Today in 1863, the Macon, Georgia, Daily Telegraph reported about the pantelegraph, an early form of facsimile machine transmitting over normal telegraph lines.
A Telegraphic Wonder.
The following account of an extraordinary French telegraphic invention is given in the Paris correspondent of the London Star:
The Abbe Casselli’s pantelegraph is taken up by the Government. A “project of a law” was recently presented to the corps legislative, which proposes that it should supersede the Morse apparatus now in universal use. The pantelegraph is one of the greatest scientific wonders of the present day. It is properly enough termed here an autograph and amateur. A dispatch written at Paris is reproduced without the assistance of any clerk at Marseille with the most rigorous fidelity, as is also a portrait, sketch or drawing of any kind. Nor does the Casselli apparatus need so great a supply of electricity as that of Morse, and is much less affected by the condition of the atmosphere. The Empress has lately had her likeness telegraphed to some of her friends in the provinces; and last week, Casselli telegraphed a painting of [a] full blown rose from the observatory to the bureau of the telegraphic administration. The petals were of a beautiful pink color, and the leaves of an equally good green–in short, were exactly like the tints of the original. Rossini, also, not many days ago, telegraphed to Marseille by this apparatus a melody which he improvised in honor of the inventor, and which has since gone the rounds of the Paris salons.
HT: Chuck Veit