---
title: "Which came first, Big Ben or the fax machine?"
description: "Big Ben vs the fax machine: the fax machine came first, by 16 years — 1843 against 1859. What happened in each case, and why the dates are often given differently."
url: https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/big-ben-vs-fax-machine/
site: "At One Place"
---

# Which came first, Big Ben or the fax machine?

**Which came first, Big Ben or the fax machine?: the fax machine**

1843 — 16 years before Big Ben

the fax machine came first, by 16 years. Alexander Bain patented an electric printing telegraph that sent images.

## Side by side

|  | Big Ben | the fax machine |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Year | 1859 | 1843 |
| Date | 1859-07-11 | — |
| Category | landmark | invention |
| What happened | The great bell rang for the first time. | Alexander Bain patented an electric printing telegraph that sent images. |

## Big Ben

Big Ben is the bell, not the tower and not the clock. It first rang in July 1859, cracked within two months, and has rung with that crack ever since — which is why it has its particular sound. The tower was called the Clock Tower until 2012, when it was renamed Elizabeth Tower for the Diamond Jubilee.

## the fax machine

Bain's 1843 patent covered a device that scanned a raised metal image with a stylus and reproduced it at the far end of a wire — a fax machine in principle. Giovanni Caselli ran a commercial pantelegraph service between Paris and Lyon from 1865, sending signatures and handwriting eleven years before Bell patented the telephone. The fax is not merely older than the telephone; it is older than the American Civil War.

## Common questions

### Which came first, Big Ben or the fax machine?

the fax machine, by 16 years — 1843 against 1859.

### When did Big Ben start?

1859. The great bell rang for the first time.

### When did the fax machine start?

1843. Alexander Bain patented an electric printing telegraph that sent images.

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- [the fax machine or photography?](https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/fax-machine-vs-photograph/)
- [the fax machine or the telephone?](https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/fax-machine-vs-telephone/)
- [the fax machine or the lightbulb?](https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/fax-machine-vs-lightbulb/)
- [the fax machine or television?](https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/fax-machine-vs-television/)
- [the car or the fax machine?](https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/car-vs-fax-machine/)
- [the aeroplane or the fax machine?](https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/aeroplane-vs-fax-machine/)

## Sources

- Wikidata — Wikimedia Foundation (https://www.wikidata.org/) [CC0 1.0]
- Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History — Smithsonian Institution (https://naturalhistory.si.edu/)