Giovanni Caselli (1815-1896) in 1851 founded the journal Les Loisirs and  carried out work on electromagnetism and electrochemistry. 

Then, in 1856, he presented a prototype of the pantelegraph, the predecessor of the fax machine, an invention that allowed the telegraphic reproduction of writing and drawing. 

He developed this invention with Léon Foucault in 1857, with the creation of the Pantelegraph Society in Paris and improved it with Edmond Becquerel in 1858.

The invention was successfully tested in 1860 on a Paris-Amiens connection and the official patent was filed in 1861 in France and in 1863 in the United States of America.

Then the process fell into oblivion before being rediscovered in the mid-20th century.

Some of the patents, letters, and evidence of teleautographic transmission are preserved in the Municipal Library of Siena; a small part is in the library of the Galileo Museum in Florence.