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When was the fax machine invented?

The fax (also known as the telefax or facsimile) machine may seem like a recent invention, but it was actually developed in the nineteenth century. Scottish philosopher and psychologist Alexander Bain (1818–1903) invented the first fax machine in 1843.

The fax machine operates by transmitting graphic and text images from one location to another through telephone lines. A transmitting machine uses a scanner to convert the black and white representations of the image into electrical signals that are sent through the telephone lines to a designated receiving machine. The receiving unit converts the transmitted information back to an image of the original and prints it. Scanning technology was improved enough by 1924 that newspapers began using the device to transmit photographs. By the 1930s wirephotos—that is, photos sent by telephone wire—were an important part of...

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