The fax machine is 33 years older than the telephone.
Scottish clockmaker Alexander Bain patented his 'electric printing telegraph' in 1843; Bell's telephone patent came in 1876.
The events
- Alexander Bain patents the fax1843 · London. In 1843 the Scottish clockmaker Alexander Bain received a British patent for an 'electric printing telegraph' in which pendulums at both ends of a wire swept line by line in step to copy an image. It was the forerunner of the fax machine, invented before the telephone.
- Invention of the telephone1876 · Boston. In March 1876 Alexander Graham Bell was granted a patent for the telephone and days later spoke the first words over a wire to his assistant. Long-distance voice communication transformed business, daily life and government.
More amazing facts
- 1841 · 1848 Russia's fort in California was bought by John Sutter — the man whose sawmill started the Gold Rush.
- 1843 The first computer program was written by Lord Byron's daughter in 1843, about a century before the first computers.
- 1843 The hand-cranked ice-cream freezer was invented by Nancy Johnson of Philadelphia in 1843: a bucket of ice, a paddled cylinder inside and a crank.
- 1844 In May 1844 Morse sent the first telegram from Washington to Baltimore; ten days later the last pair of great auks was killed in Iceland.
- 1844 Heinrich Heine coined 'Lisztomania' in 1844.
- 1844 · 1846 Anaesthesia was inspired by party tricks.