sb. Also telophot. [f. Gr. τῆλε afar, at a distance, TELE- + φῶς, φωτ-, light.] A name employed or proposed for various devices or apparatus used or projected: a. A means of transmitting signals or messages from a distance by means of light, (a) by flashing beams of light by a mirror (cf. HELIOGRAPH); (b) by letting out flashes from a brilliant lamp by means of a moving shutter; (c) by using flashed beams to work a sensitive photo-electric receiving apparatus (cf. PHOTOPHONE). b. A device for the electric transmission of pictures, so that they are reproduced as pictures at a distance: cf. TELEPHOTOGRAPH1, telelectrograph in TELE-. c. A projected or suggested device for the electrical transmission to a distance of visual images of things, persons, or actual scenes (cf. telelectroscope in TELE-): not yet practically realized. d. An apparatus for photographing at a great distance; a telephotographic lens or camera: see TELEPHOTOGRAPH2.
1880. [implied in TELEPHOTE v.].
1884. Knight, Dict. Mech., Supp., Telephote, an instrument or apparatus for conveying messages or images by transmission of light.
1889. Scott. Leader, 26 July, 7. M. Courtonne … has deposited under seal his description of a new apparatus called a telephote, which enables one to see at a distance as the telephone enables one to hear at a distance.
1896. Current Hist. (Buffalo, N. Y.), VI. 950. A ‘telephot’ … invented by Dr. Robert d’Unger, of Chicago, Ill. [for picture telegraphy].
1903. Sci. American, 27 June, 486/1 (heading). The ‘Telephot,’ a novel apparatus for photographing at great distances. Ibid., 486/2. The ‘Téléphot’ may, moreover, be, at a moment’s notice, converted into a terrestrial or astronomical telescope.
Hence Telephote v., to transmit an optical image to a distance by means of electricity. Telephotic a., of or pertaining to a telephote (actual or conceived), or to TELEPHOTY.
1880. Engineering, 7 May, 361/2. Visual Telegraphy…. An image of the object to be ‘telephoted’ is focussed on the mirror by means of a lens, and the resulting current started in each [selenium] square of the mirror by the portion of the image falling on it is transmitted by the corresponding wire to the distant station.
1889. trans. Jules Verne, in Tablet, 16 Feb., 249/1. Each reporter … has in front of him a set of commutators which enable him to communicate with any desired telephotic line.
1896. Flammarion, in N. Amer. Rev., May, 557. We need to be able to enter into telephotic communication with them [inhabitants of Mars].
