The wonder machines first appeared during World War II. But then, it took military personnel 15 minutes to send one plan of attack from Europe to America. Today, it can take as few as six seconds.

Until the 1980s the machines were big and bulky, occupying several square feet of floor space. Japanese engineering managed to scale down the faxes for the typical business user. The new fax machines were half the size of a personal computer and could send documents up to 100 times faster than their immediate ancestors.

The desktop fax came in with the yuppies, with greed, with quick-profit materialism. They pushed courier services and Federal Express overnight delivery almost out of the market.

When fax machines became "affordable"--current prices range from $1000 to $6000--overnight mail was apt to lose business. But who could have predicted how many others would profit from it?

"Everyone uses it," says an employee in the Carpenter Center.

The Harvard fax revolution began six years ago, when the Office of Information Technology purchased its first fax. The OIT receives and sends faxes for Harvard affiliates.

According to Matthews, the average machine costs $2000. In less than two years, Harvard has rung up a bill totaling more than $200,000, she says.

But for all the money spent, Harvard faxes are not used excessively. The Math Department says it uses its fax only four or five times a day. Dining Services says the Same. Likewise for PBHA and the Social Studies and Physics Departments. Even if each of these groups shared a single fax machine, it would be in use for less than one hour per day.

So why is Harvard buying faxes like they're going out of style? Perhaps because their owners claim to rely on them so much.

"Inter-office mail and overseas mail are sent over our fax," says a secretary in the Government Department. "We also contact professors all over the world."

Office Work

One principle advantage of faxes is the amount of personal business professors and administrators can accomplish in their offices. Professors at the Carpenter Center send press releases, commentaries on films and project proposals over their machine, according to a staff member who works there.

Most professors have not offered to receive papers, lab reports or problem sets over the fax. But in the last year and a half, many professors, and most departments, have invested in fax machines--a phenomenon which can provide some unexpected advantages for undergraduates. One student, who asked that her name not be used, says she managed to cut a deal with her professor in a psychology class last fall.

"Your papers are due the first week of Reading Period, he announced. "You can drop them by my office, or you can fax them to me."

For small fee--considerably less than the cost of Federal Express or a plane ticket to Boston--the student faxed her paper to her professor and had an extra week to lounge on the sunny beaches of California. It took her less time to send 15 pages coast-to-coast than it would have taken her to walk from her Quad dorm room to her professor's office.