What Is the Purpose of a Facsimile Machine?

The high paced corporate world demanded a more expedient way to send and receive paperwork. Facsimile machines, or simply fax machines, were the answer they were looking for and have been a mainstay in the workplace for decades. It had allowed the sharing of documents and information to become easier and more efficient for the corporate world. The advent of the fax machine has laid the groundwork for many other pieces of indispensable business technology.

History

The first technology related to fax machines was patented by Alexander Bain in 1843. He was able to use similar mechanisms to electric clock pendulums to fashion a rudimentary scanning device. Giovanni Caselli then set up the first telegraph system between Lyon and Paris, France. It is interesting to note that his system predated telephone systems in that region. The first wireless facsimile device, which more closely resembles today's fax machines, was designed by Richard H. Ranger of RCA.

Functions

The old fashioned analog fax machines are no longer manufactured. All of the current commercially used fax machines use digital technology that can scan at an average range of 100 to 400 lines per inch. Bit rates for transmission are determined at the time of the fax-modem "handshake." The transmission will occur at the highest rate that both components can handle. The usual range is from 14.4 to 36.6 kbit/sec.

File Compression

Fax machines use two formats to compress the amount of data that needs to be transmitted. Modified Huffman is a means of compression that scans and compresses each line individually to minimize white space. The other method is Modified Read. This scans the first line of information with the MH method and then records the differences in the subsequent lines. The characteristic differences between lines are encoded and transmitted in place of scanning the entire line of information.

Benefits

Fax machines allowed hard copies of documents to be sent in near real time from one machine to another any place on Earth. Any time sensitive material was formerly beholden to postal services worldwide, the fax machine dramatically shortened the waiting period and allowed businesses to increase work speed and therefore, their profit margin. In many cases days or weeks may have gone by waiting for the delivery of documentation.

Size

By the mid 1980s, the majority of fax machines were able to fit on the corner of an office desk. Technological developments have made it possible to remove some of the more cumbersome scanning and paper feeding mechanisms of the analog fax machines. Today's digital faxes have optical scanners that are very small and less prone to damage making fax machines more economically viable to own.

Alternatives

Today, there are many other means to send materials instantly. Documents can be scanned in the form of .TIF or .PDF files and sent via email servers. The documents can be opened on the receiving end and printed out by a regular office printer. There are also internet based fax servers that can create the document digitally and send it via existing internet connections. Providing there is no hard copy needed, this method allows a fax to be sent without paper, ink or separate phone lines.