Autographic telegraph, known as the 'Pantelegraph'

Caselli’s autographic telegraph transmitted facsimiles, drawings and handwritten texts. The dispatch was written with insulating ink on tin foil scanned by a stylus. At the reception point a stylus moved across a sheet of paper coated with a chemical solution; the electrical current produced a chemical reaction, revealing the sent message. The movement of the styluses was controlled by two regulating chronometers at the transmission and reception stations, synchronised by electromagnets. The price of a transmission was set at a prohibitive 20 centimes per square centimetre, and only two lines were installed. The device was unsuccessful and the system abandoned. ‘The Caselli telegraph is now merely a museum piece, a memorable example of the fate awaiting the most ingenious inventions when they do not cater for any real need,’ a journalist wrote in Caselli’s obituary. Yet the Pantelegraph was a precursor of the fax machine …