12/24/2015

ZPi | Indian Teleportation Accident, Circa 1878

ZPi:
Site Index
FAQ & Contact Info
Guestbook
Gift Shop
Social Media:
Twitter: @LyleZapato
Nemester: LyleZapato
Recent Posts:
2015-11-16
Narcissus: An Anatomy Of Clothes
2015-10-18
Chinese "Tinfoil Hat" Patent?
2015-10-17
The Atlantic's AFDO
2015-08-10
Les Pieuvres de Paris
2015-07-28
Russian Psychic Espionage
2015-07-25
The Folly Of The Aircraft Carrier Bridge
Link Button:

"Serving the Paranoid

since 1997"

ZPi/Blog
Newest

Indian Teleportation Accident, Circa 1878

Lyle Zapato | 2015-06-19.0880 LMT | Technology | Retro

http://zapatopi.net/blog/?post=201506190880.indian_teleportation_accident_circa_1878#fold

1/4

12/24/2015

ZPi | Indian Teleportation Accident, Circa 1878

Was the plot of the original The Fly ripped from the headlines... of 80 years previously?
In 1878 a report from Bombay reached Australia describing an amazing and terrible new invention
(reprint from The Brisbane Courier, July 27):

The Teleport.
The telephone and the phonograph are no doubt very wonderful examples (says the
Melbourne Daily Telegraph) of the purposes to which the power of electricity may be
applied, but these novelties begin to sink into insignificance before the still more recent
strides of science. The newest contrivance is called a teleport, and is described by a
Bombay paper "as an apparatus by which man can be reduced into infinitesimal atoms,
transmitted through a wire, and reproduced safe and sound at the other end." The
apparatus, according to the Indian paper, consists of a powerful battery, a large metal
disc, a bell-shaped glass house, and a large iron funnel connected with the wire. An
experiment is described as follows:"A dog was placed on the metal disc, and a
'powerful current' was applied to it. After a while the animal disappeared, and was found
at the other end gnawing a bone, just as it was doing before it was 'transported.'
Afterwards a boy was experimented upon. Under the glass house, it is reported, the
inventor of the machine placed a Goanese boy, Pedrowho was grinning as if he thought
it a good jokeand we suspect it was not the first time he had been in that house. The
current was again applied to the under part of the disc, and the same effect was observed
as with the dog. The house was instantaneously filled with a vaporous man, whose
features and parts were quite distinct until they disappeared. Even the grin was
discernible as a mere film of vapourin fact, it seemed to us that the grin remained even
after the body had disappeared. In fifteen seconds Pedro was gone; but they found him
also at the end of the wire. It was then attempted to send the boy and the dog along at
once, but by an unfortunate accident the 'infinitesimal atoms' of the boy and those of the
dog got 'mixed' in transitu, and the result was that they both looked dreadfully unnatural
creatures." At least, so says the Bombay paper in its account of the first experiments with
the "teleport." It says that by means of the teleport a man will be able to travel from India
to England by submarine cable in a few minutes, but unfortunately there is always the
danger that the "disintegrated atoms" of one man may become mixed with those of
another, as in the case of Pedro and the dog, and for this reason it is feared that the
teleport will not supersede the railwaysat least, not so far as the passenger traffic is
concerned.
Left unanswered, fortunately, was "How does Pedrodog eat?"
There are other versions of this article in different Australian newspapers (and at least one American
one), rewritten slightly by their editors. The earliest I could find was from June 8 in the Riverine
Grazier, but it seems to be less complete (assuming the mentioned Telegraph article, which I can't
find, to be the one everyone is copying -- finding the unnamed Bombay paper online is probably a lost
cause).
The Capricornian (or whoever they copied) is more skeptical of the claim. Its June 29 reprint calls the
new invention's reality "at least doubtful", notes disapprovingly that the Bombay paper "devotes some
of its largest type as well as a prominent place" to the article, and concludes:
Its statements and its remark may be taken for what they are worth; but notwithstanding
the many remarkable electrical discoveries that have been made of late, no one seriously
believes that it is possible to use the electric telegraph in the manner described by the
http://zapatopi.net/blog/?post=201506190880.indian_teleportation_accident_circa_1878#fold

2/4

12/24/2015

ZPi | Indian Teleportation Accident, Circa 1878

Bombay paper in its account of the alleged experiments referred to above. The telephone
and the phonograph have opened the way for many novel applications of electricity, but
they have not prepared us for such an invention as the so-called "teleport."
Harrumph!
In a slightly more bemused vein, the Melbourne Advocate prefaces their July 6 reprint by likening the
story to other "scientific sells" that newspapers had been recently publishing:
Some time since the Herald gave a description of the race for the Melbourne Cup as
alleged, by means of a camera obscura. More recently the Australasian had an account of
photobolus, and last week the Age gave an account of a tele-gastrograph, "a machine by
which, through the aid of electric currents, the flavour of any food or liquor can be
transmitted by wire to any distance, and the sensation of eating or drinking conveyed by
merely placing the end of the wire between the teeth."
Wikipedia aserts that "teleportation" was coined by Charles Fort in 1931. As seen above, the root of
Fort's word proceeded his by half a century (and was used in a more modern, technological sense -Fort's teleportations were more, well, Fortean). I don't know if there's an etymological trail between
the two or if Fort recoined it from scratch. The idea of teleport technology was possibly first described
in fiction in Edward Page Mitchell's "The Man Without a Body" (1877), where the inventor called it a
"telepomp". (Side note: the word "teleport" was apparently also used, at least once, to mean a report
sent via telegraph.)
End of post.
2004-2015 Lyle Zapato & ZPi
unless otherwise noted or implied.
Topics
Aluminum
Anarchy
Announcement
Art
Belgian Conspiracy
Black Helicopters
Bohemian Grove Cabal
Cascadia
Cephalopods
Complaints Department
Crafts
Crass Commercialism
Defensive Techniques
Elephants
Entertainment
Fashion
Field Trips
Fonts
Food
General Paranoia
Government Propaganda Mascots
Hollow Earth
Kelviniana
http://zapatopi.net/blog/?post=201506190880.indian_teleportation_accident_circa_1878#fold

3/4

12/24/2015

ZPi | Indian Teleportation Accident, Circa 1878

Letters
Lost Worlds
Metric System
Mind Control
Miscellaneous
Monorail Danger
Mysterious Doodads
NWO
Nature
Paraterrestrials
Philately
Piratical Yarrings
Pneumatics
Politics
Polydactylism
Random Found Thing
Retro
Sasquatch Issues
Simulacra
Site
Technology
Weyerhaeuser Conspiracy
Authors
Brood X
Doug MacDuff
Kofi Annan
Lyle Zapato
NWO Agent 5573-XQ
Radical Sasquatch
Tha Stinkin' Pirate
The Belgian
The Monorailist
The Philatelist
The Typing Octopus
ZPi
(Click to expand/contract)

http://zapatopi.net/blog/?post=201506190880.indian_teleportation_accident_circa_1878#fold

4/4