Antonio Meucci (April 13, 1808 – October 18, 1889) was a compatriot of Italian revolutionary Giuseppe Garibaldi, In 2002 the U. S. House of Representatives passed a resolution recognizing Meucci's accomplishment and which stated that "if Meucci had been able to pay the $10 fee to maintain the caveat after 1874, no patent could have been issued to Bell." The resolution's sponsor described it as "a message that rings loud and clear recognizing the true inventor of the telephone, Antonio Meucci." However others disagreed with the resolution, with the Government of Canada unanimously passing a motion 10 days later stating that Alexander Graham Bell was the inventor of the telephone. Meucci set up a form of voice communication link in his Staten Island home that connected the basement with the first floor. He submitted a patent caveat for his telephone-like device in 1871, which he chose not to renew after 1874. According to Meucci historian G.E. Schiavo: "Meucci was not granted a patent for the device, but a caveat, a kind of provisional patent. Anybody could get a caveat, even if the invention was worthless." In 1876, Alexander Graham Bell patented the electro-magnetic transmission of vocal sound by undulatory electric current.

[Last contributor : Unregistered wikipedia user , Content under LGPL licence]