Hearing Through Wires:

The Physiophony of Antonio

Meucci
by Gerry Vassilatos

ntonio Meucci is the forgotten and humble genius whose

inventions precede every revolution in communication arts which

were achieved during this century. The time frame during which
his notable discoveries were made is a most remarkable
revelation. How Meucci developed his accidental discoveries into
full scale working systems is a true wonder in view of this time
reference.
The culturing of technology from the simple sparks of vision
is a feat of its own distinct kind. As the earliest chronicled inventor
of telephonic arts he is justly applauded as the true father of
telephony by afficionadi who know his wonderfully touching
biography. But he invented far more than the telephone with
which we are familiar. Meucci discovered two separate telephonic
systems. His first and most astounding discovery is known as
physiophony, telephoning through the body . . . hearing through
wires. His second development was acoustic telephony, preceding
every other legendary inventor in this art by several decades.
Meucci powered telephones with electricity taken from the
ground through special earth batteries, and from the sky by using
large surface area diodes to draw static from the air. Eliminating
the need for employing batteries in his telephonic systems, Meucci
first conceived of a transoceanic vocal communication system. His
notion was grand and achievable. Marconi later employed
methods pioneered by the forgotten Meucci.
He developed ferrites, with which he constructed true audio
transformers and loudspeaking transceivers. He invented marine
ranging and undersea communication systems. His numerous
achievements in chemical processing and industrial chemistry are

too numerous to mention in such a brief treatise. All of these

wonders were conceived and demonstrated well before 1857.
Sr. Meucci was a prolific inventor, engineer, and practical
chemist. Living in Florence, he worked as a stage designer and
technician in various theaters. Antonio Meucci and his wife left
Florence to flee the violence of the civil insurrections which raged
throughout Italy. Many immigrants who wished for a peaceful life
thought they might find some measure of solace in the New Land
which lay to the west.
Unhappily restricted by law from entering The United
States, persons such as Meucci and his family chose the route into
which most other Mediterraneans were forced at the time. Being
turned southward, they were literally compelled to dock in
Caribbean or South American ports. There sizable populations of
European immigrants remain to this day, legally restricted from
North American shores. Most found that their presence there was
received with an acceptance and warmth equal to a homecoming.
It should have been in these lands that their legacies were written.
New arrivals in Cuba, the Meucci family made Havana their
home. They found the warm and friendly nation a place for new
and wonderful opportunities. Sr. Meucci pursued numerous
experimental lines of research while living in Havana, developing
a new method for electroplating metals. This new art was applied
to all sorts of Cuban military equipment, Meucci gaining fame and
recognition in Havana as a scientific researcher and developer of
new technologies.
Several special electrical control systems were designed by
him specifically for stage production in the Teatro Tacon, the
Havana Opera. Electrical rheostats served the safe and controlled

operation of enclosed carbon arclamps. Mechanical contrivances

hoisted, lowered, parted, and closed heavy curtains. The automatic
systems were a wonder to behold.
[10]

A young and dreamy romantic, Meucci found the beauty of

theater work quite entrancing and inspirational. There, dreams
became realities, if only for the short time during which hardened
pragmatism was suspended. Fantasy and wonder were magickal
liquids which perfumed the soul and opened the mind's eyes. As in
childhood, one could receive the elevating epiphanies of revelation
necessary for discovering unexpected phenomena, and for
developing unequalled technologies.
The decision to move to Havana was indeed a good one.
Genuine acceptance, and loving recognition added joy the lives of
the bittersweet exiles. Meucci's wife was often amused by his more
outlandish inventive notions. But, as their stay in Havana
continued, she scolded that he had better develop something
solidly practical on which to "make a living".
A long time fascination with physiological conditions and
their electrical responses, Meucci was prompted to begin study of
electromedicine. With just such a practical view in mind, he
established and maintained an experimental electromedical
laboratory in backrooms of the Opera House. Investigating the art
of "electro-medicine", as popularly practiced throughout both
Europe and the Americas, Meucci investigated the curative
abilities of electrical impulse. Applying moderate electrical
impulses from small induction coils to patients in hope of alleviate
illness, Meucci learned that precise control of both the "strength
and length" of electrical impulse held the true secret of the art.

As viewed by Meucci, pain and certain physical conditions

were treatable by these electrical methods provided that very short
impulses of insignificant voltage were employed. Impulses of
specific length and power were necessary to rid suffering patients
of their pain. In addition, Meucci imagined that tissue and bone
regeneration could be stimulated by such means.
What really intrigued Sr. Meucci was the length of impulse
time involved in body-applied electricity. To this end, he
developed special slide switches which were capable of specifying
the impulse length. It was possible to slide a zig-zag contact
surface over a fixed electrical source. By varying the spacings
between such slide contacts, Meucci could mechanically generate
very short electrical impulses.

Rheostats could also be employed to control the current

intensity. By the employment of these two control features, he was
able to apply the proper impulse "strength and length". Meucci
wished to chart a specific impulse series which would neutralize
each specific kind of pain or illness. Developing catalogues of
electrical impulse cures was his real aim. Such a technology, if
developed thoroughly, could arm medical practitioners with new
curative powers.
Sr. Meucci applied continual experimental effort toward
these medical goals. He often applied these same impulses to
theater employees and stage artists alike. These people came to
regard such electric cures as definitive. Meucci's method was
known to reverse conditions completely. He paid special attention
to the placement and size of electrodes on the body. Tiny pointcontacts were often held to the body at specific neural points,
effecting their analgesic effects. He was especially careful with
"shock strength", applying only millivolt surges to his patients.
Pain could be gradually made to retreat by the proper impulse
administration.
Meucci had already developed fine rheostatic tuners for
limiting the output power of his electrical device. He always
applied the current to his own body in order to give completely
"measured" electro-treatments. In this manner he was able to
judge the parameters more personally and responsibly. It was his
habit to administer treatments of this kind to his ailing wife,
Esther. Crippling arthritis was becoming her personal prison, and
Sr. Meucci wished to cure her completely of the malady. Watching
and praying through until the dawn, Antonio struggled to perfect a
means by which cures could be effected with selective impulse
articulation.

