---
title: "Which came first, the fax machine or the telephone?"
description: "the fax machine vs the telephone: the fax machine came first, by 33 years — 1843 against 1876. What happened in each case."
url: https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/fax-machine-vs-telephone/
site: "At One Place"
---

# Which came first, the fax machine or the telephone?

**Which came first, the fax machine or the telephone?: the fax machine**

1843 — 33 years before the telephone

the fax machine came first, by 33 years. Alexander Bain patented an electric printing telegraph that sent images.

## Side by side

|  | the fax machine | the telephone |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Year | 1843 | 1876 |
| Date | — | 1876-03-07 |
| Category | invention | invention |
| What happened | Alexander Bain patented an electric printing telegraph that sent images. | Bell was granted US patent 174,465. |

## 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.

## the telephone

Bell's patent was granted on 7 March 1876 and he made the famous call to Watson three days later. Elisha Gray filed a caveat for a similar device on the same day in February that Bell filed his application, and the priority dispute has never entirely gone away. Antonio Meucci had demonstrated a working voice telegraph in New York in 1860 but could not afford to renew his caveat.

## Common questions

### Which came first, the fax machine or the telephone?

the fax machine, by 33 years — 1843 against 1876.

### When did the fax machine start?

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

### When did the telephone start?

1876. Bell was granted US patent 174,465.

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## Sources

- Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History — Smithsonian Institution (https://naturalhistory.si.edu/)