What is a Pantelegraph (Invented by Giovanni Caselli)?

Last Update: August 9th, 2021

The pantelegraph was an early precursor to the fax machine for transmitting images over telegraph lines.

Used commercially in the 1860s, it was the first device to enter practical service and could send handwriting, signatures, and drawings up to 15 cm by 10 cm.

Using a regulating clock and a pendulum to ensure that it could make and break the current for magnetizing its regulators, as well as ensuring the transmitter’s scanning stylus and the receiver’s writing stylus stayed synchronized.

The receiver reproduced the image by using paper with potassium ferricyanide, which darkened when an electric current passes through it.

A sheet of paper 111mm x 27m, containing 25 handwritten words, would take 108 seconds to transmit.

The pantelegraph was most commonly used to verify signatures used in banking transactions.

Additional Pantelegraph Resources:

• Mid 19th Century Electrochemistry
• Fascimile & SSTV History
• Secret Life of the Fax Machine (cartoon history)
• Giovani Caselli Biography
• Wikipedia Entry on the Pantelegraph

More on the History of Fax:

• The History of Fax - From Alexander Bain's 1843 invention to today's internet based fax systems (and everything in between)
• Alexander Bain - Developed an Experimental Fax Machine between 1843 and 1846
• Arthur Korn - Developed Fax Machine for Transmitting Photographs
• Edouard Belin - Inventor of the Bélinographe
• Frederick Bakewell - Improved Bain's Facsimile Machine
• Giovanni Caselli - Inventor of the Pantelegraph. Sent images 800km across telegraph wires 9 years before Alexander Graham Bell's Telephone Patent
• Herbert E. Ives - Sent first color fax
• Richard H. Ranger - Invented first Transatlantic Radio Fax
• Rudolf Hell - Invented the Hellschreiber
• Shelford Bidwell - Research in the field of "Telephotography"
• Pantelegraph - An early fax invention used to transmit images over telegraph lines
• Fultograph - An early fax invention used to transmit images over radio waves"
• Telautograph - An early fax invention used to transmit signatures over long distances
• 3D Fax - A 1990s technique used to send computer code over a fax machine. Each page could hold about 50kb of information
• Radiofax - Still used today, a method for transmitting images over long distances through radio. Also known as HF Fax or Weatherfax