[11]

As with each of Meucci's developments, the fulfillment of his

advanced medical ideas are found throughout the early twentieth
century. Each researcher in this field of medical study employed
very short impulses of controlled voltage to alleviate a wide variety
of maladies. Independently rediscovering the Meucci electromedical method throughout the early twentieth century were such
persons as Nikola Tesla, Dr. A. Abrams, G. Lahkovsky, Dr. T.
Colson. Each developed catalogues by which specific impulses
were methodically directed to cure their associate illness. Each
researcher developed a method for applying impulses of
specifically controlled length and intensity to suffering patients,
effecting historical cures.
More recently, several medical researchers have employed
impulse generators to effect dramatic bone and tissue
regenerations. They affirm that human physiology responds with
rapidity when proper electroimpulses are applied to conditions of
illness. These were closely regarded by government officials, eager
to regulate the new science.
Most medical bureaucrats, fearing the elimination of their
own pharmaceutical monopolies, sought opportunity to eradicate
these revolutionary electromedical arts. Upton Sinclair obtained
personal experience with these curative systems and the
physicians who devised these methodologies. He championed
their cause in numerous national publications with an aim toward
exposing those who would suppress their work.
Sinclair pointed out the social revolution which would
necessarily follow such discoveries. He was quick to mention that
proliferations of new technologies would not come without a

dramatic battle. Fought in the innermost boardrooms of intrigue,

Sinclair underestimated the ability of regulators to eradicate
technologies of social benefit.
This notable literary personage wrote extensively on the
work of Dr. Abrams, who was later vilified by both the FDA and
the AMA. An outlandish national purge quickly mounted into a
fullscale assault on these methods. But this is a story best told in
several other biographies. Meucci's electromedical methods would
soon be transformed into a revolutionary means for
communicating with others at long distances.
SHOCK
The most central episode of Meucci's life now unfolded. It
was to be a serendipity of the most remarkable kind. Throughout
his later years, Meucci recounted the following story which
occurred in 1849, when he was forty-one years of age. A certain
gentleman was suffering from an unbearable migraine headache.
Since it was known to many that Meucci's electromedical methods
possessed definite curative ability, Sr. Meucci's medical attention
was sought.
Meucci placed the weak, suffering man on a chair in a
nearby room. His weakened condition inspired an easy pity.
Antonio had already felt the thorns of his beloved wife's pain. Her
eyes, like the man before him now, begged for the cure which lay
hidden in mystery. Carefully, caringly, Antonio now sought to ease
this man's suffering.
In this severe instance, Meucci placed a small copper
electrode in the patient's mouth and asked him to hold the other
(a copper rod) in his hand. The electro-impulse device was in an

adjoining room. Meucci went into this room, placed an identical

copper electrode in his own mouth, and held the other copper
electrode to find the weakest possible impulse strength. Meucci
told his patient to relax and to expect pain relief momentarily,
making small incremental adjustments on the induction coil.
Migraines of severe intensity characteristically produce
equally severe reaction to the slightest irritation. The man being
now highly sensitive to pain, Meucci's insignificant (though
stimulating) current impulses were felt. The patient, anticipating
some horrible shock, cried out in the other room with surprise at
the very first slight tickle.
Momentarily, Meucci forgot the hurtful sympathy which he
naturally felt in assisting this poor soul who sat across the hall. His
focussed attention was suddenly diverted as an astounding
empathy manifested itself: he had actually "felt" the sound of the
man's cry in his own mouth! After absorbing the surprise, he burst
into the adjoining room to see why the man had so yelled. Glad the
poor fellow had not run out on him, Meucci replaced the oral
electrode of his suffering patient and went into the other room to
perform the same adjustments . . . through closed doors this time.
He asked the gentleman to talk louder, while he himself again held
the electrode in his mouth.
Once more, to his own great shock, Meucci actually heard
the distant voice "in his own mouth". This vocalization was clear,
distinct, and completely different from the muffled voice heard
through the doors. This was a true discovery. Here, Antonio
Meucci discovered what would later be known as the
"electrophonic" effect.

The phenomenon, later known as physiophony, employs

nerve responses to applied currents of very specific nature. As the
neural mechanism in the body employs impulses of infinitesimal
strengths, so Meucci had accidentally introduced similar
"conformant" currents. These conformant currents contained
auditory signals: sounds. The strange method of "hearing through
the body" bypassed the ears completely and resounded throughout
the delicate tissues of the contact point. In this case, it was the
delicate tissues of the mouth.
Each expressed their thanks to the other, and the relieved
patient went home. The impulse cure had managed to "break up"
the migraine condition. Meucci's reward was not monetary. It was
found in a miraculous accident; the transmission of the human
voice along a charged wire. In these several little experiments,
Meucci had determined and defined the future history of all
telephonic arts.
VOICES
Excited and elated Antonio asked certain friends to indulge
his patience with similar experiments. He gave individual oral
electrodes to each and asked that his friends each speak or yell.
Meucci, seated behind a sealed door, touched his electrode to the
corner of his mouth. As each person spoke or yelled, Meucci
clearly heard speech again. Internal sound reception in the very
tissues of the mouth. An astounding discovery.
Without question, Meucci's most notable discovery in
telephonics is physiophony. Meucci did not foresee this strange
and wonderful discovery. Think of it. Hearing without the ears.
Hearing through the nerves directly! The implications are just as
enormous as the possible applications. Would it be possible for

