[Short for *telelogograph, f. Gr. τῆλε (TELE-) + λόγος word + -GRAPH.] A form of ‘telegraph’ or signalling apparatus invented by R. L. Edgeworth, consisting of a number of posts, each carrying a pointer in the form of an isosceles triangle which could be turned into various positions so as to express different numbers, the combinations of which denoted letters or words according to a pre-arranged code.
1795. Edgeworth, in Trans. R. Irish Acad. (1797), VI. 126. I shall, with a slight alteration, adopt it [the name telegraph] for the apparatus which I am going to describe. Telegraph is a proper name for a machine which describes at a distance. Telelograph, or contractedly Tellograph, is a proper name for a machine that describes words at a distance.
1796. Lett., 17 Nov., in 13th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm., App. VIII. 288. Your plan for establishing a communication of intelligence between Cork and Dublin and between Dublin and Belfast … by means of a tellograph of your invention.
Hence Tellographic a.
1797. Edgeworth, in Trans. R. Irish Acad., VI. 138. The means of Tellographic communication which I have invented.
