The Secret Life of the Fax Machine - Remastered

I've been in my workshop making things ever since, and the covid lockdown was the perfect time to make some new videos, trying to pass on some of what I've learnt. So if you're interested do try my new 'Secret Life of Components'
These old films were remastered and upscaled by Norman Margolus from a 1987 PAL tape made directly from the 16mm print, using machine learning software from Topaz labs. Commentary added in Feb 2021.
View all 18 episodes of the series and read about their background on my website:

[timsampson]

I do like the 'string wrapped around drums' demonstration. It makes a great example of simple serial communication.

[peterclemmins]

Tim you have absolutely no idea how happy I am to see "The secret life of machines" series up on Youtube, and the commentary at the end is just wonderful. It was one of my favorite programs as a child and certainly inspired me. Thank you (and Rex) so much!

[UTuber]

I remember when companies used to send junk mail via fax.
I got so tired of this particular company sending their junk mail that I got my hands on 25 pieces of black paper and faxed it to them 42 times in a single day.
They never sent us junk mail by fax ever again

[mikeselectricstuff]

I loved the "BT Approved" labels on walls behind the lathe-fax!

[alanpods______]

"It's a job to keep it in synch, but it's not bad for a lathe" 😂
This programme is absolute GENIUS. This is simply THE BEST science communication I've ever seen. Tim, your are mind-blowingly good at this.

[Convolutedtubules]

"Look sir, the first electric clock!"

"It's hideous, go away!"

[WilliamDye-willdye]

After all these years, I could finally read the sign at 0:24 -- "You don't have to be mad to work here, but it helps".

[abitoftheuniverse]

Tim, it's 3 AM and I can't sleep, and here you are.
Just like the 90's when your show was on The Science Channel here in The States.
Thank you, for justifying my insomnia these days, just as you did 30 years ago.
<3

[Seiskid]

Spammers accelerated the decline. Those people who would spam business fax numbers with rolls of unsolicited unwanted advertising. An early look into how things would become.

[Trenchbroom]

I was hoping that Tim would discuss the explosion of his homemade Pantelegraph at the end. Part of the charm of the show for me (used to watch it on TLC in the U. S. in the early 90s) was the gaffes and flaws that Tim and Rex left in the show (American TV was always much too slickly produced to do such things). That ending was the quintessential example!

[LucasChoate]

This was actually a really important episode for me and close to my heart. I never really understood clock signals until i saw this in the 90's. Never forgot it.

[katelights]

The Medical industry has been one of the big holdouts on faxing. It was only 2020 when the NHS was banned from buying any new fax machines.

[sprintst]

Pause at 20:50 and read the fax. It’s hilarious.

[GEKay-xtcq]

I love that the FAX predates the phone by 30 years.

[unrepentantgeek]

This episode in particular stuck with me for many years. The Huffman encoding scheme and the lathe fax were the strongest memories. Thanks for putting up the remaster!

[LatitudeSky]

Between this and the episode on Xerography, incomprehensible things that seemed like magic became simple science, and that knowledge changed my whole life. If I had to look back and pick out the most important thing I ever learned, it's probably one of these two episodes.

[keithsweat]

These were remarkable shows, we need these at this time, I feel alot of the younger generation has evolved into self emotional narcissists and have no curiosity aside from some conjured inward attention to self. The lathe was great! sync over the phone verbally and its still readable :)

[drboze]

I remember hearing weather fax on shortwave radio. I got an adapter to convert the audio from the radio and send it to my PC. Sometimes the fax was a Japanese newspaper. Apparently they sent these to ships at sea.

[paulkocyla]

A great episode! The whole show is of such quality, it´s incomparable to anything existing nowadays, and it has soul - thanx so much for the great stuff!

[beefchicken]

I'm happy the cat scenes made the cut.