deaf persons to hear [12]sound once again? Meucci knew it was

possible.
His first series of new experiments would seek improvement
of the electrophonic effect. To this end Meucci designed a
preliminary set of paired electrodes. The appearance of these
devices was strange to both the people of his time and those of
own. Each device was made of small cork cylinders fitted with
smooth copper discs. Designed as personalized transmitters, each
person was to place their own transmitter directly in the mouth!
The other electrode was to be hand-held.
Meucci verified the physiophonic phenomenon repeatedly.
Upon experiencing the now-famed effect, visitors were awed.
Furthermore, it was possible to greatly extend the line length to
many hundreds of feet and yet "hear" sounds. The sounds were
clearly heard "in the nerves" with a very small applied voltage.
Sounds were being deliberately transmitted along charged wires
for the first recorded time in modern history.
The auditory organs were not in any way involved. Meucci
discovered that oral vibrations were varying the resistance of the
circuit: oral muscles were vibrating the current supply. Spoken
sounds were reproduced as a vibrating electric current in the
charged line which can be sensed and "heard" in the nerveworks
and muscular tissues.
With very great care for obvious injuries, it is possible to
reproduce these remarkable results to satisfaction. The voltages
must be infinitesimal. When properly conducted through the
tissues, sounds are heard near the contact point the body. No
doubt, the impulsed signal reproduces identical audio
contractions in sensitive tissues. This is one source of the sounds

internally "heard". Nerves actually form the greater channel when

impulses are arranged properly, directly transmitting their
auditory contents without the inner ear.
Physiophony is Meucci's greatest discovery, one which he
should have pursued before also developing mere acoustic
telephony. Twenty-five years later in America, an elated Elisha
Gray would rediscover the physiophonic phenomenon. He would
develop physiophony into a major scientific theme. Long after this
time, these identical experimental demonstrations conspicuously
appear in Bell's letters; copying the identical experiments taken
first from Meucci, then from Gray, and Reis.
During the early twentieth century, music halls for deaf
persons were once found in certain metropolitan centers. These
recital halls enabled nerve-deaf persons to hear music through
handheld electrodes. Modifying the appliances in order to allow
considerable freedom of movement, several such places allowed
deaf people to dance. Holding the small copper rods, wired to a
network on the ceiling, musical sounds and rhythms could be felt
and heard directly. Physiophony, more recently termed
"neurophony" holds the secret of a new technology. Physiophony,
rediscovered of late, facilitates hearing in those afflicted with
nerve-deafness.
Meucci

discovered

two

distinct

forms

of

vocal

communication: physiophony and acoustic telephony. Meucci's

next experiments dealt with the development of a means for
separating the physiophonic action from the human body entirely.
He developed working systems to serve each of these modes, with
primary emphasis on acoustic telephony. Replacing tissues of the
mouth with a separate vibrating medium required extending the
cork-fixed electrodes.

Meucci coiled thin and flexible copper wire so that it could

freely vibrate in a heavy paper cone. Once more, Meucci varied the
experiment. This time his own oral electrode would be enclosed in
a heavy paper cone. Again each subject was asked to talk into the
first cone-encased electrode as Meucci listened at the other
terminal. Each time, speech was heard as vibrating air. This was
his first acoustic transmitter-receiver.
Meucci wrote up all these findings in 1849 . . . when
Alexander Graham Bell was just 2 years old. Living in Havana at
the time, Meucci conceived of the first telephonic system. He
imagined that American industry would allow infinite production
of his new technology. A telephonic system would revolutionize
any nation which engineered its proliferation.
CANDLES
Freedom doors were not swung open in wide and
unconditional welcome for Europeans during the latter 1800's.
Strict immigration laws forbade Europeans from even entering
New York Harbor. It was more difficult, if not impossible, to find
employment. New arrivals in America faced difficult, almost
inhuman conditions. No support systems existed in the land of
free-enterprise. No catch-nets for failed attempts in the land of the
free.
True and unresisted freedom was reserved only for the
upper class, who had already begun regulating and eliminating
their [13]possible competitors. Every means by which that prized
upper position might be usurped was destroyed. Forgotten
discoveries and inventions flowed like blood under the heavy arm
of the robber baron.

The "New World" was not anxious to welcome these people.

Discrimination against European immigrants went unbridled,
unrepresented, and unchallenged. When American doors finally
did open, there were no sureties for those who came to work and
live in the New World. There was no promise, no meal, no
housing, no job, no emergency support. To be in America meant to
be on your own in America.
Prejudice against the "foreigners" was vicious during this
time period. Immigrants who imagined a better life to the
northlands would be sadly disappointed at first. Many of these
newcomers preferred the temporary pain of atrocious city ghettoes
simply because their eyes were on the future.
Europeans arriving in America came with trades and skills.
Master craftsmen and technicians in their Old World guilds, these
"unwelcomed" eventually won the hardened industrial
establishment with their good works, many of them later forming
the real core of American Industry. It is not accidental that
Thomas Edison hired European craftsmen exclusively. In less than
two generations the children of these brave individuals became
leaders of their professions, giving the leukemic nation its
periodically required red blood.
Established families despised the newcomers, who were
regarded first with dread, then with resentment, and finally with a
firm resolve. After ruthless campaigns by bureaucrats and moguls
to eliminate the foreign presence in North America, wealthy
puritanical antagonists sought the supposed surety of legislation
to achieve elitist isolation. Neither cultivated nor creative, this
ability to manipulate the tools of liberty for the sake of domination
became a theme which continually stains their history. The
unbridled and impassioned expansionism of these "foreign

