Fax machines
Fax machines are devices that transmit copies of documents over telephone lines, allowing for the quick and efficient sharing of information. The concept was first patented by Alexander Bain in 1843, but it wasn't until the commercial production in 1865 that fax machines began to emerge, albeit at a sluggish pace. Practical acceptance of fax technology gained momentum in the 1970s, with significant advancements occurring after the adoption of the Group 3 standard in 1983, which allowed for faster transmission speeds. The decrease in costs during the late 1970s and 1980s contributed to a surge in sales, with more than 4 million units in use in the United States by 1989.
Throughout the 1980s, fax machines became vital in various sectors, including news services, banking, and businesses, revolutionizing communication by enabling the rapid distribution of documents and images globally. They evolved to include features such as scanning and printing, sometimes integrated into multifunction devices. Although the usage of fax machines has declined in favor of internet-based communication methods in many regions, they remain prevalent in certain markets, particularly in Japan. Overall, fax machines played a significant role in shaping modern communication and continue to hold relevance in specific contexts today.
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Subject Terms
Fax machines
Identification Machine that transmit and receive facsimiles of written documents over telephone lines
The development of fax machines during the 1980’s provided an inexpensive, fast, and reliable means for electronically transmitting correspondence, contracts, handwritten notes, and illustrations.
The original concept for a facsimile (fax) machine was patented by Alexander Bain in 1843. The first commercial fax system was produced in France in 1865. It was too slow to be of any practical use. Fax machines did not begin to gain practical acceptance and popularity until the 1970’s; even then, they were at first prohibitively expensive. The price of fax machines started to decrease in the late 1970’s and the 1980’s. The stimulus that initiated the widespread use of fax machines came in 1983, when a standard protocol for sending faxes at rates of 9,600 bits per second (bps) was adopted. This became known as the Group 3 standard. In 1985, GammaLink produced the first computer fax board. As machines became faster and cheaper, fax sales took off in the 1980’s. The more were sold, the more useful they became, since it made sense to purchase a fax machine only if one’s colleagues also possessed them. In 1983, over 100,000 machines were sold. That number was doubled in 1986. Canon introduced the first plain-paper fax machine in 1987. By 1989, over 4 million fax machines were in use in the United States.
During the 1980’s, fax machines became an integral part of telecommunications around the world. News services used them to send news articles and photos to news offices and television companies. Using fax machines, weather services sent weather charts, maps, and information to weather stations and television companies worldwide. Banks and financial institutions used them to send important personal information and legal documentation. Many businesses used faxes to share records and databases.
Impact
By the late 1980’s, fax machines had dramatically changed how communication occurred around the world. Combining the functions of a digital scanner, a modem, and a printer, the machines could copy, transmit, and reproduce handwritten or printed materials, drawings, maps, and photographs with a high degree of resolution. Images could be sent almost anywhere in the world at any time.
The evolution of fax machines led to a wide variety of brands and styles and a wide range of capabilities. Consumers could eventually buy “all-in-one” printers that included a fax machine, a photocopier, a scanner, and a printer, all in one system. Adoption of the Group 3 standard of fax transmission in 1983 eventually led to Group 4 fax machines. These faxes worked with Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) lines and could scan with a resolution of 400 dots per inch (dpi), enabling the copying and transmission of engineering drawings. The development of fax machine technology also played an important role in the production of cellular phones that began in the 1980’s.
In the twenty-first century, most corporations retained fax capabilities, but use has decreased in favor of internet-based alternatives in most countries. Faxes are, however, still heavily used in Japan.
Bibliography
Ceccarelli, Marco, ed. International Symposium on History of Machines and Mechanisms Proceedings. New York: Springer, 2000.
Fishman, Daniel. The Book of FAX: An Impartial Guide to Buying and Using Facsimile Machines. Chapel Hill, N.C.: Ventana Press, 1988.
Margolis, Andrew. The Fax Modem Sourcebook. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1995.