The Fax Man : The Archive of Austin G. Cooley

Associated Press Wirephoto, Model 6000, S/N 6148

At the age of 16, Austin Cooley installed the first radio station at Little Port Walter, Alaska. At the age of 22, Cooley made his first experiments in the electrical transmission of photographs as a student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

He invented the “rayphoto”, or radio photograph which was the precursor to the Fax machine. In 1928 Radiovision Corp. published Cooley's How to Receive Radio Pictures at Home an inside look at "the first authentic radio picture apparatus." The rayphoto system would attach to your radio and essentially turn the radio program you were listening to into a newspaper. Think of it as an early print on demand technology. Many had high hopes for this new technology. Beginning in 1927 RADIO BROADCAST magazine ran a series on Cooley's "Rayfoto" stating "the subject of radio photograph reception is so large that it can be discussed only in part on each article" and "the development of the Cooley 'Rayfoto' system opens for the first time to the American experimenter an important 'next step' in radio development." Unfortunately, the technology was too costly and slow for mass adoption and with television just around the corner there was nowhere for the technology to go.

Cooley did; however, make history in 1935 when the first successful wireless transmission of news photos for the New York Times took place on one of his machines. He would eventually become the chief executive of Times Facsimile, Inc., (previously called Wide World Wired Photos), a subsidiary of the New York Times.

During WWII, the use of the facsimile aided U.S. military forces by transmitting accurate, current weather maps. Cooley held more than 75 U.S. and foreign patents in the fields of facsimile and navigation.

Workmen Painting. Signed D. A. McKenna, 1957

Cooley has been inducted in to Nevada's Inventor's Hall of Fame and is the recipient of numerous awards including The Lee DeForest Award from the Radio Club of America. The Austin Cooley Talent Grant is still offered to graduate students at The University of Alaska Fairbanks. Cooley was also the nephew of noted Alaskan industrialist and entrepreneur Austin E. "Cap" Lathrop.

A copy of Cooley’s obituary (New York Times, September 9, 1993) gives an excellent overview of this innovative man’s career.

Wessel & Lieberman is pleased to be handling the Austin G. Cooley archive. For more information on its contents click here.