people" was so threatening to the impotent bureaucrats that

legislation was installed for the expressed purpose of limiting their
unstoppable movement. Sure that these were in fact the feared
usurpers of a young and recently consolidated Republic, financiers
impelled legislators to create a "middle class" economic stratum
which has remained in force to this very day.
Bound to a life of tireless work and taxations, the children of
immigrants no longer question the barriers to limitless personal
achievement. While a very few wonder why their frustrations
rarely allow escape into the true individual freedom of which
America boasts, most simply satisfy themselves with banal
consumer temptations.
Nevertheless, the "American" explosion in music, art, crafts,
and technological arts followed the immigrants wherever they
were forced to flee. When Antonio and Esther Meucci arrived in
New York City, he was now forty-two. They made their home near
Clifton, Staten Island.
Clifton was once a picturesque little town, nestled on a rocky
ridge and surrounded by babbling brooks and lush forests. The
year was 1850. The Meucci's acquired a large and spacious house,
filled with windows. Golden bright sunlight flooded the home in
which Antonio devised the technology of the future. The rooms
contained numerous pieces of striking art nouveau furniture
which Meucci himself handcrafted. A beautiful four octave piano
and several of these furniture pieces yet remain, the house itself
having been declared a national monument.
His poor wife, now crippled completely, was confined to
their second floor bedroom. It was there in Old Clifton that Sr.
Meucci developed his "teletrofono". The device was successively

redesigned and improved until several distinct and original

models emerged. Mundane needs being the primary necessity,
Meucci developed a chemical formula for making special
chemically formulated candles and opened a small factory for
their production. His smokeless candles earned a moderate
income by which the small family could maintain their place in the
New World. Throughout the long years to come, he also supported
countless others who were in need.
He patented this smokeless candle formula, along with
several other chemical processes related to his small industry.
Soon, Antonio found that his candles were sought by neighbors,
parish churches, and small general stores. He therefore took his
devotions, and went into production of the same. Marketing the
product locally, he was now again able to supply his experimental
facility. This was his encouragement. The inventions began
flowing again like rich red wine.
Meucci installed a small teletrofonic system in his Clifton
house, as he had done in Havana. Esther Meucci was now
completely crippled with arthritis. Connecting his wife's room to
his small candle factory, Antonio could now speak throughout the
day with his wife. The system lines were loosely wrapped up and
around staircase banisters, through halls, across walls, and finally
spanned the long distance to the factory building, naturally
running slack in several locations.
Meucci made sure that the lines did not run tight in order to
prevent wire stretching and cracking during winter seasons. In
every model aspect, Meucci's system was the prototype. Everyone
of his surrounding neighbors had become personally familiar with
his system, having been allowed to try "speaking over the wire."

Meucci and his wife took boarders from time to time in

order to afford minimum luxuries . . . the luxuries of ordinary
people. When Garibaldi was exiled from Italy as an
insurrectionist, he sought out Meucci. A small factory was
established near his home for the manufacture of his chemically
treated candles.
With this, his sole and sturdy financial source, Meucci
continued his other beloved experiments. He had already
established and regularly used several teletrofonic systems
throughout his home and factory by 1852. Both he and Garibaldi
walked, hunted, and fished in the lush greenery and flowing
flowered hills of old Dutch Staten Island.
Each new teletrofonic design eventually was added to a
growing collection box in the timber lined cellar. Improved models
were made and brought into the general use of his system. With
these modified devices it was effortless to communicate with his
ailing wife, employees, and friends. Distances posed no problem
for Meucci. His system could bring sound to any location.
Numerous credible witnesses actually used his remarkably
extensive telephonic system across the neighborhood. One such
highly credible witness was Giuseppe Garibaldi himself.
Garibaldi was welcomed to live with the Meucci family in
their modest Staten Island home for as long as he wished.
Garibaldi, [14]Meucci, and his wife vanquished sorrow and poverty
with faith, hope, and love expressed in a myriad of ways. Each
supported the other in the struggle against indignity, accusation,
outrage, and all the particular little alienations imposed upon
them. The Meucci household not unaccustomed
deprivations through which character is developed.

to

the

Both Srs. Meucci and Garibaldi continued manufacturing

candles and other such products of commercial value, supporting
themselves and the needs of others in the new land. Frequent
financial crisis never deterred his dream quest. Never did such
reversals place a halt on Meucci's laboratory experimentation or
any of his devoted attentions.
As it happens in the course of time, new changes bring fresh
opportunities and joys to lift tired hearts. The sun rose in the little
windows after a long winter's dream. An old friend from Havana
came to visit Meucci and his wife. Carlos Pader wished to know
whether Meucci had continued experimenting with his now
famous "teletrofono".
Pader was shown the results, but Antonio confessed the
need for new materials. Both Sr. Pader and another friend,
Gaetano Negretti, informed their friend Antonio that there was an
excellent manufacturer of telegraphic instruments on Centre
Street in Manhatten. And so, Sr. Meucci was introduced to a
certain Mr. Chester, a maker of telegraphic instruments.
Mr. Chester was an enthusiastic and friendly tradesmen. He
enjoyed speaking with Antonio. The two shared their technical
skills in broken dialects. Meucci was always welcomed there on
Centre Street. Meucci visited this establishment on several
occasions to purchase parts and observe the latest telegraphic arts.
It was here that Meucci "gained new knowledge". He set to work,
purchasing materials for new experiments. New and improved
teletrofonic models began appearing in the neighborhood.
Meucci was methodical, thorough, and attentive to the
unfolding details of his experiments. Meucci kept meticulous
notes; a feature which later worked to vindicate his honor. He

worked incessantly on a single device before making any new

design modifications. Meucci's creative talent and familiarity with
materials allowed him to recognize and anticipate the inventive
"next move". In observational acuity, inventive skill, and
development of practical products he was unmatched.
Thomas Edison, after him, most nearly imitated Meucci's
methods. Meucci searched by trial and error at times when reason
alone brought no fruit. It was, after all, an accident which revealed
the teletrofonic principles to him. Providence itself in action.

