George R. Carey

Carey learned of this discovery and used it to devise a crude system for transmitting images as an early attempt at television.

In the May 17, 1878, issue of Scientific American,[1] the editors alluded to their earlier article about the 'telectroscope invented by M. Senlecq of Ardres.'

This was followed by the news that they had before them 'some very ingenious and curious applications of selenium, in which its peculiar property of changing its electrical conductivity when exposed to light varying in intensity is utilized.

The second invention used a large array of photocells and wires to transmit the signal to a visual display made of many individual lights.

Although this approach should work in theory, each individual pixel requires its own photocell and wired circuit, making this system cumbersome and expensive for producing even a modest size image.