Facsimile

Origins

The basic notion of sending graphic material long distance is as old as the telegraph. In the early 1840s, Scottish physicist Alexander Bain introduced the first primitive facsimile machine and patented it in 1843. Frederick Bakewell, an English physicist, was the first actually to demonstrate facsimile transmission, in 1851 at the London exposition. His system differed from Bain's in that images were received and printed on cylinders (a method commonly used as late as the 1960s). In 1865, Italian physics professor Giovanni Caselli established the first commercial fax system linking Paris with several other French cities, using his Pantèlègraphe, a further modification of Bain's original idea. He transmitted nearly 5,000 faxes in the first year and the service operated until 1870. Early in the twentieth century, Germany's Dr. Arthur Korn developed a system of photoelectric scanning to allow transmission over distances of photographs. By 1910 his system connected Berlin, London, and Paris. A year earlier, Colliers Weekly tested facsimile service between New York and Washington, D.C.

In 1922 Korn's system was used to transmit, by radio, a photograph of Pope Pius XI from Rome to Bar Harbor, Maine. The picture was published the same day in the New York World, a major feat in an era when news pictures usually crossed the ocean by ship. After experiments dating back several years, the first transatlantic facsimile service, which could transmit a photo across the Atlantic in six minutes, was inaugurated by RCA in 1926. AT&T opened its telephoto system commercially the same year. Several firms soon developed “high-speed” fax systems. Early users of facsimile included newspapers to transmit and receive photos and weather services, which by 1930 could transmit weather maps.

Facsimile and Journalism

While there were numerous experiments with facsimile at both radio stations and newspapers in the 1920s, the service became the focus of serious development only in the 1930s. In 1934 the Associated Press, using AT&T technology, began its commercial wirephoto service. United Press soon followed suit. By 1937, several experimental newspapers had been transmitted using radio station facilities. In 1939 the first daily newspaper was published by radio facsimile. More than 1,000 households were equipped with experimental facsimile receivers that could print a brief newspaper overnight.

World War II interrupted further development until 1948 when the Federal Communications Commission authorized commercial use of the technology using FM frequencies. Western Union used thousands of its Deskfax machines to send telegrams between customer and Western Union offices. The Miami Herald, Chicago Tribune, Philadelphia Inquirer, and New York Times all broadcast experimental newspapers using their FM stations. The Herald transmitted five editions a day for a time. For a brief time it looked as though facsimile newspapers might become common. But the receivers were too expensive for widespread adoption, and the experiments were soon wound up.

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