The history of fax machine has come a long way since its first inception in 1843 and still being a piece of valuable device for businesses or households alike to send documents.
It comes with an assigned fax number and has helped organizations to safely share their documents without being physically present.
Well, even though the use has changed over the years as a lot of new inventions came along, this machinery still holds a valuable place for businesses.
Along with its initial uses, a lot of fax devices have integrated other technology to further increase its reliability.
So how has this device changed over the centuries? How is the history of fax machine? Without further ado let’s dive deeper!
History of Fax Machine
Scottish technician and inventor Alexander Bain was recognized as the first person who invented the fax machines.
The principle his using was by using a transmitter that used a stylus on a pendulum that scan through a metal flat surface.
In order to construct the fax machine, he used the amateur clockmaker’s talents with telegraph machines to pick up images from the metal surface.
In addition to being a well-known person, Bain was an educationalist in the British school of empiricism.
He established the ‘Mind’, which was the first publication in the history of analytical philosophy and psychology. Other than that, he was also well-known as an innovator for his contributions to psychology’s scientific method.
While not a complete success, this concept laid the groundwork. Frederick Bakewell then built upon Bain’s ideas, creating an image telegraph with clearer image transmission using synchronized cylinders.
Though not yet the fax machine we know today, Bakewell’s invention marked a significant step forward.
The fax machine underwent further development by many over the course of its life.
Notably, in 1924, AT&T and RCA introduced a faster version that could transmit a single page in just 3 minutes.
And decades later, mobile faxing emerged, allowing access through smartphone apps and offering businesses more advanced document handling features.
Fax Machine History Timeline
To further understand the timeline of this machinery, we’ll break down the timeline of the fax machine.
- 1843: Alexander Bain invented the first fax machine that was known as the “Electric Printing Telegraph”. This device marks the dawn of fax machine history.
- 1880: In the 1880s the English inventor Shelford Bidwell invented scanning phototelegraphy. His invention served as the first telefax machine that had the ability to scan and send a two-dimensional image.
- 1888: Elisha Grey created the TelAutograph, which allowed users to send images of their signatures over long distances.
- 1924: 1924: AT&T Corporation employed scientists to push the boundaries of fax technology by enabling the transmitting of images over wire/telephone connections.
- 1924: As a wireless transmission method, the TransOceanic Radio Facsimile was created by the Radio Corporation of America (RCA). Photographs were successfully sent between London and New York using it.
- 1924: The AT&T Corporation created the color fax in 1924, which is a fax machine that can send the first color facsimile ever.
- 1960: The first photograph sent by using a satellite fax mechanism by the U.S Army from America to Puerto Rico
- 1964: The Xerox Corporation introduced and patented the first commercialized fax machine that used a telephone transmission.
- 1974: The sending time of single-page fax was reduced to 3 minutes.
- 1982: By this time a single fax machine was valued at around $20,000.
- 1982: GammaLink introduced the computer-based fax which was called the GammaFax
- 1996: The emergence of internet fax for general public use. We could send and receive a facsimile through a computer instead of a fax machine.
- 2010: The Apple devices are now able to be used to send faxes through an app called eFax.
- 2011: The eFax is now widely available not exclusively on iOs but also for Android devices.
The fax machine that we all know nowadays has undergone a long and interesting journey of developments.
And although this device is considered obsolete with the emergence of internet-based file sharing, this device is still used by many businesses.
Well, the fax machine, especially the newer one, is using radio wave technology instead of telephone wire.
This makes the fax machines need approval to be sold and distributed across the Indonesian market because the use of radio waves technology is strictly regulated, especially in Indonesia.
This type of approval is called the SDPPI approval, which you can get to know more about, HERE.
