Garibaldi-Meucci Museum – Esther's Cough

New York · USA · Museum

The Gothic Revival cottage in Rosebank on Staten Island was home to inventor Antonio Meucci, and for some years also to his friend, the Italian liberation hero Giuseppe Garibaldi, who dipped candles here in exile. Meucci's wife Esther grew increasingly crippled by severe rheumatoid arthritis until she could no longer leave her chamber – so the inventor ran a speaking line between her room and his workshop, his "telettrofono", years before Bell's patent. He died penniless fighting for recognition. When Esther died in 1884 she is said to have been buried in the yard before being moved – and in the museum, staff and visitors report what has become the house's signature: a woman's cough, groans and labored breathing from empty rooms, rocking chairs in motion, and the sense of someone waiting impatiently for an answer at the other end of the line. The museum runs its own ghost tours each October.

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Hvor ligger Garibaldi-Meucci Museum – Esther's Cough?

Garibaldi-Meucci Museum – Esther's Cough ligger i New York, USA.

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Image: Rolfmueller · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons