The Fax Machine

A fax machine sends pictures of papers through phone lines. You put a page in one machine, and it prints out at another machine somewhere else. This could happen in just minutes. Fax machines were once found in every office. Today, people use email more than fax machines.

How It Started

The first fax machine was invented in 1843 by a Scotsman named Alexander Bain. That was even before the telephone. His machine was very slow and not used much. Better fax machines were made in the 1960s. By the 1980s, almost every office had one.

How It Works

A fax machine scans a piece of paper with light. It turns the words and pictures into signals. Those signals travel through phone lines to another fax machine. The second machine turns the signals back into a paper copy. This all happens in just a few minutes.

Fun Facts

• The first fax machine was invented in 1843.
• The word 'fax' is short for facsimile, which means copy.
• Some doctors and lawyers still use fax machines today.

Did You Know?

The fax machine was invented before the telephone, but most people did not use it until over 100 years later.