On This Day in Telephone History December 28TH 1871 Antonio Meucci Submitted his Caveat for the Telephone. Antonio Meucci was unable to raise sufficient funds to pay his way through the patent application process. Thus, had to settle for a caveat which at the time was a one-year renewable notice of an impending patent, first filed on December 28, 1871. This was well before Alexander Graham Bell’s or Elisha Gray’s filings on February 14TH 1876.
