Sending A Message By Telautograph

'Sending a message by telautograph', UK, 1894. Pen and ink drawing by A S Hartrick, showing a man using a telautograph transmitter (right). The receiver unit is on the left. The telautograph was invented and named by Professor Elisha Gray (1835-1901) in 1891 and shown at the Chicago Exhibition, USA. The apparatus was exhibited at a conversazione of the Royal Society, London, in June 1894. While most people consider the fax machine a modern invention, its use over telegraph wires started with the invention for the telautograph, a machine which transmitted and received handwritten messages. (Photo by Science & Society Picture Library/SSPL/Getty Images)