News about Alexander Bain

After being sold, Wetherspoons has announced that ten of its pubs will be closing for good, with another 35 branches opening. Harvest Moon in Orpington, Moon on the Square in Basildon, and Worcester's Postal Order are among those that have been sold. Another 35 pubs are up for auction, but Wetherspoons will be open and continue to function as Wetherspoons until they are sold, according to a spokesperson for MailOnline.

At its high point, there were one in nearly every office and doctor's surgery in the United States. However, the fax machine took more than 100 years to develop, with the equipment behind it being developed in 1843 by Scottish engineer Alexander Bain, 33 years before Alexander Graham Bell's telephone. The devices were not until the 1960s, when American company Xerox introduced the first modern fax (right) machines for office use, that the company was catapulted into the mainstream. They became widespread in companies of all sorts, allowing records to be sent thousands of miles without the use of just a telephone line. An in-car fax machine was the height of sophistication in the late 1980s (bottom left), as the technology continued to advance. However, the death of the fax machine was firmly on the horizon when the internet was first introduced in the 1990s and the increasing use of email. Now, with emerging technologies like file sharing platforms eliminating any need for the machines, telecoms regulator Ofcom is hoping to eliminate the need for telecoms providers to provide the 'outdated' service. It means that the fax machine will go the same way as the once ubiquitous VHS player and the increasingly rare cheque book.

A change in telecoms legislation could result in the fax machine being consigned to the garbage soon. Ofcom, the UK telecommunications authority, is looking to eliminate the requirement for providers to provide the 'outdated' service. The technology, which dates back to the telephone, was ever-present in the 1980s and 1990s, and it enabled businesses to send and receive printed pages or images. The fax machine has become less useful to both business and individuals due to the emergence of digital messaging via phones and laptops.