Newsday (Suffolk Edition) from Melville, New York • 186

DISCOVERIES FOR YOUNG PEOPLE How Come? COPYING BY PHONErTRE FAX OF'LIFE the squares are encoded before they are sent to the other fax machine A black and white typed page for example may be sent as a coded signal with two rj" electrical currents One current will represent black the other white The signal is usually sent over the telephone net-work The fax machine is either attached to a tele-phone or has a telephone built right in You punch in the number and the signal carrying the information about the document speeds on its way '1 The receiving fax machine decodes the signal The recorder then begins to print on paper the information from the original document It does this quickly square by tiny square And out comes a copy of the original just like your voice bursts forth from a telephone receiver ill Send your questions to How Come? Discovery Sec- 'S turn Newsday NY 11747 If your question is answered here you will receive an appropriate illustrat-ed science book courtesy of Facts on File Publications pixel may measure 1200 inch by 1200 inch So the fax machine may be scanning more than 35 million tiny squares on an 8-by-11-inch document The document is scanned top to bottom Some squares of course merely contain white space Others contain part of a letter such as a or a Light bouncing off each square is changed into electric current by a photocell or other electronic device This all happens quickly in a matter of seconds or minutes You can see the bright light of the scanner as the document rolls through the fax machine The electrical signals that cany the patterns in LIMO FAX ijour fix 1)1 eepf uour howworfc Ifs g-lo in -Hie back your state BmiHcm on Mk -Vo (jowrc Xv 4t -fSix you ftlgcfer toffy Aert- By Kathy Wollard OW DOES A FAX machine work? asks Jason Kirachbaum 9 of Dix Hills A few years ago many people had never heard of fax machines Today they seem to be everywhere Businesses from large to small fax letters and other documents: Radio listeners Bend song requests to disc jockeys by fax Some people even find junk mail coming over their fax Fax ia short for Facsimile literally means make A document or photograph is scanned at one end A few minutes later an exact copy rolls out of another fax machine So a fax is like a copy machine hooked into the telephone system A fax machine does for printed matieral what a telephone does for voice Set to the fax machine scans a document and produces electrical signals The receiving fax machine across town across the country or overseas decodes the signals It uses the information it gets to print out a copy of the document The fax idea new Believe it or not the first facsimile system was patented in 1843 A Scottish man Alexander Bain built a contraption that used an electrical contact to letters made of metal The receiver used a special electrochemical paper to record the message Pendulums kept the transmitter and receiver in sync with each fax machines have done away with pendulums but scanning is still the first step The document or photograph is lit up and scanned square by tiny square These squares have a technical name called short for Each $99 FOR 1YEAR Heathedsbeen keeping us company since 1984 Because like our other spokespersons she believes that we have the most to offer Like competition-style lap pools Innovative Ufecircuitelec-tronic strength training equipment And some of the best deals on memberships For example $99 fori year at participating clubs in celebration of our Copiague club Grand Opening But even though Heather has been great company tnerels someone else we'd love to have Join us Vbu ffiJACKLALANNE FITNESS CENTER For fatal fitness LoehmannS Plaza Shopping Center 1147 Sunrise Highway Copiague call 842-7000 2Dl S99 advartcm castt payment far a one-year non-renewabte attempting doy memberahipWart MotkX WWcViwcIov Friday or Tuesday Thursday Scrturcfciv WmSed tolhe cfc you join Other memberships one oho avaitabift Facilities may vary some restrictions apply and otter ends June 3QW6Q.