The First Fax Machine, 1842.In 1842 an ingenious Scottish clock maker named Alexander Bain invented
The First Fax Machine, 1842.In 1842 an ingenious Scottish clock maker named Alexander Bain invented an incredible device that would become the precursor to the modern fax machine. Upon studying the new inventions of Morse Code and telegraph communications, Bain set out to combine the two technologies with a printing mechanism and a very complex clockwork system. Connected to a telegraph system, Bain’s “facsimile machine” used signals broadcasted over a telegraph line which connected to the machine. On the transmitting end a mechanism of two pendulums operated a stylus which “scanned” the picture or message. The picture was etched onto a copper plate, and as the stylus moved over the plate the etchings in the image would disrupt the movement of the stylus, thus translating the image into a code which was broadcasted to the receiving end through a telegraph line.When the receiving end received the code, it would operate a pendulum that timed a drawing stylus. The machine used a roll of paper treated to turn blue if electricity passed through it. As the pendulum worked it operated the stylus over the paper, which zapped the paper with a light electrical charge, thus drawing a facsimile based on the dots and dashes of the original signal.The pictures and messages weren’t perfect, in fact they were pretty terrible with major issues in accuracy and timing, this was a technology which none had imagined before. While today such technology may seem quaint with our modern fax and internet technology, in the mid 1800’s this must have seemed like technological sorcery. Unfortunately the great telegraph pioneer Samuel Morse saw the device as an infringement on his patents. At Morse’s behest a court issued an injunction against Bain’s invention, thus blocking the progress of Bain’s facsimile machine. -- source link
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