'Fax' in the home: looking back and ahead

When Scotsman Alexander Bain invented, in 1842, his system of synchronized electric clocks to send crude graphic messages over telegraph wires, no one could foresee where this discovery would lead. It took roughly half a century for the basic concept to evolve into a means for sending pictures by wires and an additional half century for it to inspire a unique broadcasting venture aimed at printing the daily newspaper right in the customer's home. "Facsimile" " or "fax," as it came to be known - came remarkably close to preceding both hi-fi music and television into the nation's living rooms, and, although the "electronic newspaper" concept failed to gain public approval, its eventual debut remains within the realm of probability.