TELETROFONO
Meucci methodically explored different means for vibrating
electric current with speech. From 1850 to 1862 he developed over
30 different models, with twelve distinct variations. His first
models utilized the vibrating copper loop principle which he
discovered in Havana. Paper cones were replaced with tin
cylinders to increase the resonant ring. He experimented with thin
animal membranes, set into vibration by contact with the

vibrating copper strip. This model begins to resemble the familiar

form of the telephone as we know it.
Meucci wrapped fine electromagnetic bobbins around his
copper electrodes, increasing vocal amplitudes considerably. In a
second series, he explored the use of magnetic vibrators. A great
variety of loops, coils, soft-iron bars, and iron horseshoes appear
in Meucci's successive designs. These latter models gave
amazingly loud results. In addition, Meucci's diagrams reveal
experimentation with both separate and "in-line" copper
diaphragms. These latter operated by the yet to be discovered
"Hall Effect", where current-carrying conductors vibrate more
strongly in magnetic fields produced by their own currents.
While power for his early teletrofonic system was derived
from large wet cell batteries in the basement, Meucci made a
pivotal discovery, discovered when he grounded his lines with
large dissimilar metal plates. Suddenly, his system operated as if
large batteries had been added to the line. Meucci disconnected
the basement batteries and the system continued to operate,
powered by ground currents alone.
This use of buried dissimilar plates repeatedly appears
throughout early telegraphic patents. The actual devices by which
this astounding electrification of lines was established were called
"earth batteries". Several significant individuals made remarkable
discoveries while developing earth batteries throughout the latter
1800's. They found that the earth batteries were not really
generating the power at all.
Earth batteries tap into earth electricity and draw it out for
use. Some telegraphic lines continue to operate well into the
1930's with no other batteries than their ground endplates.

Certain systems continued using their original earth batteries

without replacement in excess of 40 years!
Earth batteries are intriguing because they seem never to
corrode in proportion to the amount of electrical power which
they generate. In fact, they scarcely corrode at all. Exhumed earth
batteries showed minimal corrosion. A mysterious selfregenerative action takes place in these batteries, a phenomenon
worthy of modern study.
Like Thomas Edison after him, Meucci was a master of
practical chemistry. Numerous of his processes remain unused to
this day. He developed strange chemical coatings; using saltwater,
graphite, soapstone, wax, muriatic acid, asbestos, sulfur, and
various bonding resins to treat wire conductors. Wire lines,
specially treated by Meucci, had current rectifying abilities. These
absorbed and directed both terrestrial and aerial electricity into
the line, a one-way charge valve. Technically what he created is a
large surface area diode.
When these specially coated wires were elevated, Meucci
enhanced the absorption of "atmospheric electricity" into his
system. Prevented from escape by chemical coatings, a steady
stream of aerial charges were absorbed into the wire line. He
succeeded in powerfully operating his system with "aerial
electricity" alone.
Meucci now freely used aerial and earth electricity to power
his teletrofonic system. In addition, he discovered that the latent
power in strong permanent magnets could amplify speech with
very great power. When coupled with energy derived from the
ground, Meucci found that true amplifications could be effected.
Meucci found that vocal force being sufficiently powerful to

produced amplified reproductions at great distances in certain of

his models which utilized magnetite "flour".
Sound-responsive soft iron cores were replaced with
lodestone [15]and surrounded by various powdered core composites
developed in Meucci's laboratory. Lodestones, surrounded with
cores of flour-fine iron powders, produced enormous outputs.
Meucci used exceedingly fine copper windings. The vocal range of
these magnetic responders was considerable when made in
Meucci's own unique design.
Clear, velvety speech was communicated with great power in
these fine-powder core designs. His use of flour-fine magnetite
powders produced the world's first ferrites; composites of iron,
zinc, and manganese later used in radiowave transformers.
His teletrofoni were now fully formed, handheld devices of
some weight. Surviving models from his system resemble those
much later manufactured by Bell telephone. They are cup-shaped,
wooden casings . . . handheld transmitter-receivers. One speaks
into the device, and then listens from the same for replies.
Meucci's diagrams, notebooks, and models prove his priority over
all the historically successive telephone designs.
In addition, Meucci used diaphragms which conducted the
current which vocalizations could modulate. He developed
remarkable graphite-salt coatings to enhance the electrical
conductivity of his responder diaphragms, preceding Edison's
carbon button microphone by a full 24 years!
TRANSOCEANIC
In addition to his existing system, Meucci conceived of
entirely new directions in communication arts. His mind turned

toward

the

sea . . .

