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Monday, 7 April 2003, 5:30 PM
A magnificent Air Canada airbus lands in Montreal, handing
over my wife, Antonia, and myself in the hands of Franco Gucciardo,
who will be our omnipresent guide for the most part of our visit,
validly assisted by his charming wife Agnese and his son Marco. The
Alitalia intercontinental -- and complimentary -- flight was smooth
enough, we being the only passengers in the business class.... What a
pity! Alitalia had flown at no profit, despite the mass of
cancellations due to the fear of SARS. But where is SARS? In Toronto,
where Alitalia landed, just two out of five immigration officers were
wearing facial masks. The only signs of SARS were just some blue
signs hanging here and there, giving advices to arriving passengers.
We had our own masks in our hand baggage but did not use them, as we
would be the only travelers doing it. And, we instinctively chose the
officer -- a nice African-Canadian lady -- smiling to us, not wearing
a mask. "Welcome to Canada!" she greeted us and, without undergoing
any further customs or health controls, we went straight to the Air
Canada check-in to Montreal.
Monday, 7 April 2003, 7:30 PM
After a short rest at the hotel, we all went to the Istituto
Italiano di Cultura (Italian Cultural Institute), where several
dozen persons convened to greet us, letting us enjoying the first
flavor of the forthcoming demonstrations on behalf of Antonio Meucci.
Gucciardo had worked hard to set up a convenient exhibition there
together with a practical demonstration of Meucci's 1867 telephones,
connected through a wire -- purposely cut and joined midway -- to
show that it did not operate mechanically. The telephones were
reconstructed under Gucciardo's supervision by local artisans and
technicians, based on information supplied by Catania. Several shots
of this event can be viewed at Gucciardo's site Antonio
Meucci Centre / "Visual of Visits".
The warmth and enthusiasm of the Italian guests made us forget the
tiredness and the time zone lag, so that we only reached a bed after
11:00 PM local time.
Tuesday, 8 April 2003 Ivana Bombardieri of
CFMB
interviews Basilio Catania The morning was spent to set
up my iBook Firewire at the Hotel and get an account with
AOL Canada, in order to allow me to keep contacts through
Internet, while in Canada. 3:30 PM --Soon after
lunch I was interviewed by Ivana Bombardieri of the
Montreal's CFMB Radio Station, and soon came up one of the
most debated issues concerning the US Resolution pro Meucci,
i.e. the motion of the Canadian Parliament upholding Bell as
the real inventor of the telephone. I remarked that the
Canadian move was provoked by an unfortunate passage in the
US Resolution that contained a not-so-friendly intimation on
the morality of Alexander Graham Bell, which charge was, in
my opinion, both unproven and unnecessary. I also noted that
the Canadian motion, unlike the US Resolution, did not
contain any intimation on the other contender, Antonio
Meucci, fully in line with the traditional fair play of the
British-style tradition.
One was published by The Toronto Star on June 20, 2002, where
it was reported, among other, that:
I found confirmation of the Canadian fair play in two papers
which were handed to me that same evening by some friends.
Brian Wood, curator of the Bell Homestead Museum in Brantford, was surprised to hear of the resolution. "If this can be proven, then Meucci certainly deserves recognition as contributing to the realm of telephony" Wood said. . . .
The other paper appeared on the
inaugural issue of the Accenti Magazine (March/April 2003) and
was an interview with the Honourable Sheila Copps, Minister of
Canadian Heritage. Incidentally, Sheila Copps speaks Italian and
professes her high consideration of the Italian-Canadian citizens to
the progress of the country. She declared to the Accenti
interviewer, among other: "History means that we have to
understand the things that we did right and understand the things
that we did wrong."
All these statements would greatly contribute to a smooth
presentation of Meucci's merits, avoiding any undesirable -- and
unproductive -- contrapositions.
