In 1926: living at the edge of time - Monoskop

WIRELESS COMMUNICATION
An illustration in a German book on "image transmitting" (Fernbildtechnik
und Elektrisches Fernsehen) features the technical utopia of
television in a military context (Lertes, 7). The lower half of the picture
shows a man in uniform (not a German uniform) sitting at a control
panel in front of a state-of-the-art radio receiver and a huge screen,
which re-presents what the upper part of the picture shows as "reality";
an unmanned military airplane crossing a mountainous region near the
sea, with a town in the center of the landscape. Following four other
aircraft of the same type, the unmanned plane in the foreground seems
to be part of a squadron which is under attack from a biplane flying
above them. What attracts the reader's attention to the unmanned aircraft
are six "electric eyes" in the form of lenses that are pointing right
and left, below and above, ahead and behind. The objects registered by
these electric eyes appear on the six segments of the screen in front of
the officer. While he looks at them intently, manipulating a handle with
his right hand, three other servicemen who stand behind him are following
the transmission of the air combat with obvious excitement.
The entire picture seems to suggest that the officer at the control panel
is steering the unmanned aircraft (and perhaps the entire squadron). But
even if this is not part of the intended meaning, the image clearly shows
that "electric television" is not exclusively (and perhaps not even primarily)
an extension of the human senses or human perception. In this
particular utopia, television makes it possible to intervene in a war
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