Edouard Belin Biography – Fax and Belinographe Inventor

Last Update: August 9th, 2021

Belin (b. 5 March 1876, d. 4 March 1963) is credited with being the inventor of a phototelegraphic apparatus that he named the Bélinographe.

The Bélinographe was a system that was capable of sending photographs to remote locations through telegraph and telephone networks. In 1921 the process was improved so that it could be sent via radio waves as well.

Edouard Belin Fax Inventor

Bélinographe

With the Bélinographe, the device uses an electric eye to measure the light intensity.

The intensity levels transmit to a receiver, where a source of light can reproduce the intensities that were measured by the transmitter, impressing on photographic paper.

Modern photocopiers use a very similar principle, with light captured by a CCC and the impression based on laser technology.

More on the History of Fax: