Cheap Fax Machines

The Technology that Drives Cheap Fax Machines

New technologies are what allows us to buy cheap fax machines today but the original technology dates back over 150 years. Many people believe ‘fax technology’ is something relatively new and are surprised to learn that is not the case. The origins of the fax machine date back to the mid 1800′s. The term “fax” is a contraction from the word “facsimile”, which happens to be an excellent description because that’s exactly what a fax machine is supposed to …. send and image of the original document over the phone line.

No Such Thing as Cheap Fax Machines in the Beginning

The History of the Alexander Bain was the first to produce rudimentary images via a chemical mechanical method in 1846. As with most inventions, others began making improvements on the original. After many iterations and improvements, in 1861 the first commercial version of a fax machines came to market and these machines were definitely not cheap fax machines. In those early days it was known as a telefax machine or the Pantelegraph machine. We think of a fax machine as needing a telephone line but the first telefax service was established in 1865 (eleven years before the invention of the telephone) to operate between Lyon and Paris. The early machines required manual plotting and/or drawing of the original.

Then in 1881 a machine was invented that no longer required the mechanical re-drawing or plotting of the original. This machine, by English inventor Shelford Bidwell could automatically reproduce the original without the tedious replotting of the original.

Although the history of the fax machine is longer than most people realize, it wasn’t until the mid 1970′s that the technology improved to allow the machines to become a popular business machine. Digital technology and integrated circuitry is what really began the march towards cheap fax machines.

Today, the fax machine is not as popular as it was in it’s heyday due to the competition from other technologies like email and email attachments. Even with the new competition, the fax machine will certainly be with us for years to come. Federal regulations restrict the transmission of sensitive materials to encrypted methods so standard email and email attachments are not allowed to be used for these purposes. Since todays fax machines can have encryption technology built into them they can qualify as an approved method for sending such sensitive information. The enactment of the Sarbanes Oxley act requires such encrypted transmissions.

In some parts of the world they do not recognize any electronic signatures as being legally binding but, in many cases, will accept a fax of the original documents showing the signature.

The technology used in fax machines continues to improve and today you can find machines that automate the fax process by receiving the fax, then automatically routing it to the intended recipient via email or email attachments. These systems are generally much faster than traditional fax machines and with their electronic transmissions reduce the costs of printers and printer paper too. The machines, commonly referred to as ‘fax servers’ have the capability to save copies of all faxes in memory so a fax can never be ‘lost’ or misplaced.

The cost of fax machines continues to drop. Today you can buy a cheap fax machine that is multi functional, reliable and designed to last for year and years. The Sharp fax machine line is one of the most diverse and economical fax machines produced today. Depending on your needs you can opt for a thermal fax machine, a laser fax machine or even a laserjet fax machine. Many well known manufacturers like Panasonic make cheap fax machines. Take you time and know ahead of time what features you want/need in a fax machine then look around and you will probably be able to find quite a few cheap fax machines that will meet your exact needs.