Fax Machines Share in the History of Communications - Research Paper Example

? The Fax Machine – A Constantly Evolving Technology Dodging Extinction By The Fax Machine – A Constantly Evolving Technology Dodging Extinction Despite the availability of more advanced technologies for transferring documents worldwide, the fax machine, a technology developed way back in 1843, continues to thrive. Considering the fact that this technology is more than a century old, it should have already joined the telegraph and pager in antique shops. Surprisingly, instead of becoming obsolete, the fax machine has continued to evolve and adapt to the requirements of modern telecommunications. It first became an office workhorse in the 1980s and has continued to appear on business cards ever since! Although threatened by more advanced technologies like scanners, printers and email, the fax machine continues to dodge extinction and to remain attractive to businesses and individuals. Fax Machine’s Share in the History of Communications Alexander Bain, a Scottish mechanic, invented the fax machine or ‘facsimile’ in 1843 in Britain. Bain’s fax machine used a stylus attached to a pendulum that scanned an image or text on a metal surface. The machine used by Bain was a combination of several clock parts that worked in sync with a telegraph machine. It transferred encoded image data via telegraph lines. This machine however did not gain significant ground at the time of its inception, and people soon abandoned it due to its bulky size and limited utility. 1 The invention of the telephone in 1876 revived the use of fax machines, which then used telephone lines for data transmission. Later on, these machines could also transmit data via radio waves. By 1924, journalists faxed photographs to distant newspapers, and by 1955, radio fax enabled the transfer of data across continents. Newspapers and weather services were the earliest users of fax machines for transferring photographs and weather maps across the world.2 By 1980, telephone-based fax machines had gained immense popularity because of their reduced prices and fixed Grade 3 standards of operation. About a million fax machines were sold in 1988 alone, and they became the fastest selling machines adorning homes and office desktops word wide.3 Fax machines proved to be of immense utility to the Japanese. The Japanese alphabet has thousands of characters, and keypads can only afford a limited number of keys. Fax machines provided the Japanese an easy way of transferring their written documents. According to the American facsimile association, about 50% of all calls made in the 1980s to the USA from Japan were to fax machines.4 Frank Vizard, a contributing editor of Popular Mechanics magazine, has suggested that the increasing popularity of fax machines blurred the line between the home and the office, as business documents could easily be faxed to homes within seconds. People dealt with work related documents from the comforts of their homes. Fax machines soon replaced postal mailboxes and reduced the time of delivery of documents. They became a convenient tool for telecommuting before the advent of the email. This was both a convenience as well as an inconvenience, as people felt increasing pressure to work from home.5, 6 Are Fax Machines Becoming Obsolete? – Not Yet! Fax machines, which were at risk of extinction right after their invention, were revived by the invention of the telephone and later by the invention of the radio. After the advent of email, hybrid printers and scanners, fax machines were again under threat of extinction. Yet again, they adapted to changing times by incorporating advanced features like LAN connectivity, LCD displays, and Fax over IP capabilities. Fax machines also doubled up as copiers. Prominent scanner and printer manufactures have also incorporated faxing capabilities in some of their models. Fax machines can now convert paper copies into TIFF and PDF files that can be sent as email attachments. Fax machines today are fully equipped with broadband connection capabilities and also enable faxing over computer networks. Faxes can now connect via the internet, apart from connecting through telephone lines. Rather than disappearing, fax machines became more versatile. Most business firms still use fax machines and are reluctant to drop their fax numbers from their business cards. However, many individuals consider fax machines outdated. According to Anna Leach, a technology journalist and blogger from the UK, Britain is still stuck in the “digital Dark Ages”7. She derives this conclusion from a report published by Intel. According to the Intel report that investigated the IT habits of SMEs (Small and Medium Enterprises), about 40% of small businesses in Britain still use fax machines regularly. The same report estimates that only 16.2% of small businesses use Smartphones for work and only 1.4% use tablets. The report explains that businesses blame these “outdated IT practices” on a lack of both financial and human resources. While some consider the use of fax machines outdated, they continue to sell worldwide. Most businesses stick to faxes because not everyone has easy access to scanners. Even if businesses wished to do away with their fax numbers, they could not do so because of the persistent use of this technology by many of their