Antonio Santi Giuseppe Meucci ( , ; 13 April 1808 – 18 October 1889) was an Italian inventor and an associate of Giuseppe Garibaldi, a major political figure in the history of Italy."Antonio Meucci's Illness". The New York Times, 9 March 1889; accessed 25 February 2009.Nese & Nicotra 1989, pp. 35–52. Meucci is best known for developing a voice-communication apparatus that several sources credit as the first telephone.Several Italian encyclopedias claim Meucci as the inventor of the telephone, including:
