THEN & NOW

FAX MACHINES

Then: Some 25,000 fax machines graced offices in 1970. They cost $18,000, weighed about 100 pounds and took six minutes to transmit one page. By 1991, home fax machines cost as little as $500, weighed 15 to 20 pounds, could send a page in 20 seconds or less, and some 3 million whirred and beeped in homes and offices across the U.S.

Now: The internet and email rendered fax machines obsolete by the early 2000s.