clients.8 Because some people are not ready to give up fax machines yet, most companies seeking to cut down their paper use are opting for online fax-service providers such as MaxEmail, Metrofax, Greenfax, and eFax. They convert incoming fax documents into digital PDF files and forward them to the companies subscribed to their services. This way, without using fax machines, these companies manage to communicate with clients who still use faxes. Amazingly, fax machines are most popular in technologically advanced first world countries rather than in less technologically advanced developing countries. If the use of fax machines were a sign of the “digital dark ages” as described by Leach, they would not be so popular in technologically advanced countries. Data compiled by NationMaster.com from the UNESCO Institute for Statistics proves otherwise. As of now, Japan is the highest user of fax machines followed by the United States, Germany, Sweden and Denmark. Of every 1,000 people in Japan, 93.31 still use fax machines. In the United States, Germany, Sweden and Denmark, of every 1,000 people, 55.28, 45.55, 41.63, and 39.23 respectively still use faxes. These countries also have high levels of business efficiency. As these trends suggest, the use of fax machines continues strong in most developed countries.9 Why the Fax Machine Refuses to Die Legal Reasons – A major reason for the unrelenting persistence of fax machines is that most business documents and contracts have inked signatures. Legal organizations prefer to fax their clients when they need signatures on contracts. They consider it safe, as digitized documents and electronic signatures can be altered and forged by others. Law courts around the world recognize faxed signatures, images and documents as authentic evidence. The California Court of Appeals, in the case of Hofer v. Young, 38 Cal. App. 4th 52 (1995), held that a fax is as acceptable as a letter is.10 Security – Documents sent via fax are secure and less likely to get into the wrong hands. On the other hand, email passes through many intermediate servers and can be easily hacked. Moreover, encrypted emails are not totally secure and are difficult to implement in office settings. Therefore, most organizations who wish to transfer confidential information prefer the use of fax machines to electronic mail. Ease of Operation – Fax machines remain preferable for transferring large documents, as emailing them would be tedious, as the document will have to be scanned page by page, and then sent as an email attachment. Moreover, conventional email providers such as Gmail, Yahoo! Mail and Hotmail, limit the maximum attachment size to 25MB, which is often insufficient for sending more than 20 pages of scanned documents, especially if they include images. Conclusion The continuing usage of fax machines in spite of the existence of superior technologies proves two things – First, people are unwilling to let go of media that has been used and trusted for a long time, second, it shows the lack of faith in the security and privacy of modern electronic mail for transferring confidential documents. Legislature and courts across the world have not yet adapted to changing technologies either. Unless digital modes of communication such as emails are made safer, more secure and confidential, people will find it difficult to embrace such technologies to communicate sensitive information. Although mostly restricted to formal communications today, the use of fax machines was not so constrained in the past. David Beckham used to fax his drawings of the Disney Lion King characters to Victoria Beckham to keep her assured of his love.11 Fax machine romances were a rage in the 1980s and 1990s! People have now adopted other modern day technologies such as text messaging, instant messaging and emails for such purposes. Perhaps it won’t take much longer for these technologies to replace the corporate use of fax machines too. Until then, fax machines will continue to evolve, adapt and find other ways of avoiding extinction! Bibliography Blum, D., 1988. Fax mania – Read it and weep. New York Magazine, [online]21 November. Available at:< http://books.google.com/> [Accessed 11 November 2011]. Fax machines by country – The Information for Development Program, 2011. Nation master.com. [online]. Available at:< http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/med_fax_mac-media-fax-machines> [Accessed 11 November 2011]. Huurdeman, A.A., 2003. The worldwide history of telecommunications. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons. Leach, A., 2011. UK biz: Fax us and explain what this cloud thing is – Small firms stuck with crap tech, unaware of data laws. The Register, [online]2 November. Available at:< http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/11/02/just_the_fax_maam/> [Accessed 29 November 2011]. Lowthorpe, R., 1999. 1999: The year of Posh and Becks. The Independant, [online]15 December. Available at:< http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/1999-the-year-of-posh-and-becks-743171.html > [Accessed 18 November 2011]. Pivar, W.H. & Bruss, R., 2002. California real estate law. Chicago: Dearborn Real Estate. Vizard, F., 1989. The facts about fax. Popular Mechanics, [online] March. Available at:< http://books.google.com/> [Accessed 11 November 2011]. Read More