Tuesday, 8 April 2003 7:30 PM
Lecture by Basilio Catania at the Casa d'Italia:
"Antonio Meucci: una nuova verità e una storia da
riscrivere" ("Antonio Meucci: a new truth to be told and a
piece of history to be rewritten"), assisted by a PowerPoint
presentation ( total of 24 electronic slides).
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Catania pointed out that
all
evidence regarding Meucci's
priority in the invention of the telephone comes from the engineering
analysis of a few fundamental documents that he had retrieved in the
USA in 1990. These documents were buried in a mass of papers relating
to the proceedings begun by the US Government in about 1885 to annul
the Bell patents. A number of questions were raised by the many
attendees, amounting to more than 60 persons. A rich documentation
was distributed to the participants.
At the end of the lecture the Casa d'Italia
granted to a number of distinguished guests the "Meucci Phone Award"
through the hands of Basilio Catania. The "Centro Culturale Italiano
del Québec" presented Basilio Catania with a finely carved
plaque, acknowledging his cultural merits and his lecture at Casa
d'Italia.
The event was preceded by a supper organized by Casa d'Italia
with representatives from their Board, the Italian Consulate, the
Order Sons of Italy, the Centro Culturale Italiano del Québec,
Little Italy organization and Antonio Meucci Centre.
Wednesday, 9 April 2003 3:00 PM
Lecture by Basilio Catania at the Concordia
University, Faculty of Engineering & Computer
Science, Montreal, QC. The
presentation, titled "New truth about telephony -- Meucci an
inventor and a discoverer," was similar to that held at Casa
d'Italia (except for the language) and was divided into three
parts: 1. The
scientific proofs; 2. Secondary evidence; 3. The trials. The
attendees were provided with a folder containing scanned copies of
the three original documents proving Antonio Meucci's priority, i.e.
Meucci's caveat of 1871, the Corradi drawing featuring
Meucci's long distance telephone layout, and Lemmi's affidavit,
featuring the US English translation of Meucci's Laboratory Notebook.
The folder also contained reprints of the two papers "Four 'Firsts'
in Telephony" and "The US Government Versus Alexander Graham Bell: An
important Acknowledgment for Antonio Meucci," by Basilio Catania.
General information on the Antonio
Meucci Centre
and the hosting Faculty was also included.
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After the
lecture, Prof. Terrill Fancott (Associate Dean) acted as a
moderator for the many questions from the floor. The lecture
was attended by a number of students and professors, also
from other faculties. Among them was Prof. Rama B. Bhat,
Chair, Dept. Mechanical & Industrial Engineering. At the
close, Prof. Nabil Esmail, Dean,
Engineering &
Computer Science,
thanked Basilio Catania on behalf of his staff and the
Faculty at large.
Carole
Gagliardi interviewing Catania
The lecture at Concordia
University was preceded by a two-part television interview
by Carole Gagliardi (photo at left). It was broadcast
several times over two weeks and met a remarkable
audience.
Wednesday, 9 April 2003 8:00 PM:
lecture at Centro Leonardo da Vinci, Montreal, QC A special venue was
organized by Franco Gucciardo at the magnificent Leonardo da
Vinci Centre in Montreal, where a number of Italian-Canadian
businessmen and eminent personalities convened, after an
Italian-style supper in downtown Montreal , with CIBPA and
Community Foundation Presidents.
Basilio
Catania at the Leonardo da Vinci Centre
After the lecture, which was somewhat shortened with respect
to that at Casa d'Italia, Basilio Catania was
presented with the Leonardo da Vinci medal.
The
Leonardo da Vinci medal
Thursday, 10 April 2003 Ottawa,
ON, 12:30 PM.
After a pleasant ride on board of Franco Gucciardo's car from
Montreal, QC down to Ottawa, ON, we were welcomed at Ottawa's
National Art Centre and had lunch with political authorities
and other personalities, under the patronage of the Italian Embassy.
