the.com/fax
the technology that refuses to die because doctors and lawyers won't let it
means A machine that scans a document and sends its image over a phone line to another machine that prints out a copy, or the document so transmitted.
from Short for 'facsimile,' which comes straight from Latin: 'fac simile,' meaning 'make (it) similar' — 'fac' being the imperative of 'facere,' to make or do, and 'simile' the neuter of 'similis,' like or similar. The same 'facere' fuels words like 'factory' and 'manufacture,' while 'similis' is cousin to 'similar' and 'assemble.' The clipped, breezy 'fax' is a 20th-century shortening that arrived with the machines themselves.
- invented
- Patented in 1843, before the telephone existed
- still legal
- Many courts reject email but accept faxes
- japan loves it
- Millions of fax machines remain in daily use
- how it works
- Scans images into beeping tones over phone lines
- healthcare grip
- Most U.S. medical records still travel by fax
scytale — ancient greek cipher device using a wooden rod, 5th century bce
enigma machine — german electromechanical encryption device used in wwii
one-time pad — unbreakable cipher using random key sequences, first used 1917