Fax Machine

FAX MACHINE

FAX MACHINE. The transmission by wire of facsimiles of text messages or images originated in 1843 when an English inventor, Alexander Bain (1818–1903), announced a device that could reproduce writing at a distance. There were numerous subsequent variations on the theme of telewriting, but a key invention was Edouard Belin's "Belinograph" of 1925. This device scanned an image using a photocell to detect light reflected off the image. In 1934, the Associated Press news agency introduced the first regular commercial facsimile service, which it used for many years, primarily to transmit photographs.

Although the Radio Corporation of America, various newspapers, the wire services, and others attempted to expand the use of facsimile services, there was little public demand until the late twentieth century. In the 1980s, however, facsimile machine usage exploded. The reasons are not entirely clear. The concerted effort by Japanese electronics companies to develop smaller, less expensive facsimile machines certainly offered the potential of more widespread ownership of the devices. These firms also promoted the establishment of communication standards, which made it possible for machines made by different manufacturers to receive messages from one another. Coupled with this were changes in American business practices, such as the growing number of home offices and the breakup of AT&T, which removed restrictions on the use of the telephone network. Nearly ubiquitous in offices by 1990, the fax machine then became a household appliance, with consumers spending nearly $900 million that year to buy them.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Coopersmith, Jonathan. "The Failure of Fax: When a Vision Is Not Enough." Business and Economic History 23: 1 (Fall 1994): 272–282.

David Morton