and

to

transoceanic

teletrofonic

communication. Meucci tested the idea that seawater could

actually replace telegraph cables, bizarre as it must yet sound. His
notion would be termed "subaqueous conduction wireless". Others
had achieved moderate results across limited waterways.
Sommering, Lindsay, and Morse each sent weak telegraph signals
across streams. Meucci envisioned the whole Atlantic as a possible
reservoir for the transmission of telephonic signals.
His experiments took him down to the Staten Island
seashore with his teletrofono, batteries, and large plates of both
copper and zinc. The dissimilar metal plates were submerged
quite a distance from each other. Vocal messages spoken into the
sea were electrically retrieved by a teletrofonic apparatus
connected to an equivalent arrangement of widely separated,
water-immersed plates on an opposed part of the distant shore.
The signals were clearly heard.
Most engineers will object that these experiments could not
sustain vocal communications across great distances. They will say
this because transmitter power should be so dispersed that no
intelligible signal could ever be retrieved. The experiment having
been tried across short distances actually works. The most
amazing rediscovery concerns the signal-regenerative ability of
seawater. Seawater requires only an infinitesimal transmitter
current in order to achieve strong signal exchanges.
The submerged plates themselves generate sufficient
current to operate the teletrofonic system without batteries.
Electrical signals do not diminish in seawater as theoretically
expected. When Meucci spoke of transoceanic communications he
was not exaggerating. Seawater seems to be a self-regenerative
amplifier of sorts. The addition of a carrier frequency (an electrical

buzzer) would pitch the signals toward a higher range, granting

more signal focus.
Sir William Preece duplicated these experiments for
telegraphy across the English Channel in the early 1900's. Their
developing success was eclipsed by the appearance of aerial
wireless. Some researchers have interpreted the work of G.
Marconi to be a blend of Meucci conduction telegraphy and aerial
wireless. While purists protest, it is intriguing that Marconi would
later actually resort to mile-long submerged copper screens for
transoceanic communications. The submerged copper screens
acted as a "capacitative counterpoise", following his equally long
aerials . . . out to sea.
Several segments of these Marconi aerial-screen systems
have been located by investigators, both in New Brunswick (N.
Jersey) and in Bolinas (California). The Marconi "bent-L" aerial
system differs from Meucci's design only in that it utilized several
hundred thousand watts of VLF currents. In effect, Marconi
employed Meucci conduction wireless in his early transoceanic
systems.
Meucci became prolific when designing these maritime
inventions. It was told him that a certain deep-sea diver, having
once distinctly heard a steamship engine while performing a
salvage operation, was told (on resurfacing) that the ship was fully
forty [16]miles away! This phenomenon so impressed Meucci that
his mind turned toward the use of his teletrofono in deep-sea
communications and offshore ranging.
His notion was truly original, involving this submerged plate
system for wireless vocal communication. The use of short aerial
rods projecting from the diver's helmet formed the very first

"aerials". Divers could maintain communications with their

surface companions without interruption if such teletrofonic
aerials and internally housed responders were installed in their
helmets. Sealed aerial rods (one foot or less in length) would
protrude out from the helmet, forming the wireless link; an
invention truly worthy of Jules Verne! Transmissions and
receptions would occur through the remarkable conductiveregenerative ability of seawater to conduct electro-vocal signals.
Of chief concern in Meucci's mind was the establishment of
solid maritime wireless communications systems. He designed
several systems intended to aid harbor approach and navigation
during times of limited visibility. Clusters of tone-transmitters
(positioned as fixed stations or anchored as buoys) could
wirelessly communicate danger or safety to sea captains equipped
with onboard listening devices. Both landmark stations and
onboard responders would communicate through seawater with
submerged metal plates. These plates would be fixed in position at
some depth; much below each landmark and right under the ship
hull.
Navigators would be guided into safe harbor by following a
specific tonal signal, and avoiding the selected danger tones. These
tones would be subaqueous transmissions . . . true tonal beacons.
Navigators were to carefully listen for guide-tones while entering a
harbor. Pilots could locate their offshore position with precision
by simply listening for the designated subaqueous tonal beacons.
Position could be triangulated by comparing tones and their
relative volumes. Tones could be determined by comparison with
a small on-board receiver containing tuning forks. Maps could
mark these tonal-stations and pilots could rely on their presence.
Meucci wished to eradicate the blinding dangers of fog and storm

for sailors. Meucci accurately foresaw that an entire corps of

maintenance operators would find continual employment in such
worthy service.
In all of this, Meucci actually anticipated the LORAN system
by a full seventy-five years! In the years before radio pierced the
night isolation of shipping, ships maintained tight commonly used
sea-lanes when far from coastlands. Mid-oceanic collisions were
not uncommon. Meucci conceived of systems by which ships could
transmit warning beacons toward one another while out at sea.
Helping to avoid such mid-ocean disasters, sensitive compass
needles would detect passing ships. Plate-pairs would be poised
beneath the ship's hull in the four cardinal directions. Relays
could detect ships, responding with loud alarms.
In addition, ships could launch teletrofonic currents in the
direction of specific approaching or passing ships, establish
continual vocal contact. Meucci accurately foresaw the
development of new maritime communications corps, anticipating
those wireless operators who would later be called "sparks" by
their crew mates.
EXPLOSIONS
Lack of funding alone prevented Meucci from making large
scale demonstrations of his revolutionary systems. In addition,
prejudices associated with his nationality prevented New York
financiers from even knowing of his activities. Meucci turned to
his own patriots for help.
Confident in the both the originality and diversity of his
teletrofonic inventions, Meucci was now sure that he could
convince Italian financiers to help commercialize the Teletrofonic

System; not in America, but in Italy. Meucci (now fifty-two years

old) set up a long distance demonstration of his system in 1860 in
which a famous Italian operatic singer was featured. His songs
being transmitted across several miles of line, Meucci attracted
considerable attention. Featured in the Italian newspapers around
New York City, he indeed attracted the attentions of financiers.
Sr. Bendelari, one such impresario, suggested that full scale
production of the teletrofonic system begin in Italy. He travelled
to Italy with drawings and explanations of what he had seen and
heard. Contrary to the hopes of all, Sr. Bendelari found it
impossible to interest financiers in the teletrofonic system. Civil
wars distracted the ordinarily aggressive Italian development of all
such new technology.
Italian production of the teletrofono having never begun,
Meucci became extremely embittered over both the incident and
his own circumstance in America. American financiers were no
better. Most contemporary Americans who had any "practical
financial sense" at all could not believe that any mechanical device
could actually transmit the human voice. They were far less
interested in investing their fortunes toward developing systems
which they considered fraudulent.
On sound advice from sympathetic compatriots, Meucci was
warned never to bring anything to the American industrial
concerns without first protecting himself by legal means. Before
Meucci could dare bring his models the short ferry trip to Lower
Manhattan to the developers, he needed a patent. Patents have
never been cheap to obtain, this the regulator's tool. Even in those
days, a patent cost a full two-hundred and fifty dollars.

