Telectroscope

The telectroscope was the first prototype television system. The term was also used in the 19th century to describe imaginary systems of distant seeing. Most recently, the term has been used for the name of a piece of installation art with a visual high speed broadband [BBC report, "The week's weirder videos" [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7426798.stm] . Retrieved 30 May 2008.] link between London and New York City constructed by Paul St George in May 2008. [citation|title='Tunnel' links New York to London|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/7415911.stm|author=Matthew Price|publisher=BBC|date=Friday, 23 May 2008]

Figuier's imaginary telectroscope

The term "telectroscope" was used by the French writer and publisher Louis Figuier in 1878 to popularize an invention he wrongly interpreted as real and ascribed to Alexander Graham Bell. [Louis Figuier, L'année scientifique et industrielle ou Exposé annuel des travaux scientifiques, des inventions et des principales applications de la science à l'industrie et aux arts, qui ont attiré l'attention publique en France et à l'étranger. Vingt et unième année (1877), Librairie Hachette, Paris, 1878. Reproduced on [http://histv2.free.fr/19/figuier.htm L'histoire de la télévision ] . Retrieved 26 May 2008.] Figuier was probably misled by the article "The Electroscope" published in "The New York Sun" of 29 March 1877. [André Lange, [http://histv2.free.fr/19/electroscope.htm L'histoire de la télévision] . Retrieved 26 May 2008.] Written under the pseudonym "Electrician", the article claimed that an "an eminent scientist", whose name had to be witheld, had invented a device whereby objects or people anywhere in the world "could be seen anywhere by anybody". According to the article, the device would allow merchants to transmit pictures of their wares to their customers, the contents of museum collections would be made available to scholars in distant cities, and (combined with the telephone), operas and plays could be broadcast into people's homes. ["The Electroscope", "The New York Sun", March 29, 1877. Reproduced on [http://histv2.free.fr/19/electroscope.htm L'histoire de la télévision] .] In reality, the fake "electroscope" described in the article had nothing to do with the real electroscope and did not exist.

Real telectroscope devices

Nevertheless the word "telectroscope" was widely accepted. It was used to describe the work of nineteenth century inventors and scientists such as Constantin Senlecq, ["A novel and curious instrument. The Telectroscope", Scientific American, Vol. XL, n°10, New York, 8 March 1879. [http://histv2.free.fr/senlecq/telectroscope3.htm] ] [Constantin Senlecq and his work [http://histv2.free.fr/senlecq/senlecqnotice.htm] ] George R. Carey, [George R. Carey, "Seeing by Electricity", Scientific American of June 5, 1880 [http://histv2.free.fr/carey/carey2.htm] ] [George R. Carey, "Transmitting, Recording and Seeing Pictures by Electricity", The Electrical Engineer, Jan. 16, 1895, pp.57-58. [http://histv2.free.fr/carey/carey1895.htm] ] Adriano de Paiva, [Adriano de Paiva, "A telefonia, a telegraphia e a telescopia", articles of June 1877 and June 1878 [http://histv2.free.fr/de_paiva/telescopie2.htm] ] and later Jan Szczepanik, who with Ludwig Kleiberg obtained a British patent for his device in 1897. [Information about a British patent on the telectroscope for Jan Szczepanik and Ludwig Kleiberg [http://histv2.free.fr/szczepanik/szczepanik1.htm] ] ["Der Fernseher (Telelekstroskop)", Die Reichswehr, Vienna, 9 March 1898, n°1466, p.5. [http://histv2.free.fr/szczepanik/szczepanik4.htm] ] [ [http://www.poland.gov.pl/Jan,Szczepanik:,Polish,Edison,1986.html Jan Szczepanik: Polish Edison] (Polish government web site. Retrieved 26 May 2008] Szczepanik's telectroscope was covered in the "New York Times" on April 3, 1898, where it was described as "a scheme for the transmission of colored rays". [Johannes Horowitz, [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9C03E0DF1139E433A25750C0A9629C94699ED7CF That New Telectroscope] , New York Times, April 3, 1898, p.22. Retrieved 26 May 2008.] Szczepanik's experiments fascinated Mark Twain, who wrote a fictional account of his work in his short story "From "The London Times" of 1904". [ [http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/cgi-bin/moa/pageviewer?frames=1&coll=moa&view=50&root=%2Fmoa%2Fcent%2Fcent0057%2F&tif=00112.TIF&cite=http%3A%2F%2Fcdl.library.cornell.edu%2Fcgi-bin%2Fmoa%2Fmoa-cgi%3Fnotisid%3DABP2287-0057-13 Digitized copy of Mark Twain's "From "The London Times" of 1904"] from the Cornell University Library. Retrieved 26 May 2008.] Both the hoax "electroscope" of 1877 and Mark Twain's fictional telectroscope had an important effect on the public. They also provided feedback to the research. Neither the fictional nor the real nineteenth century prototype telectroscopes were real television systems. Even after the invention of the scanning disk by Paul Nipkow the prototype telectroscopes did not ensure the satisfactory quality of image transmission.

