Long before ASCII images or the fax machine, there was another way to send an image: the pantelegraph. Using a swinging pendulum to scan the image, the recipient would receive it via an electric current passed through a paper at each point where the “scanner” saw dark, and chemicals in that paper would dye it. This contraption was invented by Giovanni Caselli in the mid-19th century. While teaching at the University of Florence, Caselli dedicated much of his time to studying how images could be transmitted via telegraph. Working with the French engineer…
