Arthur Korn Biography – Fax Technology Inventor

Last Update: August 9th, 2021

Arthur Korn (May 20, 1870 – December 21, 1945) was involved in the development of the fax machine, specifically for the purpose of transmitting photographs, as well as being involved in early attempts to develop a practical mechanical television system.

Table of Contents

• Life
• Facsimile and Telecommunication Inventions and Experiments
• Korn’s Writings and Publications
• Further Resources on Arthur Korn
• More Resources on the History of Fax

Life

Born in Germany, Arthur Korn studied in London, Paris, Berlin, and Würzburg, later becoming a lecturer in law in Munich, and the chair of physics at the Berlin Institute of Technology.

Being of Jewish descent, he was dismissed from his post at the Berlin Institute of Technology in 1935 due to the rise of the Nazi Party. He left Germany in 1939 to move his family to the United States, becoming the Chair of Physics and Mathematics a the Stevens Institute of Technology (Hoboken, New Jersey).

Facsimile and Telecommunications Inventions and Experiments

Pioneering in areas such as the use of light sensitive selenium cells in the phototelautograph, he managed in 1906 to transmit a photograph of Crown Prince William over 1800km.

In 1913, Korn was able to demonstrate a visual telegraphic transmission of a cinematic (movie) recording.

In 1923 he transmitted a picture of Pope Pius XI from Rome to Bar Harbor, Maine.

From 1923, the German police used Korn’s system to be able to send photographs and fingerprints across distances.

Korn’s Writings and Publications

• Eine Theorie der Gravitation und der elektrischen Erscheinungen auf Grundlage der Hydrodynamik (2nd ed., 1896)
• Ueber Molecular-Funktion (1897)
• Lehrbuch der Potentialtheorie (Berlin, 1899–1901)
• Freie und erzwungene Schwingungen (1910)
• Handbuch der Phototelegraphie (1911)
• Bildrundfunk with Eugen Nesper (1926)

Further Resources on Arthur Korn:

• October 17 – Today in History – First Photoelectric Fax Transmission
• Yahoo Answers – Who Invented the Fax Machine?
• Arthur Korn Biography on Wikisource
• Sending Photographs by Telegraph – New York Times Archive

More Resources on the History of Fax:

• The History of Fax - From Alexander Bain's 1843 invention to today's internet based fax systems (and everything in between)
• Alexander Bain - Developed an Experimental Fax Machine between 1843 and 1846
• Arthur Korn - Developed Fax Machine for Transmitting Photographs
• Edouard Belin - Inventor of the Bélinographe
• Frederick Bakewell - Improved Bain's Facsimile Machine
• Giovanni Caselli - Inventor of the Pantelegraph. Sent images 800km across telegraph wires 9 years before Alexander Graham Bell's Telephone Patent
• Herbert E. Ives - Sent first color fax
• Richard H. Ranger - Invented first Transatlantic Radio Fax
• Rudolf Hell - Invented the Hellschreiber
• Shelford Bidwell - Research in the field of "Telephotography"
• Pantelegraph - An early fax invention used to transmit images over telegraph lines
• Fultograph - An early fax invention used to transmit images over radio waves"
• Telautograph - An early fax invention used to transmit signatures over long distances
• 3D Fax - A 1990s technique used to send computer code over a fax machine. Each page could hold about 50kb of information
• Radiofax - Still used today, a method for transmitting images over long distances through radio. Also known as HF Fax or Weatherfax