Fax machine?

We are asked sometimes if the library has a fax machine people can use and the answer is yes, we do. The fax machine is in the director's office on the main floor of the library. Ask one of us at the desk how to find it. If you just need to fax a page or two somewhere, this should work fine.

The thought occurred while writing this, where does the word "fax" come from anyway, and how long has it been used? According to the OED, it comes from the word facsimile, which makes sense. The surprising thing though was to see how far back the word has been in usage; all the way back to the 1940s! And by the way, our fax machine is a little more modern than the 1920s telephotography machine pictured here ;-)