in 1881, english inventor shelford bidwell constructed the "scanning phototelegraph" that was the first telefax machine to scan any two-dimensional original, not requiring manual plotting or drawing. around 1900, german physicist arthur korn invented the "". it became widely used in continental europe after a wanted-person photograph was transmitted from paris to london in 1908. its main competitors were the "bélinograf" by édouard belin first, then since the 1930s the "hellschreiber", invented in 1929 by german inventor rudolf hell, a pioneer in mechanical image scanning and transmission.