When was the first fax machine patented?
The Scottish inventor, Alexander Bain, received British patent 9745 on May 27th, 1843 for his "Electric Printing Telegraph". Frederick Bakewell made several improvements on Bain's design and then the Pantelegraph was invented by Italian physicist Giovanni Caselli. He introduced the first commercial telefax service between Paris and Lyon in 1865, some 11 years before the invention of the telephone.
Fax machines have evolved, especially after wireless transmissions became available to the home user. The Xerox Corporation was an early contributor to the process as was Lockheed.
More Info:
en.wikipedia.org
What are your thoughts on this subject?
12 Comments
buhlemann
It depends on how you define “FAX”. Typing a code into a machine and sending by wire is an old technology, but “FAX” is is short for facsimile, and transmission of a facsimile requires scanning ability, which was not available in the 19th century.
Elaine GIbson
My member of Parliament had the first fax machine in the House of Commons in the early 80s. I didn’t think they been around much before that.
Stephen W. Gerrard
A lot of.complaints about the question, yet I was the first and only dislike.
Tamara Durant
We had telegram, then telex, then fax. They were not all the same. A telegram cannot be called a fax.
Karin Johansson
Georgia Kemp, My mom was born 1926 and they used it a lot at the farm she grow up on!
Karin Johansson
Georgia Kemp, that is odd. Even in cities here in Sweden it was electricity in late 1800s.
Julie Domaille
Dis it screech and complain paper stuck in rollers.....
Georgia Kemp
Denise Currie, I did not even know there was reliable electricity then - my mother was born in 1928 and grew up without electricity.
Georgia Kemp
Odd. It was a big thing at my work in Auckland around 1990 when we got a fax. We had an early email system that worked between branches only. My Dad retired in the early 80's and he had a Telex, no faxes were available.
Louella Wilson
I did not initially think it was that early, but was sure that it predated the next oldest option of 1950.
Ben
Alexander Bain is a complete genius. By the use of encoding data, and transmitting it over a telephone line or radio broadcast. And receiving a hard copy of the text, line drawings or photograph at a remote location. Really amazing. And this is 1843.
Denise Currie
I always double check dates when it states patented not made or used as often they go further back than you think.