The ability to send a document to a different place altogether, in its original format and with intact authenticity, and to do it without pretty much moving the document from its original place, is nothing short of a magic.
How is this done? Well, the magic is still at work, but this time, it is the magic of science and technology.
If you are wondering that Alexander Graham Bell was the first and foremost pioneer in establishing a secure line of communication, you would be surprised that the ability to communicate over distances was established almost 30 years before his invention.
In 1870s, Alexander Bain invented a method to send a copy of an image to a different location, using synchronized movements of two pendulums using a clock, and hence scanning the image on a line-by-line basis. This image was projected to and from a cylinder, and was of poor quality. Further improvements in technology and methodology led to improvement in data quality that was transferred, and the speed in which the data transmission happened.
Very popularly known today as fax (a short-form for facsimile), this method has been in practice since more than a century, and yet, its usage is here to stay. With advent of technology, immense improvements in methodology to send a fax, and the speed at which it is sent, have dramatically developed by leaps and bounds. To the extent that it is now possible to send a fax of several pages within few seconds, without an actual fax machine! The internet has played a great role in developing the modes of communication in Australia and improving them without an effect on quality and quantity of the data to be communicated.
Using internet, it is now possible to send an efax, which send the documents to be faxed as attachments with your email, to the desired recipient. Because of the ease with which the documents can be passed on to different parties, fax is here to stay.