Exorbitant costs being established for the financier's benefit,

no independent inventor-novice could ever become an
independently
successful
competitor
without
"financial
assistance".
Meucci settled the matter by obtaining a caveat, a legal
document which was considerably cheaper than the patent.
Antonio could now only afford a caveat, a legal declaration of a
successfully developed invention.
The caveat describes an invention and shows the time-fixed
priority of an inventor's work. Meucci had models as well as the
legal caveat. His caveat would stand in court, bearing the official
seal, a registry number, and the signatures of witnesses. The
Meucci caveat was taken in 1871, when he was 63 years old.
While travelling from Manhattan to Staten Island, Meucci
was nearly killed when the steam engine of the ferry exploded. He
survived this explosion in some inexplicable miracle, severely
burned and crippled. While he languished in a hospital bed, his
wife sold his original teletrofono models for the small sum of six
dollars in order to pay for his expenses.
These models were sold to one John Fleming of Clifton, a
secondhand dealer. Attempting to repurchase these models, he
was informed that a "young man" had secured the models. Unable
to locate the purchaser, Meucci was devastated. He suddenly felt
that his own creation was already taking on a life of its own . . .
fleeing [17]away from him, out of control.
Growing desperate with thoughts of his own growing age
and poor condition, Meucci now pursued the issue of
commercializing his invention without restraint. In 1874 Meucci
met with a vice-president of the Western Union District Telegraph

Company, a certain W.B. Grant. Meucci described his "talking

telegraph" and the complete system which was now operational.
Meucci requested a test of his teletrofoni on one of the Telegraph
Lines and was promised assistance and cooperation.
Mr. Grant appeared in earnest, engaged Meucci for a long
while, and requested Meucci to leave his models. Meucci did so,
being encouraged that he would be contacted very shortly for the
test run. Hours of waiting became days. At this point, Meucci
attempted to contact Grant again. The vice president could "never
be found". Meucci continued visiting Western Union in hopes of
reaching Grant and performing the required long-distance tests as
promised him originally.
Meucci became bitterly angry over this betrayal of trust. The
duplicity involved in the act of such unprofessional denial so
exposed the fundamental methodology of American business that
he wondered why he had ever left Cuba. So infuriated was he that
he maintained a vigil at the Union Office, becoming an annoying
eyesore. White haired, bearded, and bowed over with age, Meucci
was viewed as a harmless old fool by younger, more aggressive
office workers.
Adamant to the last, Meucci finally and loudly demanded
the return of his every model. He was then very curtly informed
that they "had been lost". Grant had passed these devices onto
Henry W. Pope for his professional opinion on the exact working
of the devices, forgetting the issue completely in the course of a
business day. The monopoly had beaten another victim. He
stormed out.
The path which the Meucci models took inside Western
Union has been traced. The models periodically kept appearing

and disappearing in the electrical research labs of Western Union,

revealed through the written studies of several curious individuals.
The models were transferred among several engineers as
successive new electrical directors were installed. Each examined
the models in complete ignorance. Lacking introductory
explanations, no one comprehended what the weighty wooden
cups could do when electrified.
Franklin L. Pope, friend and partner with young Thomas
Edison at the time, was given the models by his brother. Together
Pope and George Prescott could not understand the nature of the
devices, putting them into a storage area in Western Union. This
seems to be the last mysterious repository of Meucci models.
Given in trust years before, the models sat in the dustbins of
Western Union. Lost science.
The true history of telephonics begins with Meucci. Others,
far younger, were raised in an atmosphere which was enriched by
Meucci's developments. Phillip Reis noted the telephonic abilities
of loosely positioned carbon rods through which flowed electrical
currents. His primitive carbon microphone was later stolen by a
vengeful Edison, who was in search of some means for both
"breaking" the Bell Company's hold on telephonics, and saving his
own financial record with Western Union Telegraph.
Meucci led the way long before others. It must be mentioned
that both Gray and Reis were independent and equally great
discoverers who each, though antedating Meucci by some 20
years, actually predated Bell by at least 10 years. Some have
suggested that, as Bell was encountering great difficulty in
developing his own telephonic apparatus, these same models were
given to him for the expressed purpose of speeding the race along.

