For those of you who want to see the Tower Bridge of London, but live in the land of Brooklyn Bridge of New York, you can always see it through the lens of a Telectroscope.

What is a Telectroscope? It is an “extraordinary optical device” that allows people to see through the secret tunnel that runs deep beneath the Atlantic Ocean. Apparently, this tunnel through the Earth has been under construction for about a century now, and has only recently been completed.

Okay, so there isn’t really isn’t a tunnel through the Earth, and no Telectroscope to let you see on the other side of the world. The truth is the Telectroscope is just a camera connected via fiber optic cabling, with a streaming video monitor.

I have to admit, I wouldn’t mind if the Telectroscope was real, because I like the steampunk look of it. Apparently, the concept of the Telectroscope was an unintentional hoax. Some French editor misread the name of an electroscope, and completely missed its purpose. An electroscope has nothing to do with seeing things electronically from a great distance, but is used in the study of static electricity.

Still, this misreporting of the Telectroscope probably inspired others to dream of a day when we could use videophones and webcams.

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