by Administrator
May 11, 2010 09:21 AM
Modern day fax machines are known to use a phone line or email server to transmit messages from one machine to the other. Would you believe that the first fax machine was invented in 1843--- 33 years before the telephone was even patented and over a century before the personal computer?
Alexander Bain, a Scottish inventor, patented the first fax machine, known then as a facsimile machine, in 1843. The first machines used electric wires, similar to those used to send telegraphs, and clock mechanisms to transmit data from the sender to the receiver. Although revolutionary at the time, the first fax machines were bulky, inefficient, and not user friendly. They also produced poor quality images. After Bain’s initial model, several other inventors are credited for improving the fax machine and making it as innovative as it is today.
It wasn’t until the late 1960s- when faxes were sent over phone lines- that the concept really took off. By the early 1970s, the number of fax machines in the United States had reached 30,000. Between 1973 and 1983, that number jumped to 300,000. By 1989, there were 4,000,000 fax machines being used regularly across the US.
Fax machines are still used in the everyday business environment. Although they are being replaced by internet-based options, they still hold many advantages. For example, they are strongly favored for legal documents due to their ability to transmit sensitive material that is not necessarily as secure when using the internet. The modern day fax machine is multi-functional- its capabilities include faxing, scanning, copying, and printing.
