The Fax Museum · by SendFax.me

183 years of sending paper down a wire.

The fax was patented 33 years before the telephone. It filled the offices of the 1980s, was supposed to disappear when email arrived, and is still at work in clinics, police stations and government offices in 2026. Scroll through the story of the most stubborn technology in the office.

Scroll through time

Part 1 · The inventors

1843
A Scottish clockmaker patents the idea
On 27 May 1843, Alexander Bain receives a British patent for his "Electric Printing Telegraph". Synchronized pendulums at both ends scan a message line by line and reproduce it on electrochemically sensitive paper. That is 33 years before Alexander Graham Bell patents the telephone in 1876.
Bain's Electric Printing Telegraph · British patent 9745
1865
The first commercial fax service
Italian physicist Giovanni Caselli's pantelegraph goes into official service on the Paris to Lyon line on 16 February 1865, sending handwriting and drawings between cities. The line is extended to Marseille in 1867 and runs until 1870.
1924
A photo crosses the Atlantic by radio
On 29 November 1924, RCA engineer Richard H. Ranger's system sends a photograph of President Calvin Coolidge from New York to London: the first transoceanic radio transmission of a photograph. Two years later, RCA opens a commercial radiophoto service.

Part 2 · Into the office

1966
A fax machine that plugs into any phone line
Xerox introduces the Magnafax Telecopier. At 46 pounds it connects to any standard telephone line and sends a letter-sized page in about six minutes. Its Life magazine ad says it all: "Mail letters over the phone!"
1980
One standard to fax them all
The CCITT (today the ITU-T) adopts Recommendation T.4, the Group 3 fax standard, with key coding work from Japan's NTT and KDD. Digital Group 3 machines bring a page down to around one minute and any Group 3 machine can talk to any other.

Part 3 · The golden age, and the internet

1980s · 1990s
Every office, every desk
Fax machines go from niche product to standard office equipment. For about two decades, business paperwork runs through the machine in the corner.
1998
Fax learns to travel over the internet
The ITU's T.38 standard carries Group 3 faxes across IP networks in real time. Email and the web take over most everyday messages, but fax keeps its place wherever an institution still asks for it.
2018 · 2021
Governments try to switch it off
In December 2018, England's Department of Health bans the NHS from buying new fax machines and sets a goal of phasing them out by 31 March 2020. In 2021, Japan's reform minister Taro Kono moves to end fax use in central government and ministries file more than 400 objections.

Part 4 · 2026

2026
The fax machine is fading. The fax isn't.
Fax is still used in medical administration and law enforcement. A modern Group 3 fax takes 6 to 15 seconds a page once the machines have shaken hands. And you no longer need a machine of your own: you can send a fax from your phone or browser, and the machine on the other end receives an ordinary fax.

Why is fax still alive?

The short version: the institutions that use it trust it, and switching is slow.

Healthcare and law enforcement

Fax is still part of medical administration and law enforcement, where documents move between offices that have used it for decades.

Every machine speaks Group 3

Group 3 machines have shared one standard since 1980, and since 1998 the T.38 standard has carried those same faxes across internet links.

Hard to switch off

England's NHS (2018) and Japan's central government (2021) both set out to retire fax. In Japan, ministries filed more than 400 objections.

The phone network still carries it

A fax travels over the telephone network straight to the receiving machine, and the sending side gets a transmission report as proof it went through.

Fax questions people still ask

Who invented the fax machine?

Scottish clockmaker Alexander Bain patented the idea on 27 May 1843 (British patent 9745). His Electric Printing Telegraph used synchronized pendulums to scan a message line by line and reproduce it on electrochemically sensitive paper at the other end.

Was the fax invented before the telephone?

Yes. Bain's fax patent dates from 1843, and Alexander Graham Bell patented the telephone in 1876, 33 years later.

When did fax machines become common in offices?

In the 1980s. In 1980 the CCITT adopted the Group 3 standard (Recommendation T.4), which let any fax machine talk to any other in around a minute per page, and fax machines became standard office equipment through the 1980s and 1990s.

Why is fax still used in 2026?

Fax is still used in medical administration and law enforcement, and attempts to retire it have been slow. England's NHS was told in 2018 to phase out fax machines by 2020, and when Japan's government moved to drop fax in 2021, ministries filed more than 400 objections.

Can I send a fax without a fax machine?

Yes. An online fax service such as SendFax.me sends your document over the fax network for you, and the receiving machine gets an ordinary fax. With SendFax.me you upload a document in your browser, type a fax number in any of 29 countries and press send. The first page of your first fax is free.

Send a piece of history yourself

No machine, no phone line. Upload a document, type a fax number in any of 29 countries and press send. The first page of your first fax is free.

Send your first fax, first page free

Sources

Every date and claim on this page was checked against these sources.

183 years of sending paper down a wire.

Part 1 · The inventors

A Scottish clockmaker patents the idea

The first commercial fax service

A photo crosses the Atlantic by radio

Part 2 · Into the office

A fax machine that plugs into any phone line

One standard to fax them all