When Was the Fax Machine First Created?

Once central to office technology, the fax machine rapidly churned out documents and enabled global connections. Even with the rise of newer technologies, fax machines still hold their ground in many offices. But when was the fax machine first created?

The origins of the fax machine stretch back over a century. The technology itself has been around for nearly as long, shaped by earlier innovations like the telegraph machine — the first technology that enabled humans to transmit information across vast distances instantly via electrical wires.

The first modern fax machine was created in 1947. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, fax technology evolved, and in 1964, Xerox Corporation launched its commercial version of the fax machine. The 1970s and 1980s marked the peak of fax machine popularity. Although their use declined as people moved away from landlines, fax machines remained relevant well into the new millennium. By 2010, modern fax machines using internet connections emerged.

Alexander Bain and the Early Development of the Fax Machine

In ancient times, people used drums and smoke signals as early means of communication. During the battle of Thermopylae, the Greeks employed mirrors to reflect sunlight and send signals. The Pony Express was an early effort to deliver information swiftly over long distances, though it wasn't instantaneous. The telegraph, however, truly revolutionized communication, introducing the rapid speed of electricity into the mix.

The 18th century saw significant breakthroughs in the understanding of electricity, paving the way for the telegraph. In 1833, Germans Carl Friedrich Gauss and Wilhelm Weber set up a working telegraph line that extended nearly a mile through Gottingen. By 1837, William Cooke and Charles Wheatstone developed the first practical telegraph, which featured five needles that pointed to letters of the alphabet at the receiving end. Operators needed only to write down the letters as they were transmitted, no special skill required.

Inspired by this newfound speed, Scotsman Alexander Bain became curious about the possibility of sending images, not just signals, through telegraph wires. A skilled clockmaker, Bain applied his expertise to design and patent the foundational concepts of what would become the modern fax machine.

His innovation, called the "chemical telegraph," worked by passing telegraph-generated electric signals through a chemically treated paper. The signal caused the chemical to evaporate, creating long or short marks in Morse code. This technique enabled faster transmission and led Bain to develop punched-hole tapes for automated sending and receiving of messages.

A visionary inventor, Bain created the core idea behind the fax machine — an electric printing telegraph — when he patented the concept on May 27, 1843, long before the telephone was patented and just a decade after the telegraph's invention.

The Technology Behind Fax Machines

Bain’s approach combined his knowledge of electrochemistry and mechanics, honed from his work as an instrument and clockmaker. He recognized that the telegraphs of his time were hindered by mechanical limitations. Observing the electrical impulses of telegraphs, Bain saw a way to use them to transmit visual messages, thus accelerating the process.

Bain's invention, known as the chemical telegraph, initially transmitted simple "long" and "short" lines, which a telegraph operator could easily interpret. This method proved successful, and the electrochemical process it used marked a significant advancement for the future of fax technology.

Bain later adapted the concept of the chemical telegraph to transmit images. To send basic pictures, he created a copper replica of the image and retained only the lines he intended to transmit, discarding the rest.

His method then involved two pendulums, which were synchronized by an electromagnet over a distance. Each pendulum had a contact beneath it, which swung over the copper image. When the contact made contact with the copper, it sent an electrical signal along the wire to a corresponding pendulum, which was positioned over specially treated paper. The paper darkened wherever the energized pendulum touched. The sending image and receiving paper both moved 1 millimeter with each pendulum swing, effectively scanning the original image and creating a copy on the receiving end.

Bain treated the paper with a mixture of nitrate ammonia and prussiate of potash. When the electrical impulse reached the solution, it caused a chemical reaction, leaving a bluish mark. This process resulted in the first fax pages being created.

Fax Machine Milestones and Innovations

After Bain's pioneering work, numerous inventors refined the fax machine over time, eventually leading to its current design. In 1865, Giovanni Caselli developed the pantelegraph, a device used for faxing between Paris and Lyon, France. Caselli's machine, built on Bain's foundation, sent thousands of faxes annually, helping to further the evolution of fax technology.

Caselli's system involved customers writing their messages on a thin sheet of tin with non-conductive ink. The operator would place the tin sheet on a curved metal plate, scan it with a needle, and transmit the data to a similarly designed machine at the receiving end. Because of the non-conductive ink, the receiving machine produced an inverse image of the original message.

In 1903, Arthur Korn introduced the first photoelectric scanning fax machine, creating a network between Berlin, London, and Paris by 1910. His technique surpassed Bain's contact-based scanning, utilizing the light-sensitive element selenium to convert scanned image tones into various electric currents.

Korn's work became the standard for many years and was instrumental in the creation of the Associated Press's photo wire service, which allowed news photographs to be transmitted globally. Additionally, Korn invented a commercial picture transmitter that used radio waves to send images across the Atlantic Ocean, a groundbreaking advancement in communication technology.

French engineer Edouard Belin developed a method for sending photographs by first treating them with chemicals to create uneven contours based on light and dark areas. A needle scanner detected these contours and converted them into varying electrical currents, which could be transmitted to another device. Through his continuous innovation, Belin improved the size, speed, and reliability of fax machines. He also implemented encryption methods for fax transmissions to enhance security.

In 1947, Alexander Muirhead showcased a modern fax machine that featured a rotating drum scanner, which quickly became a great success.

Internet Fax Machines and the Future

While modern fax machines feature numerous upgrades from earlier versions, the core concept remains the same. The sender places a document onto an electronic scanning bed, where an electronic eye scans the paper to capture the image, whether it's a detailed photograph or simple text. This image is then digitized into a series of binary 1s and 0s, which can be transmitted via phone lines or the internet.

Upon reception, a computer processor reconstructs the image from the digital data and prints it out on paper or displays it on a screen. Unlike earlier machines that used rotating drums, modern fax machines rely on a photo sensor to capture the document. This sensor differentiates between dark and light areas, providing information to a computer processor that reproduces the image at a remote location. The data is encoded for transmission over phone lines or the internet, and the receiving machine decodes and reconstructs the image.

Modern fax machines come in various forms, each differing in speed, capacity, and resolution. Some are independent devices, while others are designed to work in tandem with computers. There are also multi-functional models that not only act as fax machines but also as copiers, capable of sending documents to other traditional fax machines or even emailing images to computers.