1-157-678 - Oxford Science Archive/Heritage Images

Caselli's pantelegraph, 1874. This device, invented by the Italian abbot and inventor Giovanni Caselli (1815-1891) was effectively an early fax machine. At the sending station the dispatch was written or drawn on sheet of metallized paper in thick insulating ink and placed on a curved plate. At the receiving station, a sheet of paper impregnated with potassium ferrocyanide was placed in a plate and a stylus produced an image on the impregnated paper. From Les Applications de la Physique by Amedee Guillemin. (Paris, 1874).