Film Fax

I ENJOYED “DELIVERING THE FAX,” in the Spring 1999 issue (by George Mannes). If anyone wants to see what fax was like just before World War II, they should watch the 1937 movie Charlie Chan at the Opera , starring Warner Oland and Boris Karloff. In it the suspect’s photograph is transmitted across the country over the telephone lines, and how this is done is shown. The picture is attached to a cylinder that starts rotating. In the city to receive the image, another cylinder the same size is also set rotating. Once they are both turning at the same rate, the photograph is scanned and the image is transferred over the wire as a series of electrical impulses and copied to the paper attached to the receiving cylinder.