When was the first telephone invented?
First the controversy – Bell vs Meucci: Bell has been widely recognized as the “inventor” of the telephone outside of Italy, where Meucci was championed as its inventor. In the United States, there are numerous reflections of Bell as a North American icon for inventing the telephone, and the matter was for a long time non-controversial. In 2002, however, the United States House of Representatives passed a symbolic bill recognizing the contributions of Antonio Meucci “in the invention of the telephone” (not “for the invention of the telephone”‘), throwing the matter into some controversy. Later that year, the Parliament of Canada countered with a symbolic bill conferring official recognition for the invention of the telephone to Bell. Champions of Meucci, of Manzetti, and of Gray have each offered fairly precise tales of a contrivance whereby Bell actively stole the invention of the telephone from their specific inventor. In the 2002 congressional resolution, it was inaccurately noted t
