telautograph

English edit

telautograph (plural telautographs)

(historical) An analogue precursor to the fax machine, transmitting electrical impulses recorded by potentiometers to servomechanisms attached to a pen at the receiving station, thus reproducing a drawing or signature made by the sender.
- 1893 April 6, “The Telautograph”, in The Iron Age‎^[1], volume 51:
  On Tuesday, March 21, was made the first public test of the telautograph, a long distance writing machine, the invention of Professor Elisha Gray of Chicago, which practically solves the problem of autographic communication over miles of wire.