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@coopersmithFaxedRiseFall2015 source

Title: @coopersmithFaxedRiseFall2015 date: 2023-03-07 type: source project:

tags:: #source #memex2 #Fax

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Reference

Coopersmith, J. 2015. Faxed: the rise and fall of the fax machine. Johns Hopkins Studies in the History of Technology. Baltimore, Maryland: Johns Hopkins University Press.

Summary & Key Take Aways

In Chapter one of The Rise and Fall of the Fax Machine(2015), Jonathan Coopersmith goes over the many failed attempt of facsimile and early fax machines. To build this argument, he looks at the many different attempts to build a fax machine and why they did not succeed. Coopersmith does this in order to show that even if you have a useful technology, if it does not make sense economically than it is a failed invention.

There are many advancements made to try and make the fax an effective technology, such as the use of selenium photoelectric cells, and all the different trials of different cylinder materials, copying material, ink etc to try and make the fax possible. Even though eventually the machine was viable for a while, it wasn't until 1907 that a photo was transmitted that a real use case was found, the newspaper.

Emergence of the modern Newspaper Thoughts of the future using Telegraphs The Telegraph for Asia Digital Signatures in the telegraph