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Below you can find a brief description of how fax machines work along with a brief history of how the fax machine was invented. On the right of the page you will find links to fax machine models and more....

Fax machines are essentially an image scanner, a modem, and a computer printer combined into a highly specialized package. The scanner converts the content of a physical document into a digital image, the modem sends the image data over a phone line, and the printer at the other end makes a duplicate of the original document.

Obviously, a very high-quality fax machine with some additional electronics can connect to a computer, and can be used to scan documents into a computer, to print documents from the computer, and to make photocopies. Such high-end devices are called multifunction printers and cost more than fax machines.

History
Facsimile transmission over wires or faxing was invented by Alexander Bain, a Scottish mechanic who in 1843 received a British patent for "improvements in producing and regulating electric currents and improvements in timepieces and in electric printing and signal telegraphs." Seven years earlier, Samuel Morse invented the telegraph and the fax machines evolved from the telegraph technology.

Alexander Bain had created a fax machine transmitter that was designed to scan a flat surface (made of metal) using a stylus mounted on a pendulum and the stylus picked up the images on the surface. An amateur clock maker, Alexander Bain adapted parts from clock mechanisms combined with telegraph technology to invent his fax machines.

Firsts in Fax Machine History
In 1902, Dr Arthur Korn invented an improved and practical fax, the photoelectric system.
In 1914, Edouard Belin established the concept for remote fax photo/news reporting.
The American Telephone & Telegraph Company (AT&T) worked to improve telephone facsimile technology, and in 1924, the telephotography machine was used to send political convention photos long distance for newspaper publication.
On March 4, 1955, the first radio facsimile transmission was sent across the continent.