.italianhistorical.org/MeucciStory.htm) invented the telephone and got ripped off by Bell. The site linked gives the outline of the tale found in several places, and is a little sparse on technical details. > [@](#): > > One day, while preparing to administer a treatment to a friend, Meucci heard an exclamation of the friend, who was in the next room, over the piece of copper wire running between them. The inventor realized immediately that he held in his hand something much more important than any other discovery he had ever made… With no speakers, no membrane, just a copper wire? And that site, as do several others, has an agenda biased towards Italian accomplishment. Apparently the U.S. Congress recently passed a resolution saying credit actually belongs to Meucci, but [Canada](http://www.italianhistorical.org/MeucciStory.htm) still backs Bell. So this alternate claim is made, and has apparently picked up several adherents. Is there anything to it? Is there a known example of a pre-1876 Meucci telephone? ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2002, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-invented-the-telephone-or-luigi-come-here-i-want-you/115596/2 "2002-06-23T23:04:57Z")
Joseph Faber invented a device called the Euphonia which was a mechanical device which could imitate a human voice. Joseph Henry, who had worked with Morse on the telegraph, saw a demonstration of the Euphonia in 1846 and discussed with Faber the possiblity of connecting two such devices by cable and using them as a form of communications. Unfortuantely neither man ever developed the idea. Henry did however later discuss the concept with Alexander Graham Bell who credited Henry with inspiring his research. Elisha Gray was another person working on developing a telephone. His work so closely paralleled Bells’ that they submitted their patent applications on the same day; February 14, 1876. ---
**Author:** ![YPOD](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/e99b99/32.png) [@YPOD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YPOD)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2002, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-invented-the-telephone-or-luigi-come-here-i-want-you/115596/3 "2002-06-24T02:02:31Z")
There were several other attempts at a telephone, but most of the time they were exercises in science as opposed to the practical hurry to the patent office approach of both Gray and Bell - Bell got the patent because he beat Gray by a few hours to the patent office, but ended up buying the rights to many of Gray’s concepts. If my memory of some reading serves me right, there was someone in Germany or Austria who had invented the equivalent of the telephone, but tried to interest the kaiser or the king or whoever in it. He wanted to use it as a tool to listen to musicians far away. Since the king could simply issue a royal order and anyone would come and play to him, the royals saw no reason to use a complicated and expensive arrangement that, by comparison, sounded terrible. Finally, I think someone in Cuba in the 18th or early 19th century might have come up with some form of telephone. ---
**Author:** ![femtosecond](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f08c70/32.png) [@femtosecond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/femtosecond)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2002, 11:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-invented-the-telephone-or-luigi-come-here-i-want-you/115596/4 "2002-06-24T11:51:02Z")
> [@](#): > > there was someone in Germany or Austria who had invented the equivalent of the telephone [Johann Philipp Reiss](http://www.thefeature.com/history.jsp?pageid=1650&t=p) ---
**Author:** ![Ringo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/779978/32.png) [@Ringo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ringo)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2002, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-invented-the-telephone-or-luigi-come-here-i-want-you/115596/5 "2002-06-24T15:16:47Z")
Interesting ancillary information here, but not much mention of Meucci. ---
**Author:** ![Abe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f1d935/32.png) [@Abe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Abe)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2002, 6:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-invented-the-telephone-or-luigi-come-here-i-want-you/115596/6 "2002-07-08T06:07:47Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by YPOD \* > Finally, I think someone in Cuba in the 18th or early 19th century might have come up with some form of telephone. You may be thinking of Meucci himself, who lived in Cuba before moving to the US. The case for Meucci inventing the telephone appears quite strong, and parallels with the Tesla-Edison controversy are very interesting. In both cases one inventor who put forward a convincing but popularly rejected claim died poor and in ignomy, while the other made a killing and left behind a company to perpetuate his name and glory. Here are some interesting facts I found, including various citations: [http://www.esanet.it/chez\_basilio/meucci\_more\_info.htm](http://www.esanet.it/chez_basilio/meucci_more_info.htm) This is the Meucci story from the same site: [http://www.esanet.it/chez\_basilio/antenna.htm](http://www.esanet.it/chez_basilio/antenna.htm) Sounds plausible. ---
**Author:** ![keeper0](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b19c9b/32.png) [@keeper0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/keeper0)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2002, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-invented-the-telephone-or-luigi-come-here-i-want-you/115596/7 "2002-07-08T15:37:59Z")
Oh you unpatriotic vermin. How dare you try to take an invention away from an American and pass it off to a foreigner! Don’t you know there is a war on? Whenever an American and a foreigner dispute claim on an invention, fall back on this sequence of logic. 1. The American did it first. 2. (if 1 is disproved) The American did it better, so deserves credit anyway. 3. (if 2 is disproved) The American was the better visionary who knew what to do with the item after invention, and so deserves credit. I’d swear some of you never read a high school history book. Why, I bet gunpowder was invented here by a Native American, but was lost when the inventor (who also invented celestial navigation) sailed to China with it! ---
**Author:** ![Ringo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/779978/32.png) [@Ringo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ringo)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2002, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-invented-the-telephone-or-luigi-come-here-i-want-you/115596/8 "2002-07-08T15:54:31Z")
Uh…, yeah, thanks for the input **keeper0**. If you bump into a fact, let us know. ---
**Author:** ![Cerowyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/82dd89/32.png) [@Cerowyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cerowyn)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2002, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-invented-the-telephone-or-luigi-come-here-i-want-you/115596/9 "2002-07-08T19:54:25Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by keeper0 \* > **How dare you try to take an invention away from an American and pass it off to a foreigner!** Sorry to pop your bubble, but Bell didn’t become American until six years after he patented the telephone. And, he spent much of the last 37 years of his life in Baddeck, Nova Scotia (where he and his wife are buried). Maybe _that’s_ why the U.S. Congress [passed a resolution](http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,738675,00.html) that Bell cheated Meucci of credit for the invention of the telephone. ---
**Author:** ![Caffeine.addict](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f475e1/32.png) [@Caffeine.addict](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caffeine.addict)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2002, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-invented-the-telephone-or-luigi-come-here-i-want-you/115596/10 "2002-07-08T20:08:11Z")
guys, I think some of you have been whooshed ---
**Author:** ![Celyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9dc877/32.png) [@Celyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Celyn)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2002, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-invented-the-telephone-or-luigi-come-here-i-want-you/115596/11 "2002-07-08T20:09:05Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by keeper0 \* > \*\*Oh you unpatriotic vermin. How dare you try to take an invention away from an American and pass it off to a foreigner! \*\* um, wasn’t Bell Scottish? ---
**Author:** ![Cerowyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/82dd89/32.png) [@Cerowyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cerowyn)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2002, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-invented-the-telephone-or-luigi-come-here-i-want-you/115596/12 "2002-07-08T20:38:33Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by brujo \* > \*\*guys, I think some of you have been whooshed \*\* If you’re referring to missing the sarcasm in **keeper0** ’s post, I don’t think so. I saw his post as a rant against knee-jerk denials of an American’s claims being automatically stronger than a foreigner. I was merely pointing out that it wasn’t appropriate in this case. Unless of course you see a deeper _whoosh_.