
Telautograph - samclemens
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telautograph
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aloer
"By my invention you can sit down in your office in Chicago, take a pencil in
your hand, write a message to me, and as your pencil moves, a pencil here in
my laboratory moves simultaneously, and forms the same letters and words in
the same way. What you write in Chicago is instantly reproduced here in fac-
simile. You may write in any language, use a code or cipher, no matter, a fac-
simile is produced here. If you want to draw a picture it is the same, the
picture is reproduced here. The artist of your newspaper can, by this device,
telegraph his pictures of a railway wreck or other occurrences just as a
reporter telegraphs his description in words."

I'm amazed how much this reads like a modern pitch. Fascinating

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Razengan
Is there a term for the common phenomenon where we do not expect or assume
humans of the past to be as .. articulate or _witted_ as us?

This reminds me of the reactions to the ancient graffiti from Pompeii etc.,
some of which read like something one might see on 4chan:

[https://www.reddit.com/r/history/comments/5iy6i4/ancient_gra...](https://www.reddit.com/r/history/comments/5iy6i4/ancient_graffiti_in_pompeii_is_hilarious_and/)

~~~
fao_
That remains one of my favourite web pages on the internet.

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prashnts
Linked in the Wikipedia page, found this page [1] with much more information
as well as different methods used to transmit images via telegraph lines.
Awesome!

[1]
[http://www.jmcvey.net/cable/elements/letters1.htm](http://www.jmcvey.net/cable/elements/letters1.htm)

~~~
Defenestresque
What a fascinating page! It's amazing how many technologies were invented to
solve the same problem until the playing field was winnowed down to the
survivors (telegraph, telex).

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bradleybuda
Margaret Atwood invented a similar device for remote book signings:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LongPen](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LongPen)

~~~
DonHopkins
And who can forget that Professor Hubert J. Farnsworth wished he'd invented
the Fing-Longer?

[https://futurama.fandom.com/wiki/Fing-
Longer](https://futurama.fandom.com/wiki/Fing-Longer)

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thanatos519
So ... a fax-plotter. Awesome.

~~~
kozak
An analog fax-plotter!

