Scottish inventor Alexander Bain patented the first electric printing telegraph in 1843, making the fundamental technology behind the fax machine exactly thirty-three years older than the invention of the telephone.

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Scottish inventor Alexander Bain patented the first electric printing telegraph in 1843, making the fundamental technology behind the fax machine exactly thirty-three years older than the invention of the telephone. Bain utilized clock pendulums synchronized through telegraph wires to scan and reproduce images on chemically treated paper. During the American Civil War, people could theoretically have sent each other grainy pictures of their boots, yet doctors' offices today still treat this archaic Victorian tech as the pinnacle of secure medical communication. It is a testament to institutional stubbornness that we force modern laser printers to screech over digital phone lines mimicking a gadget from the era of horse-drawn carriages