A facsimile machine, or “fax” for short, is an electro-mechanical device used to send and receive hard copy documents via a telephone line. The sending facsimile machine encodes the document into digital form, which is then transmitted over the telephone line to the receiving facsimile machine, which decodes the digital signal and produces a hard copy of the document.
The first facsimile machine was invented in 1843 by Scottish inventor Alexander Bain. Bain’s design was based on the earlier discovery by German physicist Samuel Morse that an electrical current could be used to reproduce a graphical image. Bain’s machine was able to send and receive both hand-drawn and typed images, and was the first machine to use the now-standard ASCII code to represent text.
The first commercial facsimile machine was introduced in 1866 by Italian physicist Giovanni Caselli. Caselli’s machine, known as the Pantelegraph, was able to transmit images over telegraph lines. The Pantelegraph was soon adopted by newspapers and government agencies for the transmission of images of newsworthy events.
The first facsimile machine to be widely used in business was introduced in 1881 by the Edison Telephone Company. This machine, known as the Edison Business Fax, was capable of sending and receiving both hand-drawn and typed images. The Edison Business Fax was used extensively by businesses for the transmission of documents such as contracts and invoices.
The modern fax machine was invented in 1964 by Xerox Corporation engineer Chester Carlson. Carlson’s machine, known as the Xerox 914, was the first commercial photocopier and could be used to send and receive both hand-drawn and typed images. The Xerox 914 was soon adopted by businesses and government agencies for the transmission of documents such as contracts and invoices.
The use of facsimile machines has declined in recent years due to the advent of email and other digital document-sharing technologies. However, fax machines are still widely used in certain business applications, such as the transmission of medical images and legal documents.