Facsimiles

[gfish]

'Fax' is a cool word. Why did we waste it on such a stupid technology? I think it's very telling that faxes are the only form of long distance communication ever invented that never attracted a geekish/hacker following. There is nothing interesting or aesthetic about the technology. There is only suck.

Comments

[randomdreams.livejournal.com]

I've read that there were functional fax machines before phones, like the 1860's. They used scanning needles with conductive ink, I believe, for the transmitter, and a synchro scanning pen for the receiver.