Images by wire, picture telegraphy (1843-c. 1900)
The first proposal for transmitting facsimiles electrically from one place to another was contained in a British patent dated 27 November 1843. In this, Alexander Bain, a Scottish clock and instrument maker, described 'certain improvements in producing and regulating electric currents and improvements in electric timepieces and in electric printing and signal telegraphs'. His patent was comprehensive and he put forward seven different ideas for developments in electric telegraphy: the sixth of these related to his 'improvement for taking copies of surfaces, for instance the surface of printer's types at distant places'. The progress of still picture transmission proceeded in a rather erratic manner. Following Bain's and Bakewell's pioneering ideas on the subject in the 1840-50 decade, advances in the techniques of scanning and synchronisation occurred which enabled several practical schemes to be implemented in the 1865-75 period, only to lapse subsequently into disuse after a lack of commercial success. Then, in the first few years of the twentieth century, renewed interest in the subject emerged which led to equipments being developed by Korn (1907), Carbonelle (1907), Berjenneau (1907), Semat (1909), Belin (1907) and others. Again, although some of these schemes were capable of giving quite good results, their uneconomic viability consigned them to the warehouse of proven but unsuitable for the times inventions.
Images by wire, picture telegraphy (1843-c. 1900), Page 1 of 2
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