"I know what you mean. The predecessor for the Fax machine goes back to WWII (it was used to send photographs via telephone lines). "
FAX machine goes way further back and used telegraph lines. Don't rememeber the details but it will come up again on the history channel.
Yes it was an experiment with a sheet of thin tin on a rotating drum. The WWII era machines used rotating drums (a sending drum and a receiving drum) that had to be in synch during transmission. The sending drum held the photo print and the receiving drum had a chemically treated paper that reacted to electric current.