Some of my younger friends may not have ever encountered an old-fashioned fax machine, but I remember them well. There was a time when it seemed nothing short of a miracle to feed a document into it and have someone hundreds of miles away instantly receive it – or at least, a reasonable facsimile of it. It was almost as if the Star Trek transporter had come to life.

Yes, we were easily impressed in the olden days. Now many of us don’t even have traditional telephone lines, much less fax machines hooked up to them. The world has moved on, and the Internet is the method of choice for all types of communications. The post office is dying, landlines are disappearing and the once ever-present fax machine is found in fewer and fewer homes and offices.