History of the Facsimile Machine, 1843-1995

传真机的历史，1843-1995

• 批准号: 9320001
• 负责人: Jonathan Coopersmith
• 金额: $ 7.16万
• 依托单位: Texas A&M Research Foundation
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Fixed Amount Award
• 财政年份: 1994
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1994-06-01 至 1996-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=9320001&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: History; Facsimile; Machine; 1843; 1995

9320001 Coopersmith From overthrowing governments to ordering food and following football, the fax machine provides easy, instant written communication worldwide without the alienation of the computer. Although most people assume that faxing is a spontaneous spinoff of the electronic and computer revolutions of the 1980's, in reality, fax technology has existed for 150 years. Major companies in the US, Britain, and France had the opportunity to promote fax technology. Yet the social needs in Japan, which has an "alphabet" that is not easily accommodated to the keyboard, led to its commercial success in the past twenty years. Dr. Coopersmith is examining why it took so long for people to develop and utilize a machine that has revolutionized the way we communicate. The fax machine appears to be a free-standing device, but it is intricately embedded in a system of telephone and computer networks, standards, business and social mores, and legal and economic structures. Studying the fax machine provides a gateway into understanding the construction and evolution of this system of communications. Dr. Coopersmith is using a comparative international approach to capture the evolution of fax technology. His main themes are innovation and diffusion, failure and the development of niche markets, the role of large organizations in shaping technical evolution and personal choice, and changes in communication. The recent widespread use of fax machines resulted from a convergence of technical, economic and social factors. To understand this convergence and the failure of prior efforts, comparisons among the United States, Great Britain and Japan will illuminate how different social and economic systems shaped the debates and development of fax technology. By analyzing how faxing has changed the way people communicate and work, this research will deepen our understanding of the evolving shape of telecommunications on the "information revolution." For decades predi ctions about the uses and importance of fax machines outpaced the reality, but when widespread acceptance came in the mid-1980's, the plethora of applications and further innovation surprised everyone, including proponents of the "electronic office of the future." Dr. Coopersmith's study is not a narrow history of a machine, but an exploration of how technologies, economics, politics, and societal values shaped the evolution of the fax machine and how fax technology influenced societies in which it is embedded. This research will contribute to the growing literature on innovation and further the study of the information revolution. ***

9320001库珀史密斯从推翻政府到点餐和观看足球比赛，传真机在全球范围内提供轻松、即时的书面交流，而不会疏远计算机。尽管大多数人认为传真是20世纪80年代S电子和计算机革命的自发副产品，但实际上，传真技术已经存在了150年。美国、英国和法国的大公司有机会推广传真技术。然而，在日本，社交需求导致了它在过去20年里取得了商业上的成功。日本有一个很难适应键盘的“字母表”。库珀史密斯博士正在研究为什么人们花了这么长时间才开发和使用一台彻底改变了我们沟通方式的机器。传真机看起来是一个独立的设备，但它错综复杂地嵌入了一个由电话和计算机网络、标准、商业和社会习俗以及法律和经济结构组成的系统中。研究传真机为理解这一通信系统的构建和演变提供了一个门户。库珀史密斯博士正在使用一种比较国际的方法来捕捉传真技术的演变。他的主要主题是创新和扩散，失败和利基市场的发展，大型组织在塑造技术演变和个人选择方面的作用，以及沟通的变化。最近传真机的广泛使用是技术、经济和社会因素汇聚的结果。为了理解这种融合和先前努力的失败，美国、英国和日本之间的比较将阐明不同的社会和经济制度是如何影响传真技术的辩论和发展的。通过分析传真如何改变人们的交流和工作方式，这项研究将加深我们对电信在“信息革命”中不断演变的形态的理解。几十年来，人们对传真机的用途和重要性的预测远远超过了现实，但当传真机在20世纪80年代中期被广泛接受时，传真机的大量应用和进一步的创新让每个人都感到惊讶，包括“未来电子办公室”的支持者。库珀史密斯博士的研究不是一部机器的狭隘历史，而是探索技术、经济、政治和社会价值观如何塑造传真机的演变，以及传真技术如何影响传真机所在的社会。这项研究将有助于不断增长的关于创新的文献，并进一步研究信息革命。***