FAX Technology

As technologies have advanced, so have the means of communication devices available to the deaf. As newer technologies have been introduced, earlier communication tools have been replaced with those that are easier to use and which may be used to communicate with hearing family and friends as well as with other members of the Deaf community. The FAX is considered an “adventitious” technology because it was created as a means for general communication rather than as a device for the deaf. Once it was introduced on the market, however, the FAX came to be viewed as a valuable tool for deaf communication because it did not require large financial outlays or call for additional equipment to meet the needs of deaf users.

The telefax, usually shortened to FAX, is derived from the word facsimile, which refers to an exact duplication of an item. In the United States, the FAX machine is not a commonly used tool for deaf communication in the 21st century, but it has continued to be used in Australia, Germany, and Asian countries, especially Japan. In those countries, the FAX has proved to be particularly useful when deaf individuals need to communicate with government or community agencies. Deaf organizations have also adopted the FAX as a means of communicating with their members. The FAX is not, however, considered an ideal tool for emergency communication because FAX machines are not always manned, and faxes can be lost or may fail to print if a paper tray is empty.

In the winter of 1997/1998, Newsweek reported that the FAX was the second most popular business technology in the United States, outranked only by the personal copying machine. It had taken over a century and a half for FAX technology to reach that point. The first FAX machine had been patented by Alexander Bain, a Scottish machinist and inventor, in 1843. Bain used telegraph wires to transmit an image electromagnetically. In 1850, F. C. Blakewell, a British inventor, introduced the “copying telegraph.” A decade later in Paris, Giovanni Caselli invented the Pantelegraph. In the early 20th century, Arthur Korn invented the photoelectric system. In 1914, Edouard Belin, a French-born engineer, was the first to use the fax machine as a means of transmitting news and photographs. AT&T introduced its telephotography machine at the political conventions in 1924; and in 1936, RCA released its new fax machine that transmitted images using radio waves.

The modern FAX machine owes a debt to Chester Carlson, a Caltech graduate working in New York at the United States Patent Office in 1934, who grew tired of having to duplicate large amounts of material by hand and developed xerography (dry writing) in his home laboratory. He sold the rights to his invention in 1938, and that technology formed the foundation of Xerox, which became the standard for office copying machines and laid the groundwork for the modern FAX. Large-scale commercial use of the FAX emerged in the 1960s in the United States, [Page 410]and the FAX business boomed in the 1980s. Between 1985 and 1990, the sale of FAX machines rose from 500,000 to five million. In the mid-1990s, however, use of the personal computer began to skyrocket. E-mail could be sent instantaneously to any other user in the world. Subsequently, the popularity of cell phones and other portable devices made instant communication even easier, and the Deaf community was able to send emails, text messages, or instant messaging without the communication restrictions imposed by the FAX.

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