*Fax machines have actually been around since at least the 1800's. AThose old enough to remember "Dragnet" in the '50s (Jack Webb, Ben Alexander, and they don't make 'em like that anymore!) saw occasional glimpses of a gadget with a sheet of paper wrapped around a rapidly revolving drum, with a solenoid-controlled pen to draw the image. I don't recall what they called it but as a young teen, I thought it was next thing to magic.
mechanical device which carved wood was set up in two towns in France
for some kind of exposition, with just a wire between the two towns. It
actually worked, and the idea's been around since then, building slowly
through the 1970's when my Dad owned a service for faxing checks between
truckstops and transportation companies. Not a new idea, for a long
time.
Cheers,
Gordon Keehn