Western Union would engage Edison to "bust" the Bell

patent in later years. Edison's invention of the carbon button
telephonic transmitter was an inadvertent infringement of
Meucci's earliest responder designs. The industrialization of the
telephone revealed [18]the repetitious and convoluted infringement
of Meucci's every system-related invention. Bell's own frantic rush
to develop telephony had more to do with his need to "live up to"
sizable investment monies given him for this research, and less
with any true inventive abilities. The truth of this is borne out in
considering Bell's later work, involved in his frivolous failed "kite
developments". Indeed, without the fortunate "assistance" by
friends at the Patent Office, Bell would have succeeded in neither
defeating Meucci's caveat nor Gray's electro-harmonic patent.
TELEPHONE SYSTEMS
Those who wished the implementation of telephony for
financial gain, chose more controllable and less passionate
individuals. Neither Meucci, Gray, nor Reis fit this category of
choice. The Bell designs are obvious and direct copies of those
long previously made by Meucci. The dubious manner in which
the Bell patents were "handled and secured" speak more of
"financial sleight of hand" than true inventive genius. The all too
obvious manipulations behind the patent office desk are revealed
in the historically pale claim that Bell secured his patent "15
minutes" before Gray applied for his caveat. Today it is not
doubted whether perpetrators of such an arrogance would not go
as far as to claim "15 years priority".
Lastly, this fraudulent action denied the years-previous
Caveat of Meucci, which "could never be found at all in the patent
records" during later trial proceedings. No mind. Meucci is a

legend. A name suffused by mysteries. The Meucci caveat remains

to this day on public record. All subsequent telephone patents are
invalid. Meucci bears legal first-right. No lawyer today will decline
this recorded truth.
All other court actions taken against Meucci toward the end
of his life was staged by both the corporate Telephone Companies
and the Court itself for the expressed purpose of securing the
communications monopoly. The complete and operational Meucci
Telephonic System, witnessed and used by countless visitors and
neighbors for equally numerous years before Bell, was well
documented in both Italian and local papers of the day.
To read the transcript of the Meucci court battle waged
around the now aged and infirm Meucci is to witness the fear
which large megaliths sustain. Though Meucci was not able to
afford the yearly renewal price of his caveat, his priority was
damaging, otherwise they would not have taken such measures to
examine him publicly. The Bell Company sought to minimize
Meucci's system by calling it nothing more than an elaborate
"string telephone" in court proceedings, exposing themselves on
several counts of fraud. Scientifically, this line of defense was
unfounded. The obviously slack lines made the Meucci System
incapable of conducting merely elastic vibrations with such clarity
and amplitude. Moreover, the velvety rich tones received through
these devices were far too modified, clarified, and loud to be "mere
mechanical transmissions".
It was then hoped that the elderly gentleman would desist
the entire crude process and give up. Meucci was publicly and
ethnically labelled by leading journalists as "that old Italian, that
old . . . candlemaker". Meucci maintained his ground to the
consternation of the prosecuting attorney. Priority of diagrams,

witnesses,

working

models . . .

nothing

could

satisfy

the

predetermined judgement of the court.

To add insult to injury, Meucci's character was vilified in the
press. In numerous pro-corporate newspaper articles Meucci is
referred to as "a villain . . . a liar . . . an old fool". Predetermined to
satisfy the corporate megalith, a deliberate and shameful court
examination had as its aim the eradication of Meucci and his claim
of priority. This process would later become the normal mode of
business operation when destroying competitive technologies.
With no hope of financial reprise in sight, Meucci ceased the
excessive court fees. This was precisely what the monopoly
wished. The fact yet remains that Meucci was first to invent the
system.
Throughout the years, Meucci's name was not even
mentioned in the history of telephonics. Closer evaluation of this
true social phenomenon in "information control" reveals that
communications history sources were controlled and principally
provided in later years by Bell Labs to school text companies. They
would ensure that the otherwise complex story was "straightened
out".
It is also obvious that Meucci and his countrymen were
never truly "embraced" by the American establishment until they
took deliberate action. To the very end of his life, Meucci simply
and elegantly maintained his serene statements in absolute
confidence of the truth which was his own. "The telephone, which
I invented and which I first made known . . . was stolen from me".
The more important fact in these matters of intrigue is
recognizing that discovery itself is no respecter of persons or
indeed of nations. Discovery touches those who honor its

revelations. Discovery is an inspiring ray whose tracings are never

limited by laws, prejudices, unbelief, nation, ethnic group, or
economic bracket.
LEGEND

Eager to maintain their ascendancy in the annals of

corporate America, incredible odds were marshalled against the
aged Meucci by The Bell Company. In this determined counsel, we
see the singular insecurity which frightens all secure investments.
In truth, no investment is ever secure, when once discovery is
loosed on the earth. What corporations have always feared is
discovery itself. It is an unknown. In attempts to capture
discoveries before they have time to take root and grow, every
corporate megalith employs patent researchers. Their job is to
waylay new company-threatening inventions.
Inventors

represent

the

true

unknown.

They

are

uncontrolled forces who truly hold the power of the economic

system in their grasp. Were it not so, then corporate predators
would not pursue them with such deliberate vehemence. No one
can destroy an idea once it has made its appearance on earth.
Discovery is neither controlled or eradicated by the powerful.
Attempts at wiping out new technology mysteriously result in a
thousand diversified echoes, moving in a thousand places
simultaneously.
The biography of Antonio Meucci is suffused with the
deepest of emotions. I have read the biographies of many great
and forgotten science legends, yet have not found one whose
pathos completely equals that of Meucci. Despite the manner in
which the new world treated him, the dignity of this great inventor
is silently mirrored in his every portrait. The face of Antonio
Meucci is serene . . . the face of a saint.

Lost Science
by Gerry Vassilatos
Rediscover the legendary names of a suppressed scientific revolution Baron
Karl von Reichenbach, Antonio Meucci, Nathan Stubblefield, Nikola
Tesla, Royal R. Rife, T. Henry Moray,Thomas Townsend Brown,
and Philo Farnsworth. Remarkable lives, astounding discoveries, and
incredible inventions which would have produced a world of wonder.
Each chapter is a biographic treasure. Ours is a world living hundreds of years
behind its intended stage of development. Only a complete knowledge of this loss
is the key to recapturing this wonder technology.
Available now through our online cart
as a BSRF spiral-bound research edition.