History of the Fax Machine

The fax machine was invented by Alexander Bain in 1843. This was 33 years prior to when the patent was given for the telephone, so Bain instead used telegraph wires combined with parts from clock mechanisms to transmit the fax messages. Although the fax machine was invented in the 1800s, it didn’t gain popularity that century.

A significant improvement for the fax machine came in 1966 when Xerox developed the technology that could connect a fax machine to a phone line. However, fax machines were still cumbersome, difficult to operate, and inefficient.

This soon changed and in the 1980s, fax machines began to be more widespread. Since then, companies have continued to improve upon the fax machine making it smaller, easier to operate, and cheaper. Fax machines today are usually multi-purpose – they have faxing, scanning, and printing capabilities.

Resources
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fax
inventors.about.com/od/bstartinventors/a/fax_machine.htm