The main subject of discussion during lunch was the motion approved
by the Canadian Parliament, upholding the merits of Alexander Graham
Bell, versus the Resolution N. 269 of the US Government, supporting
Antonio Meucci's priority. Once more, Catania remarked that the
Canadian move was provoked by an unfortunate passage in the US
Resolution and that the Canadian reaction was therefore quite
understandable. We were informed that Canadian Heritage Minister
Sheila Copps declined an offer for a private demo on Meucci's proofs,
but conceded to address historical and scientific Canadian bodies for
furnishing useful information, that might be later made available to
her office.
Thursday, 10 April 2003, 3:00 PM.
Presentation at the Communication Research Centre, Ottawa,
ON.
This visit was in line with indications received by Hon. Sheila
Copps' office and was very useful, in that an effective interaction
was achieved with several expert researchers of this prestigious
research laboratory of the Canadian Government. See some interesting
shots of the event at the above quoted Gucciardo's
"Visual
of Visits".
Thursday, 10 April 2003, 7:30 PM:
Lecture at Ottawa's N.C.I.C. (National Congress of Italian
Canadians)
A remarkable attendance of Ottawa's Italian-Canadian (over about 100)
welcomed Basilio Catania's remarks "Le prove legali e scientifiche"
("The legal and Scientific Proofs") presented at the facilities of
N.C.I.C. This event is largely illustrated in the Ottawa section of
Gucciardo's "Visual
of Visits". The warmth and
level of interest of the audience was by no means inferior to that of
the corresponding audiences in Montreal. N.C.I.C.'s President
Josephine Palumbo, warmly thanked Basilio Catania for his
enlightening remarks and the supporting incontrovertible proofs
favoring Antonio Meucci's priority.
Friday, 11 April 2003
In the morning, after a pleasant rest at the very nice Arc
l'Hotel, our friend Franco Gucciardo drove us down to Toronto,
ON, for the last part of our visit. The organization here was taken
over by Prof. Franco Gaspari, Dept. of Electrical & Computer
Engineering, University of Toronto, also President of COMITES
(Committee of the Italians Abroad), validly assisted by his
charming wife Anna. At about 6:00 PM we were welcomed at the Istituto
Italiano di Cultura, where an Italian lady made us taste one of the
best lasagnas that we had ever tasted before. I was also pleased to
meet there Prof. Namir Kahn, of the University of Toronto, who is the
Managing Editor of the Bulletin of Science, Technology &
Society, so much engaged in the publication of my papers on
Meucci's priority.
I must confess that after this first round I felt so tired that the
free Saturday, 12 April, was a balsam for both my feet and
mind.
Sunday, 13 April 2003, 3:00 PM:
Celebration of Antonio Meucci's 195th Birthday, at
Columbus Centre, Toronto, ON.
This event was jointly organized by Comites, Toronto and Antonio
Meucci Centre, Montreal to commemorate Meucci in Canada on his day of
birth. Franco Gucciardo brought to Toronto a photo exhibit and
the working Telettrofono models to be shown and tried-out.
It was agreed with Prof. Franco Gaspari to celebrate Meucci's birth
anniversary by reading some passages
on Antonio Meucci's birth and youth in
Florence, taken from Basilio
Catania's book "Antonio Meucci -- L'inventore e il suo tempo". It
worked well, since it managed to re-create the atmosphere and the
emotion of the celebrated event.
A comprehensive 8-page leaflet was prepared and distributed
beforehand by Prof. Franco Gaspari, titled "A Tribute to Antonio
Meucci" also containing all information and directions for the
forthcoming events in Toronto.
On the same day, an extended essay by Nancy McLeod appeared on
Tandem/Corriere Canadese, titled "Calling Antonio Meucci--Catania
rings in evidence supporting inventor of telephone". Nancy remarked,
among other:
Among the new evidence, Catania will be presenting in Toronto, is the entire roster of engineering proofs demonstrating how much Meucci was ahead of his time and how he antedated Bell and the Bell Company by up to 40 years. 'This is the first time that I present such a result in such a complete manner," he explains.