"Telectroscope" was eventually replaced by the term "television" most probably coined by Constantin Perskyi in 1900.

The Telectroscope art installation

In May-June 2008, artist Paul St George is exhibiting outdoor interactive video installations linking London and New York City in a fanciful simulated "telectroscope". According to the installation's invented back story, the device works using a transatlantic tunnel started by the artist's fictional great-grandfather, Alexander Stanhope St. George. [cite news |first=Melena|last=Ryzik|title=Telescope Takes a Long View, to London|url=http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/21/arts/design/21tele.html|work="The New York Times|publisher=The New York Times Company|date=2008-05-21|accessdate=2008-05-21] [cite news |title=Optical device connects NY, London in real time |url=http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5g_S8_LYhKAlx35QUGcRpJ37ZBaDQD90R0VC80 |publisher=The Associated Press |date=2008-05-23 |accessdate=2008-05-23] [cite web
url=http://www.efluxmedia.com/news_Telectroscope_Invention_Links_New_York_To_London_17983.html
title=Telectroscope Invention Links New York To London
first=Michael
last=Todd
publisher=eFluxMedia
date=2008-05-23] The producer of this spectacle was the creative company "Artichoke", who previously staged The Sultan's Elephant in London. [citation|url=http://arts.guardian.co.uk/theatre/drama/reviews/story/0,,2282095,00.html|title=You could really get sucked in...|author=Susannah Clapp|date=Sunday May 25, 2008|author=The Observer]
The concept of visually linking distant places and continents in real time was previously explored by Kit Galloway and Sherrie Rabinovitz with "Hole in Space" (1980), an art installation linking shop windows in New York and San Francisco [Margot Lovejoy, [http://books.google.com/books?id=Ue1QeHwZ3HkC&pg=PA232&lpg=PA232&dq=kit+Galloway&source=web&ots=Fo9_KJhU74&sig=jtfU7DFayxK6Dg_zk3sobDNO3qA&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=9&ct=result#PPA232,M1 "Digital Currents: Art in the Electronic Age"] , Routledge, 2004 pp. 232-234. ISBN 0415307805] as well as by Maurice Benayoun with "The Tunnel under the Atlantic" between the Pompidou Centre in Paris and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Montreal (1995).

References

External links

* [http://www.telectroscope.net/ Paul St George's Telectroscope Project webpage, which redirects to]
* [http://www.tiscali.co.uk/telectroscope/home.php Telectroscope webpage]
* [http://blog.telectroscope.org The Telectroscope Project Blog]
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/7415911.stm BBC News video of the Telectroscope Project]
* [http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1336737864/bclid1078573088/bctid1600171037 Telectroscope Video NYC]
* [http://www.moben.net/projet.php?id=14 "The Tunnel under the Atlantic" (1995) on Maurice Benayoun official web site]