We continue our look at the interesting and somewhat surprising history of the fax machine and the road that led to today’s digital fax service and fax online…

1. A Short
History of
FAX
Alexander Muirhead
successfully developed a
fax machine in 1947
that used a rotating
drum scanner – a
precursor to the fax
machines most people
were familiar with in the
following decades.
The modern fax machine of the 1980s and 1990s used
photosensors and thermal paper, replacing the rotating
drums and cylinders of decades prior.
Internet fax is the
evolution of fax that we
see today. Through this,
and the ability to send fax
online with fax to email
and email to fax
capabilities, fax has never
been more efficient.
Today it doesn’t even
require paper and ink.
And that’s where we are today.
Billions of faxes are still sent
each year worldwide.
So fax is definitely not dead,
just different!
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Over the course of the
1900s newspapers became
the biggest users and
innovators of the fax.
It was even predicted that
people would pay to
receive their daily
newspaper by radio fax
in-home.
What a seriously cool idea
for the time!
1900s
“Bollocks! Rain again”
“Cool story”
FAX
SENT
In 1935, Western Union
introduced facsimile
telegraphy for companies
to easily send signatures,
drawings, and other
material over long
distances almost instantly.
1924 was the first time fax
became wireless. RCA (Radio
Corporation of America) was
the first business to use radio
facsimile. Radio fax was also
used to quickly send weather
charts to ships.