Monday, 14 April 2003, 7:00 PM:
Lecture at the University of Toronto, ON
Basilio Catania's lecture at the University of Toronto was titled
"New evidence on Antonio Meucci's contribution to the invention of
the telephone" but followed the same lines as the lecture at the
Concordia University in Montreal. It was preceded by a magnificent
lunch at the University's Faculty Club, hosted by Prof. Domenico
Pietropaolo, Emilio Goggio Chair of Italian Studies.
 B.
Catania, Prof. Pietropaolo, Mrs. Catania and Prof. Gaspari
at Faculty Club |
 Basilio
Catania's lecture at the University of Toronto |
 View
of the attendance at the University of Toronto |
 Another
view of the attendance at the University of
Toronto |
Professor
Catania,
I wish to express, also on behalf of the audience, our
gratitude for the brilliant series of lessons that you have
given us in these days.
Your distilling twenty thousand pages of documents to obtain
such a clear and fascinating presentation is in itself an
enterprise that deserves our deepest admiration. As a
professor of Physics and as a researcher, I have fully
appreciated the importance and the significance of Antonio
Meucci 's discoveries, that you have brought to light.
You have demonstrated, with great energy, but also with
utmost exactitude -- hence in an incontrovertible way --
that Antonio Meucci had developed between 1858 and 1871 a
complete and practical system of telephony.
Moreover, I have been moved by the human aspects of Antonio
Meucci's life, that you have disclosed to us.
Antonio Meucci was one of us. Thanks!
Following Professor Papini's address, the audience rose and tributed
to Basilio Catania an endless and friendly applause, that moved the
orator beyond all his expectations.
Wednesday, 16 April 2003: time to
leave.......
Prof. Franco Gaspari, despite his over 400 students waiting for
his attention, kindly drove us to the Pearson Airport and escorted us
up to the Alitalia check-in desk to Milan. We were all tired but
extremely happy for the success of the enterprise. We noted somewhat
more passengers on board of Alitalia, but Franco had remarked that
the coming Easter holidays would certainly increase the demand for
intercontinental flights to Italy. The only signs of SARS were, in
addition to the hanging blue signs, some security officers wearing
gloves....
When we landed in Milan, 17 April 2003, 7:30 AM, we clearly felt that we were missing both the big heart of Italian-Canadians and the Canadian hospitality.
April 9, 2003, 2:30 PM
---------- Global CH TV (Carole Gagliardi), Montreal, QC April 8, 2003, 3:30 PM
---------- CFMB Radio (Ivana Bombardieri) Montreal, QC April 9, 2003, 5:00 PM
---------- Le Devoir (Pauline Gravel), Montreal, QC
April 10, 2003, 7:30 PM -------- OMNI TV, Ottawa, ON
April 13, 2003, 10:00 AM ------ CHIN, TV, Toronto, ON
April 14, 2003, 7:00 PM -------- OMNI TV, Toronto,
ON
April 14, 2003, 12:30 PM ------ CHIN Radio, Toronto,
ON
April 10, 2003, 1:00 PM -------- ANSA, Italian Press Agency
(Elio Coppola), Ottawa, ON
April 13, 2003 (issued) ---------- Tandem/Corriere Canadese
(Nancy McLeod), Toronto, ON
Various communiqués and articles were published in
the local Italian newspapers: in Montreal: Corriere
Italiano, Cittadino Canadese, Insieme; in Ottawa:
L'Ora di Ottawa; in Toronto: Corriere
Canadese
Link to
Antonio Meucci dans la presse française du
Canada for some
reports in French
Link to http://www.raicorp.net/zoom/276/inventori.html
for a reportage by Cristiano de
Florentiis of Rai International (Zoom)
Acknowledgment: Unless otherwise stated, photographs in this page were shot by Franco Gucciardo using Basilio Catania's own camera.
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Date last modified: 6 November 2009
