[1] Called to the bar from Lincoln's Inn in 1873, he practised as a barrister on the South Eastern Circuit for several years before becoming interested in electronics.
[2] Bidwell was the head of a wealthy Victorian family from 1881 to at least 1901, having five servants, at Riverstone, Wimbledon Park Road, Southfields, London.
Variations in light intensity reflected from the vibrating mirror were detected using a selenium photocell which was then connected to a telephone.
A small hole in the cylinder allowed the photocell to scan an image on a brightly illuminated glass slide.
He estimated that each image would need to have 16,000 to 150,000 "elements" (pixels in modern terminology) and a minimum scan rate of 10 times per second would be required.
This article is also noteworthy because it prompted a response by Alan Archibald Campbell-Swinton, who suggested that the problems would be best solved by using cathode ray tubes instead of mechanical devices.