# Fax Before Phone?!?! **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 19, 2000, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fax-before-phone/19996 "2000-05-19T19:55:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![sdimbert](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sdimbert/32/20204_2.png) [@sdimbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sdimbert)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2000, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fax-before-phone/19996/1 "2000-05-19T19:55:57Z")
Is it true that a working fax machine was developed in the early 19th century by an Italian priest, predating the invention of the _telephone_?!? ---
**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2000, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fax-before-phone/19996/2 "2000-05-19T20:51:08Z")
Don’t have a cite, but I’ve heard that too. IIRC, it worked on some of the same principles as telegraphs did. Don’t know how the send side worked, but it sent a signal down a telegraph wire. At the receive side, a pendulum or disk moved underneath a pen. When electricity hit (the click of the telegraph) it made a mark. If things were synchronized correctly, you had a rudimentary fax machine. I know I’ve butchered the details, but I think that is the gist of it. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2000, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fax-before-phone/19996/3 "2000-05-19T21:04:38Z")
I’ve never heard that story. However, I did read a few years ago when some prominent British spy died, his bio mentioned that in the 1920s he had received a patent on some procedure to transmit photos by wire. Don’t recall the chap’s name, but I’m sure it wasn’t Kim Philby. ---
**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2000, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fax-before-phone/19996/4 "2000-05-19T22:55:17Z")
Hello again. I found a bit on this site. > [@](#): > > Bain’s Telegraph > > Efforts to transmit handwriting, drawings and pictures along telegraph lines began very early. In 1842 a Scotsman named Alexander Bain developed a form of telegraphy that had at least the potential to transmit simple line drawings as well as text. This was one year before Samuel Morse in the United States completed the first commercial telegraph line, using his Morse code system, between Baltimore and Washington. and > [@](#): > > How it Worked - Bain’s Telegraph > > There were two pendulums involved in Bain’s telegraph, one for transmitting and one for receiving. The text of the message to be sent was set up in raised metal type, like that used for printing. At the end of the transmitting pendulum was a sharp metal point or a fine metal brush. As the pendulum swung to and fro, with each swing taking the same time as the others, just as in an old-fashioned clock, the metal point was swept over the type. Whenever the point was in contact with the type, electricity could flow through the type and the pendulum and along the telegraph wire. Whenever there was a gap in the shape of the type, no current could flow. Each time the pendulum made one swing, the metal type was moved upwards slightly, so that the point of the pendulum swept over a different part of the type. In this way, the shape of the whole piece of type was eventually scanned by the pendulum. > > At the other end, a similar pendulum swept over a piece of paper that had been soaked in potassium iodide, which changes colour when an electrical current passes through it, leaving a brown stain. This too was moved upwards with each swing of the pendulum. Current coming in along the telegraph wire passed through the swinging pendulum and marked the paper. The result was that on the paper an image built up of the metal type at the transmitting end. There was a special arrangement to keep the second pendulum swinging in synchronization with the first, by restraining its movement if it got ahead. ---
**Author:** ![Hail\_Ants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2000, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fax-before-phone/19996/5 "2000-05-20T01:22:16Z")
The BBC show The Secret Life of Machines covered this in great detail. One of the best episodes of the whole series. Can’t really explain it, you had to see it.