Édouard Belin was born in Vesoul, Haute-Saône on 5 March 1876, and died on 4 March 1963 in Territet, Canton of Vaud, Switzerland.

In 1907, Belin invented a phototelegraphic apparatus called the Bélinographe, a system for sending photographs over telephone and telegraphic networks. Since 1914, a photograph of report is transmitted by telephotograph.^{[clarification needed]}

The process was improved in 1921 to enable to transmission of images by radio waves.

In this apparatus, the transmitter traverses the original image point by point. At each point a measurement of light intensity^{[clarification needed]} is made with an electric eye. The measurement is conveyed to the receiver. There, a variable intensity light source reproduces the light measured by the electric eye, while carrying out same displacements exactly. By doing this, it exposes the photographic paper and makes it possible to obtain a copy of the original image.

Modern telecopiers and photocopiers use the same principle, with this close the sensor of light intensity was replaced by a sensor CCC, and that the device of impression is based on the laser technology, and either photographic.^{[clarification needed]}