Fax still going strong

thomas · 1 Aug 2012

As someone who's largely ignorant of Japanese corporate life I was surprised to read the following article on the BBC yesterday:

Japan and the fax: A love affair

Fax machines gather dust in parts of the world, consigned to history since the rise of email. Yet in Japan, a country with a hi-tech reputation, the fax is thriving. [...] In a country which boasts one of the fastest broadband speeds in the world, Suzuki thinks his affection for the fax may be a rare case in such a tech-savvy country. But 87.5% of Japanese businessmen surveyed by the Internet Fax Research Institute say that a fax machine is a crucial business tool.

The last time I used a fax machine must have been in the late 90s or early 2000s.

Do you still have a fax in your home or your office?

Oh, and anyone still remember telex?

ewww · 1 Aug 2012

thomas said:
The last time I used a fax machine must have been in the late 90s or early 2000s.

Do you still have a fax in your home or your office?

Oh, and anyone still remember telex?

We are using fax alot. It is huge machine which took half of large room. Each morning our office girl is removing tonns of spam, which come at night.
Last time I used it yesturday: need to print large diagram, and our printer could print legal only size ... so, I send it to fax and got good copy of larger size

Telex ... I saw it may be 20 years ago.

Mike Cash · 1 Aug 2012

Here's a little bit of fun trivia: the fax was invented (and used) before the telephone.

thomas · 1 Aug 2012

Mike Cash said:
Here's a little bit of fun trivia: the fax was invented (and used) before the telephone.

Mike, I have to admit that I wasn't aware of that.

Scottish inventor Alexander Bain worked on chemical mechanical fax type devices and in 1846 was able to reproduce graphic signs in laboratory experiments. He received the first fax patent in 1843. Frederick Bakewell made several improvements on Bain's design and demonstrated a telefax machine. The Pantelegraph was invented by the Italian physicist Giovanni Caselli. He introduced the first commercial telefax service between Paris and Lyon in 1865, some 11 years before the invention of telephones. In 1881, English inventor Shelford Bidwell constructed the scanning phototelegraph that was the first telefax machine to scan any two-dimensional original, not requiring manual plotting or drawing. Around 1900, German physicist Arthur Korn invented the Bildtelegraph, widespread in continental Europe especially, since a widely noticed transmission of a wanted-person photograph from Paris to London in 1908, used until the wider distribution of the radiofax. (Source)

FrustratedDave · 1 Aug 2012

95% fax machine here. Just can't go paperless with the Government always requiring us to keep everything documented on paper.

Mike Cash · 1 Aug 2012

FrustratedDave said:
95% fax machine here. Just can't go paperless with the Government always requiring us to keep everything documented on paper.

In the break room at my company we have one wall plastered with posters and printouts, the display of which is part of the requirement for us to maintain our グリーン経営 certification. They chopped down a forest to print up all the crap telling us how many trees we can save by not printing out a bunch of useless crap nobody looks at is what it amounts to,....and nobody looks at it.

Glenn · 1 Aug 2012

We still have faxes all over our offices. I haven't had the need to use one in a few years, but some of the people around me use them fairly frequently. And the fax spam sucks.

Petaris · 1 Aug 2012

We still use them here for sending out POs and for faxing government documents that need a physical signature. Slowly both are starting to go away. Digital signatures for the paperwork and POs are starting to be sent either by email or replaced by using online ordering methods.

Glenn · 1 Aug 2012

I think our situation is about the same.

Glenski · 2 Aug 2012

Do you still have a fax in your home or your office?
Yes.

They are an integral part of most home telephones, too.

Oh, and anyone still remember telex?
Yup, sure do! Also, rotary dial phones and party lines.

Glenn · 2 Aug 2012

I don't even have a land line anymore. I haven't had one for years. I don't see the need for one.

ewww · 2 Aug 2012

Glenn said:
I don't even have a land line anymore. I haven't had one for years. I don't see the need for one.

I still have landline as a spare way for communication. It was perfectly working during last blackout, when all county was without electric power and cellular for four days. I think that I will keep it as long as it possible.

Mike Cash · 2 Aug 2012

Glenski said:
Do you still have a fax in your home or your office?
Yes.

They are an integral part of most home telephones, too.

Oh, and anyone still remember telex?
Yup, sure do! Also, rotary dial phones and party lines.

I remember my grandparents' phone having in the center of the dial a piece of paper indicating the number was SU4-1867 (SUnset).

Glenn · 2 Aug 2012

ewww said:
It was perfectly working during last blackout, when all county was without electric power and cellular for four days.

Which country and when was that?

ewww · 2 Aug 2012

Glenn said:
Which country and when was that?

That happened in DC area less then month ago. HUGE storm from Virginia hit us
I was lucky, and we had electric power on third day, some areas were without power for longer time.
PEPCO is evil!!! AT&T is evil!!! ewww...

Glenski · 2 Aug 2012

Mike Cash said:
I remember my grandparents' phone having in the center of the dial a piece of paper indicating the number was SU4-1867 (SUnset).

My family, too. Grandparents even had a phone where the earpiece was separate from the mouthpiece. Mouthpiece stood on a base, while you put the earpiece to your ear.

Mike Cash · 2 Aug 2012

The famous, "Sarah, get me my house" phone!

Glenn · 3 Aug 2012

ewww said:
That happened in DC area less then month ago. HUGE storm from Virginia hit us
I was lucky, and we had electric power on third day, some areas were without power for longer time.

Oh, I thought you said "all country", not "all county".

thomas · 3 Aug 2012

Glenski said:
Yup, sure do! Also, rotary dial phones and party lines.

Oh, this is turning into pure nostalgia.

We had shared phone lines well into the 80s, called "half-lines" or "quarter-lines", depending on how many parties would be connected to one line. You would always here the phone ticking when one of the neighbours placed a call. My grandmother still used one of those bakelite dial phones in the 90s. Pretty heavy stuff.

Fax still going strong

Do you still use fax?

Yes, at home.

Yes, at work.

No, never used.

What's a fax machine?

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